By Pam Hadder
Have you gotten the jump on social media? Personal or business, do you use Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube? How about LinkedIn and other networking sites? There's no denying the presence and the influence of social media in our lives today.
In a business context, social media is often "sold" as a low-cost or no-cost tactic to generate and sustain awareness about a company, product, charitable cause or event. Social media can support these objectives, but it is not a stand-alone solution, and if you do the math, it's not FREE - and it is really low-cost?
We are living in a time of rapid change, but one facet remains constant: time is MONEY. Given the undisputed value of time, consider that many organizations pay staff to set up, maintain and stoke the coals of social media machinery. What does an entry level or part-time employee cost, factoring in a modest salary, applicable taxes and benefits? Likely, the cost is at least 30k - 40k per year - a significant sum for most small to mid-size companies.
Many marketers like the idea of being able to easily supply a bundle of stats, served up in many variations to support the use of social media tactics. But do these numbers translate into TRUE VALUE, particularly when balanced with the amount of time spent maintaining the social media vehicles?
Research shows that as soon as the user eases up on the volume of social media posts, their followers rapidly decline. Interestingly, if the user is too prolific or salesy, this also will cause a lemmings-to-the-sea type of exodus! Yet another pitfall can be the dreaded automated tweet scenario - those seeking true networking value, fresh perspectives and noteworthy tidbits will quickly grow disenchanted with canned, repetitive posts. The kicker: there is no control over who will follow you and for how long - social media truly is a crap shoot with many variables affecting outcomes.
And what is the value of a follower anyway? How can that be measured with integrity? What is really achieved with our fleeting bleeps into the virtual void? Have you considered that the social media providers and developers might skew report data to build the case for use? Consider the recent scandal with Groupon's fairy-tale reports of huge profits, while in reality they were bleeding $$$.
As we grow more comfortable with the various social media applications, it becomes clear that some control needs to be executed to keep Twitter and friends from becoming time frittered with "friends"! Social media can become the one-armed bandit of your working and leisure hours, just one more tweet, one more post, one more link - someone will get what I am saying; we'll make a profound connection and the numbers will explode!
It may be that social media is a sentence fragment, a loosely conceived script that never quite gets to the crux of things, a puff of smoke in a windstorm, and yes, a lottery of sorts where the right number at a precise moment may result in a bounty... or not.
