Our Love Hate Relationship with Social Networking and What To Do About It
August 25, 2011
Everyone in business loves the idea and promise of social networking, how it can expand the customer base and thereby, bring businesses more revenue. On the other hand, social networking with its multi-faceted approach can be a big drain on time and productivity, particularly for small businesses.
We all admire those great social networkers that have audiences in the millions. We all wish we had that audience. At some point, it seems every entrepreneur and small business tries social networking. And like any new venture, it starts with great hope and high expectations. Before long, those new to social networking start to wonder how did they do it, how did those great social networkers build those big followings? Why isn’t it working for you? Recently, I saw a statistic that said there were more inactive blogs than active ones – and this says a lot.
When you consider social networking – Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, blogging, and You Tube – it takes a great effort to do well at any one of those channels. Most experts recommend an integrated approach by using all those avenues in your social networking plan. As you start working with those channels, you quickly realize that this is a big time commitment. Social networking for businesses is just another aspect of marketing, and like any marketing effort, it’s not easy and it’s time consuming.
First, realize that you are a small business or start-up, and your resources are limited. You trying to run your business as you did before this newfangled trick arrived, and now it’s just additional work on top of everything else. Someone led you to believe that this was about technology, computers, and the Internet. This set you expectation that it was ‘automated’ and practically effortless.
Those great social networkers are giants in the industry because it is the only thing they do and many of them have been doing it for many years now. Social networking is there primary business, and after the built an audience then they monetized it with products or services offered to their audience. Most small businesses are the opposite. They ran a bakery or managed an architectural firm first, and social networking is an add-on. To do it like the great ones, you need to devote a full-time staff to it. For most small businesses that’s simply not feasible. So what should you do?
If you aren’t going to spend the time engaging in social networking properly, then it will take your time and give nothing back – thus, all those abandoned blogs. If you are going to engage in social networking and you have limited time, then dedicate scheduled time every week to create the posts, video, or tweets. I recommend choosing a day. I like Fridays because it’s a lull for me.
Before social networking, life was simpler. If someone emailed me, I knew whatever they wanted didn’t require immediate attention. If someone phoned me, they wanted me to respond now. People who engage is social networking want a conversation or a quick response. So set aside 30 or 60 minutes each day to respond to your audience, and don’t run over because it’s easy to let social networking become a big time suck.
If you’re feeling that social networking is overwhelming and you are drowning it all its demands, it time to step back and access what would be manageable to you. While you should expect to get a return of your efforts, don’t compare yourself to those great social networkers.
Filed under: Marketing & Sales
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