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OK, pitchforks down. I am NOT anti social media.
My point is simple: You do not need to be on every social media site going in order to be effective online. It’s a waste of your time.
There. Done. Kind of. Let me explain.
Social media is a great way to meet new people, stay in touch with those you already know and get found by people who don’t know you yet.
Those are all good things for any business to want to do – and lots of businesses are trying to figure out how to make social media work for them. So they create profiles on all the hottest sites and wait for the traffic.
But – and it’s a big but – there are hundreds of popular social media sites, and you don’t have the time to be involved in all of them.
Note, ‘be involved’ not ‘have a presence on’. (It’ll be important later.)
Social media is about conversations
The whole point of social media that you can connect and share and discuss – unlike ‘unsocial’ media which is one-way traffic.
Connecting and sharing and discussing takes time and effort. You need to bring something useful to the table and have a sincere interest in what other people have to say.
You can’t do that over hundreds of websites and thousands of conversations.
Having ‘a presence’ just won’t cut it. You need to invest time in creating profiles that engage browsers. You need to spend time creating content worth talking about. You need to spend time finding other people to connect with. You need to spend time fostering those relationships.
Social Media Is Not Advertising
Which is why most businesses struggle with social media – they look at it like advertising.
Traditional media (i.e. minus the social) allows you to buy eyeballs through advertising or blag attention through PR. Advertising rewards big budgets and the ability to spread yourself as widely as possible. It’s like standing on the street corner and shouting – whoever shouts the loudest wins. And the more street corners you own the better.
Social media isn’t like that.
Social media doesn’t care (so much) about how loud you shout or how many places you shout it – the only thing that matters is who’s listening. Building a social media audience that is willing to listen requires you to be active, engaged, involved.
Back to traditional media.
If you’ve got the budget, we’ve got the ad space. Anybody can buy attention. You don’t have to be an active newspaper reader to advertise in one – and newspaper readers don’t get to choose whether or not you do. Interruption is part of the deal.
In social media people do get to choose. They decide whether or not you’re worth listening to. They decide whether or not to accept you into their conversations. Gatecrashers are severely punished. Lurkers are ignored.
So, with rare exception (i.e. not you), you need to be an active Twitterer or Digger or Facebooker to make those social media tools work for you.
Just being there doesn’t count.
The Point: Think engagement not presence, focus your efforts, build relationships and be in it for the long haul. Get involved. Anything less is a waste of your time.
Some Other Points of View
Useful discussion on UK Business Forums re: Social Media
Recent post here: The Tool for the Job, The Message for the Medium
David Meerman Scott – Why I’m Not On LinkedIn
Chris Brogan – Do You Have to Touch Every Conversation?
Aaron Wall @ SEO Book – Deeper vs Broader: Exposure vs Engagement
Agree? Disagree? Pitch fork still handy? Have your say in the comments below or harass me on Twitter.
Pic: AnnieMole
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Mark, I couldn’t agree more. I first started out thinking I had to be on everything and everywhere and realised that not only did it dillute any ‘relationships’ I was forming, it was also dammed time consuming and meant I took my eye off the ball when I should have been cultivating instead of propogating!
“cultivating instead of propogating!”
OK, I’ve nicked that one.
I’ll let you this time!!
Heck, is this us cultivating??
Great post!
Presence vs. participation. Just showing up isn’t enough. Like Gill said so well, it’s cultivating instead of propagating.
Not only does propagation dilute your actual “presence” but it makes it nearly impossible to participate in any way that adds value because you’re only listening peripherally. It’s like talking to someone who keeps looking over your shoulder for a better conversation at a party.
Social media is something you really have to chose to commit to. Do it badly and it’s not worth doing – may even be detrimental.
Preach it, Mark!
I did a similar rant on my own blog a while ago. Perhaps they should just crown you and I Kings of All Marketing!
@Ardath – I love that line, ‘like talking to someone who keeps looking over your shoulder for a better conversation at a party.’
As you say, building fruitful relationships requires a commitment – dabbling, at best, builds acquaintances. When people have a choice as to who they engage with they’ll choose those that are willing to take the time to reciprocate.
I love your most recent post by the way, recommended: http://tinyurl.com/67yvtd
@Luis – I don’t think I’m there quite yet
I do think that there’s a growing trend amongst marketing bods to draw a clear distinction between what social media is good at and what it isn’t.
For me social media is about being part of a conversation – as much about listening and learning as it is about talking and promoting.
Luis’ post: http://tinyurl.com/63p6uh
Excellent post. I am in agreement with you on this whole thing about social media. I think it is a good thing in that people can and do connect and interact. I have to ask myself what benefits are gained? Does more work appear for me? Do I make valuable connections that move my business forward? Or do I just hear the latest and greatest braggart go on about how great they are? I have to give this much more thought before I can fully commit to it.
Regards,
Alden~
@Alden – Firstly, thanks so much for taking the time to comment.
As with anything that’s an investment of time or money you should be able to see a beneficial outcome. So you’re certainly asking some of the right questions in your comment above.
My one addition would be that many of those outcomes are in our own hands.
Social networking is not that different from ‘traditional’ networking – you have to be willing to commit to making it work before it will.
Going to the latest Chamber of Commerce mixer accomplishes little if you simply sit in the corner and only speak to people you know.
Better to put yourself out and make the valuable connections that will help you move your business forward. No doubt it will take time and effort but provided you make a sincere effort, in my experience, the contacts you seek are out there.
As for the ‘latest and greatest braggart’, the great thing about social media is that you get to decide who you are social with.
In my limited experience I’d suggest that anyone considering making social media part of their business ask the same kinds of questions that you are.
But, if you can see the benefit – and challenges – in networking and relationship building offline, then I’d say you stand a good chance of making it work online too.
Mark
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