Posted in Busy Twittering or adding a group on facebook? Doing these things takes time, effort and mental energy and feels like real work, but every hour spent on these media is most likely wasted, and here’s why:
99% of people miss the point
Here are some recent tweets from a REALTOR™:
Useless Social Media
So you’ve made a bunch of money, asked for people to send you some referrals and while you wait you’ll be heading to the beach? That’s riveting stuff… BUT WHERE’S THE VALUE? And who are you speaking to? This is what I mean by missing the point. This feed does nothing to answer the critical question: WIIFM?
Here’s a great one:
More Useless Pontificating
This is from a real estate office business development person that is also used to communicate with REALTORS™ in the office. About all this is good for is getting “ice-urinal” as a nickname.
But “Sometimes its really hard to explain all that is Twitter.”
Not true. Twitter is simple: it’s like a telephone just after it was invented, or email : it’s a potentially great tool that’s easy to waste LOTS of time on if not used properly.
REALTORS™ confuse pleasure with business
I’m a really fun guy who likes a good patio party with a Guiness and a plate of nachos, and guess what? MY CUSTOMERS DON’T CARE – they want a great website that stays up over the weekends, is easy to use, does what they want it to do, takes no time to administer and makes them money… that’s it. Mixing my personal life into the pitch confuses the issues and blurs the mission; it’ll also turn off a lot of potential friends.
REALTORS™ make this mistake ALL the time. Here’s a revolutionary thought that most self-proclaimed “Social Media Gurus” won’t tell you:
Mixing business life and personal life on the internet is MUCH WORSE than mixing them in person: remember that social media messages are archived and searchable. forever. That’s why you don’t catch Michael Dell blithering on about HMV stores closing on the Dell twitter feed.
Ok, don’t get me wrong – I’m friends with many of my customers, but I keep communication with them separate from business. Smart users of social media will do the same.
Most twitter feeds are SPAM
Check this out:
Most Twitter Accounts Look Like This
Ok, ok, ok… I get the point – you’re selling me something that I don’t care about right now…
Where with normal email spam there is at least the occasional legitimate email, social networking spam is just a steady stream of self-advertising garbage. Try reading the twitter selection above quickly and out-loud; I guarantee you’ll be saying, “no thanks, just looking,” in no time.
“Is this a rant?”
No, and here’s why:
The real problem
These days almost everyone has been sold on social media as a landmark solution to generating leads and new business. The problem is this: time. Think about it this way:
- Twitter. 5 tweets/day x 5 minutes/tweet = 25 minutes/day = 175 minutes/week = 9100 minutes/year (6.3 days). The most likely result = nothing…
- Facebook. 3 status updates/day x 4 minutes/update + checking out your friends photos x 43 minutes/day = 55 minutes/day = 385 minutes/week = 20020 minutes/year (13.9 days). The most likely result = no tan this year, beers with that guy from high-school you never liked anyway, and no new business.
Here are the stats directly from facebook:
- Average user creates 70 pieces of content each month
- 50% of facebook users log in everyday
- facebook users spend an average of 55 minutes/day on the website
That’s a collective total of almost a month (business days) spent online – so even if you’ve generated one or two deals from social media, it’s come at a MASSIVE investment of time.
The solution
I’m a predictable guy, so this is nothing new: hard work and value to the consumer. Here’s what I think:
- All entrepreneurs need to scrutinize every minute of their day and remember the golden rule: just because it feels like work, doesn’t mean it is.
- Social media is most effective for people making money from social media (hence the huge number of “experts” that have arisen lately). If you’re trying to generate leads from end consumers it’s not going to come overnight, and many people will WASTE a lot of time trying to find the right way to do it.
- Being successful with social media takes hard work: REALTORS™ without the time to provide real value should stick to other, equally valuable but less labor-intensive approaches.
- ALL ADVERTISING NEEDS TO PROVIDE VALUE. Period.
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As ever Sam, an interesting read. I have a Twitter account but make little use of it. I have a Facebook account but rarely do a status update. What I use it for is to have simple, quick touch-points with many of my past, current and hopefully one day clients – generally commenting on something going on in their lives rather than something going on in my own. I have a Facebook group that has so far led to two deals and probably a third later this year. I set it up as a self help group for those moving to my area. That seems to work quite well. I pop in a couple of times a day to see if there are any new members and to see if there is any un-approved advertising garbage that I need to delete. So, I’m still learning as I go but I think I am finding ways that social media can work for me.