Why we don’t need social media for business

Losing the plot?

Well, we tend to forget that social media is (are) a means to an end. Or maybe it was just me. I can’t speak for you.

Like lots of people I have embraced Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, signed up for newsletters and blogs of interesting people, and of course bought things from various people and businesses. The result is that my email inbox is being inundated with lots of stuff, most of which I never read.

In addition to subscribing to blogs via email I also collect new posts vis Google Reader. Do you know what? I almost never look at Google Reader so miss out on most of whatever I thought I might like. Sad, isn’t it?

Having a clear-out

So anyway I run a business; well I own three actually. I have got past doing everything myself of course, to free up time to run my business and spend my time more valuably. I still have to use the time though, so it is no good eating into it reading a lot of stuff that probably isn’t really useful.

What I am doing about this? Well, now each time I see a new post I think about whether I need it. If I don’t I unsubscribe. I have done a lot of that recently. That’s not to say that there is not content that I do value. However if I spend all day reading other people’s blogs and what might be useful information, I can’t take it all in and still have time for my serious business life.

What is easy to forget is that social media interaction, and blogs where we like to comment, involve people. It is the people we need to think about and not the game

I am not the only one who is cutting down, but he is not one I am going to unsubscribe from.

We can employ others to do our work or we can subcontract and either way manage our businesses. But we can’t do that when we are eating into our time reading stuff we might never need and using on-line networks in a less than efficient way.

People matter

I am staying with Twitter. I like Twitter and I have made valuable new contacts there. I have helped people. I have gained business via Twitter. I just don’t need to post 25+ times a day or worry about irrelevancies such as Klout scores. In networking I have always preferred quality over quantity and I think that includes my own output. People know who I am. Better still, I know who other people are whom I would turn to.

So it isn’t social media that we should worry about. It is the people we meet through participation.

Have you got too busy with the social media game, can you manage the fast pace, or are you cutting down too?

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One Response to Why we don’t need social media for business

  1. Peter Clark says:

    Well said, Jon! I recognise myself in your view of the “information overload” that has been made worse by the internet and social/networking media. I think we are all basically insecure and crave recognition for success, but the addiction with reading what people like us think leaves less time to concentrate on the people who have the potential to actually buy our products or services.

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