Purpose

Social media has been gaining importance in recent years as an integral part of entrepreneurs’ business and marketing strategies. At the same time, the entrepreneurial use of social media can lead to dark and negative consequences. This aspect has received less attention in the literature so far. The purpose of this study is to advice entrepreneurial practitioners to balance the sides of pros and cons as being an inherent reality to acknowledge the full scenario of business life and the interplay of diverse influences.

Design/methodology/approach

The qualitative interviews focused on the dark side experiences of micro-entrepreneurs on social media and on strategies to protect their private identities and businesses from those dark side effects. For the theoretical classification of dark side experiences, the framework of Baccarella et al. (2018) was used and adapted based on the experiences reported.

Findings

To the best of the authors’ knowledge, the study is one of the first to provide an understanding of the negative experiences micro-entrepreneurs face on social media. The research showed the relevance of five out of the seven dark-side building blocks and identified time as a further influential aspect. Thereby, the authors learn to comprehend the negative sides of social media for micro-operated businesses. The findings highlight the need to understand entrepreneurial social media use with simultaneously negative hazards and economic and social challenges. Addressing the entanglement of the entrepreneurial and private selves of micro-entrepreneurs, the findings demonstrate entrepreneur’s attempts of distancing or cleaning the negativity from their private identities and their businesses.

Originality/value

This paper problematizes dark sides as critical elements in entrepreneurial practice, which are too often neglected when discussing entrepreneurial marketing in general and entrepreneurship in social media specifically. The self is always captured between two sides, including the problematic (“dark”) and the bright.

中文翻译：

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黑暗、更黑暗的社交媒体：微商社交媒体的阴暗面体验、身份保护和防范策略

目的

近年来，社交媒体作为企业家业务和营销策略不可或缺的一部分而变得越来越重要。与此同时，社交媒体的创业使用会导致黑暗和负面的后果。迄今为止，这方面在文献中受到的关注较少。本研究的目的是建议创业从业者平衡利弊双方，将其视为固有现实，以承认商业生活的完整场景和各种影响的相互作用。

设计/方法/途径

定性访谈侧重于微型企业家在社交媒体上的阴暗面体验，以及保护他们的私人身份和企业免受这些阴暗面影响的策略。对于黑暗面体验的理论分类，Baccarella等人的框架。(2018) 根据报告的经验进行使用和改编。

发现

据作者所知，这项研究是最早提供对微型企业家在社交媒体上面临的负面经历的理解的研究之一。该研究显示了七个黑暗面构建模块中的五个相关性，并将时间确定为另一个有影响力的方面。因此，作者学会了理解社交媒体对微型企业的负面影响。调查结果强调需要了解创业社交媒体的使用同时存在负面危害以及经济和社会挑战。针对微型企业家的创业自我和私人自我的纠缠，调查结果表明企业家试图疏远或清除他们私人身份和业务中的消极情绪。

原创性/价值

本文将黑暗面问题化为创业实践中的关键要素，在讨论一般创业营销和具体讨论社交媒体创业时，这些往往被忽视。自我总是被捕获在两个方面，包括有问题的（“黑暗”）和光明的。