I set out writing this post on the basis of working through hints and tips of needing to be ‘social’ in order to help whatever you are planning on doing going forward in life after working in a corporation. This was in order to constructively follow up on my ideas in the last post on needing to raise my internet profile. However, I’m going to change tact a bit. Firstly I am no expert on the topic and so crafty hints and tips can be found elsewhere on the web. Secondly I am going to argue through this post that a large part of this is idea of being ‘social’ is nonsense.
Now this may initially seem to be in contradiction with my 7 tips on making a ‘great’ blog, but I do not think it is. A large part of that post dealt with needing to participate in the wider web to get out of your own little corner of the web. Here we understand our intent. We have a clear notion of why we are trying to be more ‘social’ and an idea of how to go about it.
We have a fascination with our online presence and that has remained true since the ‘beginning’ of the internet (who remembers AIM). Fast forward to 2016 and there are a lot of platforms for us to be social on. We also want to make sure we’re on every outlet too. Hands up if you signed up for everything ‘new’ when you heard other people were using the app? On top of that how many of you actually use and participate on all these platforms on a regular basis?
If you do you clearly have far too much time on your hands! It is time consuming being social. In most cases you need to tailor your content to the platform. On top of that, what have you achieved in the process? I ask this for both the part of the individual and a business. Are you measuring your success in a certain way to ascertain if there has been a positive uplift? What were your aims and objectives in the first place? Have you evaluated whether sponsored content is necessary, the merits of it and how to again measure success?
There are many things to take into account if you want to leverage social media. And I am not dismissing the merits totally out of hand. However the question to ask is whether there are better things to do with your time. As we said, tailoring content to specific platforms is time consuming. Plus once we start a new venture is it really the first thing we need to focus on and spend all our time and resources dedicated to? I’d argue no. It is better for you to work on understanding what you want to do next (if not already done so) and spending the time working on building a business. Only then you (maybe) begin to develop how and why you will go about using social media to your advantage. That why is so important to ensure you do not waste time. Do not forget, social media is a means to an end, not the end itself. It may help you grow a business but it is not a business. If it is not working for you look elsewhere.
To close ’ll go back to an earlier comment. We have a fascination with our online presence. Do not let it get in the way of actually building a business or the goals you set out for yourself.
J
Junaid Rahim 