Thoughts on Social Media 5 May 2018

social media icons

 

“It’s so funny how social media was just this fun thing, and now it’s this monster that consumes so many millennial lives.‘ Cazzie David

“The more social media we have, the more we think we’re connecting, yet we are really disconnecting from each other.” JR

As I was adding the poetry page to my website I was thinking of some of the poems I had written and found one about social media.

I am not against social media. I have seen it help bring people together. I have seen it used to share important information.

My struggle with social media is how disconnected we are becoming. It appears that we are too busy to answer the phone, we are too busy to call a friend, we are too busy to go for a coffee with someone.

Here are a few stats on Facebook usage;

(source https://sproutsocial.com/insights/facebook-stats-for-marketers/)

Active users as of June 30, 2017; there are 2 billion monthly active users and over 1 billion daily active users

Facebook time is decreasing and is down to an average of 35 minutes per day.

Facebook users check their page and average of 8 times a day.

It doesn’t sound like much but when you add the multitude of other social media platforms people check every day then social media time is a big part of each person’s day.

Here is a link to the page where I post my poems.  I wrote Social Media one day when I was feeling very disconnected from people.

Social media…are you buying or selling?

social media at danwrites.caLately it looks like every guru in the marketing world is trying to sell a course or program on using social media to generate leads and make sales.

A short version of what they say is…

  1. Friend everybody
  2. Compliment your new “friends”
  3. Lurk on their pages or comments
  4. Like their “page” or “posts”
  5. Post about the results of your product or service

The premise is that if you make enough “friends” you will generate leads and sell your product or service.

  1. If everybody is posting or liking or lurking how do you get any work done?
  2. Why would you compliment a stranger?
  3. Are they trying to sell you as hard as your are trying to sell them?
  4. If everybody is selling who is buying?
  5. Is everybody on social media your target market?

Hmmm…

Why not be real instead?

Why not build relationships with people who you can see and talk to?


I confess I am not a social media guru. I am a writer and I use social media to share my writing with people I know and have met.

I don’t friend everybody who asks me to be a friend. I unfriend people when I realize we don’t have anything in common.

I like real relationships with real people.

When it comes to selling my product or service I will use it to generate leads.

I prefer direct mail, networking face to face, telephone calls and even door knocking to spending time on social media.

Yes I push my blog to my business Facebook page. I don’t push it to my personal page.

Tuesday Thoughts

social media at danwrites.caA large social-media presence is important because it’s one of the last ways to conduct cost-effective marketing. Everything else involves buying eyeballs and ears. Social media enables a small business to earn eyeballs and ears.

Guy Kawasaki

I have been asked is a blog social media. My answer is; it depends. Are you posting and sharing your blog or are you just posting your blog? If you share it’s social.