That’s right.
You and your company should ignore social media.
The entire thing is a big time suck. You’ll get caught in the social media death spiral. Social media is like reality television. People get sucked in and get addicted. They give time and get nothing in return. All social media is right now is people looking for quick gratification.
Two years ago I was watching the pre-game coverage of the Super Bowl. We’re on a different topic here, but stick with me. I’ll bring it back around in just a second.
The Packers were playing and they were led by quarterback Aaron Rodgers. Before the game former NFL MVP quarterback Steve Young was talking about conversations he had with Rodgers in the years leading up to the Super Bowl victory. Young said he told Rodgers to focus on the things that make you feel good for the long-term and to ignore things you think make you feel good in the short-term. In the context of Rodgers, Young was referring to Packers fans that thought Rodgers wasn’t the answer at quarterback for the team. When Rodgers found success it was Young’s suggestion that Rodgers not gloat in the success and rub it in anyone’s face. That would be short-term satisfaction and it wouldn’t make him feel good down the road.
Instead, Rodgers played on and played for himself, his teammates, his coaches and his fans. That’s something he can feel good about for the rest of his life.
I feel people would be better off taking Young’s advice for life.
Social media offers little in terms of long run value and return. At least up to this point there has been little to gain from social media. Some social followers or fans can be used as a list of subscribers although creating your own list of subscribers for an email list, which you own, is much better. At least viewing social fans of your company has some value.
But investing too much time into social media is likely going to cost you.
As a successful business person you realize that low cost customer acquisition is key to growing a company. Until social media can prove to do that it’s best to sit on the sideline focusing on what works.
This is where business blogging comes in. Some will lump blogging into social media and that’s fine. That’s not the focus. The focus of blogging is that you’re investing in yourself instead of another platform. Every blog post or piece of content you create is an asset for your business that will work forever to bring in new customers and more sales. A blog is something you own and control unlike Facebook, Twitter, etc.
There is something we’ve talked about before with blogging and social media and that is referrals. Social media is part of the referral generation that’s important for business blogging. People on social media need interesting things to share with their followers. In order to get that short-term satisfaction people need to share something interesting.
Enter blog posts and other content.
Social media users need something to share. If you do things right your content will be shared and you’ll reap the rewards of more referrals.
Maybe social media isn’t all bad.