Are You a Slave to Social Media?
Read more about: Marketing, Marketing 2.0, Social Media, Web 2.0
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Facebook. LinkedIn. Squidoo. MySpace. Twitter. Bebo
It’s great to have so many tools available to connect to others and promote your own business. But when is enough enough?
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I see an epidemic here in the marketing world. People are using not one, not two, but dozens of social media tools to promote their companies…and for what?? They have no time to work on their business. And they may not even be getting anything out of their efforts.
Don’t get me wrong. I am the Marketing Eggspert, so I’m all about social media and using the internet to promote your brand. But I have to say, today’s social media market is just too much for me. It was fine when we had a few basics, but now I’m getting invites from sites I’ve never heard of that are clones of the originals. It’s not possible to be everywhere.
Recently my new mastermind group from Sparkplugging.com and beyond encouraged me to join Twitter. I did. If you’re not familiar with it, Twitter is like instant messaging on steroids. You decide who you want to “follow,” meaning keep up with. People tweet messages on what their doing or interesting websites, blogs, etc. I’m following people I know at least a little. But it’s hard to follow the conversation, and it’s a time suck. You could spend all day reading other people’s tweets. It’s addicting, yes, but effective? Maybe for some, but I simply don’t have the time!
So how can you keep from being bombarded with too many social media sites to choose from?
1. Survey each site and see who its target audience is. You may not want to push your insurance product to teens on MySpace.
2. Ask friends and colleagues which sites they’ve got the most out of.
3. Do research online before you sign up. See what professional social media experts have to say.
Deborah Brown over at Small Business Trends has a great article that refers to other blog posts that give you advice on what social media tools are worth it and which ones are overkill called “Social Media: Valuable Marketing Tools or Time Waster?” Check it out.
-Susan
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Susan Payton is the Marketing Eggspert, and owner of 
Hi Susan, glad you’re on Twitter. I know I’m following but for the life of me I couldn’t find you to message you (I swear, I must be blind). Maybe you could add your Twitter handle to your blog or something? Anita
These sites are overwhelming me too! I have joined some, but barely have enough time to get my deliverables done, let alone participate enough to make a difference.
Shannon–
Agreed. People keep following me at Twitter, and I’m thinking, “Don’t follow me! I don’t participate enough to be interesting!”
Susan
Hi Susan. I prefer to think of myself as someone a social media maximizer. I have been successful in using my Blogspot blogs and social networking sites such as Myspace, Ning.com, Gather.com, Authornation, and Authorhouse to build my author platform and reader audience.
The Ning.com networking sites have been extremely helpful in establishing connections with my various audiences. As a result, I have received several radio interviews and increased my book sales. In addition, I recently launched my own social networking site for women who share the same life experiences as my novel’s main character. In June, I will launch the companion radio show. These media efforts are helping me create and nurture my reader audience for my next books. Plus they are free to start and easy to maintain. My Blogspot.com
blogs and yoga Meetup.com group helped me expand my yoga and Reiki healing touch services. More folks in my local area now know about my services. They also helped me get some local news coverage about one of my free monthly events.
Ananda–
Thanks for sharing your success stories! I’m glad you’re getting so much out of social media.
Susan