Is Social Media a Waste of Time?
WHETHER YOU’RE EVERY other freelance blogger at your local coffee shop (latte in hand) or a small business owner struggling to keep the lights on, it’s certainly a question worth pondering. The answer to such a question, relayed to us by a faceless sea of “gurus,” “experts” and tech start-up superstars is a resounding “Of course not,” or at the very least, “Well, I guess it depends.”
Let’s cut to the chase. It’s hard to deny the notion that our social presence online has truly become an extension of ourselves off. Facebook’s new policy allowing for Internet “immortality” further cements this reality. Our existence offline is becoming less removed from our existence online, meaning that if we’re making connections and doing business in the “real world,” the same rules should apply on the web, right?
Not necessarily.
Reality check. The “anti-social” movement has been brewing for quite some time, both in the face of business and our everyday lives. Take BJ Mendelson (the self proclaimed “Mark Twain of Social Media”) and his not-so-subtly-titled book titled Social Media is Bullsh*t. Mendelson asserts that “social media” is a vague cash-grab concept peddled by marketers with questionable credibility. Meanwhile, critics such as Sherry Turkle claim that society at large is growing “alone together” in the face of the rapidly-changing technology at our fingertips.
Who’s to say whether they’re right or wrong? It’s certainly plausible that this “anti-social” movement was born out of cynicism from entrepreneurs who poured their precious time and money into social networking and saw nothing in return. Maybe they just don’t “get it.” However, we should all take a step back and consider the following:
In the face of social media, modern companies are guilty of breeding workers that are prone to wasting time. Since millennials are labeled the wost offenders when it comes to getting down to business, will the social media time-suck only get worse over time?
It’s 2015 and time is still money. Many companies go into the social networking game with no end-game or concept of an ROI. The result? Money lost. Sure, if it’s not broken then don’t fix it; however, if it’s not working then why bother?
Social media might not be so social after all. We no longer live in an era where follower-counts are everything. We’ve wised up. We understand that“engagement” is little more than a buzzword, let alone a measurable statistic. The polish has worn on Internet marketing’s shiny new toy and many marketers are scrambling for a response.
The caveat to the gloom and doom concerning social media, of course, is that not all industries are created equally. Maybe you really do just need to hit up your followers every now and then. Maybe that tweet or blog share really will lead to a sale or meaningful conversation. There’s no harm in making face and shaking hands.
Social media feels good. The shares. The likes. The metrics. They’re fun, they’re sexy. Why would anyone want to give that up?
Yet ask yourself; what would it really mean for your company if you went ghost on the social channels? Sure, others might think of you as some sort of insane nomad, floating alone in the vast void of online commerce. But what would it really do to your bottom line? What else could you do with all of that time, energy and money?
Nobody’s asking you to go it alone; however, maybe it’s time to rethink exactly what “social” means for you and your business.