When to not use Social Media Marketing

“Social media is the most amazing thing ever!!!!!” – Every article on LinkedIn right now.

But if you’re like me, you’ve likely been disenchanted with social. Perhaps you’ve invested a LOT of time and effort into social media and never achieved what you hoped.

Perhaps you’ve been posting for years and have a few hundred (or maybe a few thousand) followers, but you can’t seem to get traction.

And you likely can’t trace back a positive ROI from your social media efforts. It’s not abnormal for social media to be a huge negative ROI in your business.

I understand. I’ve been there, and I see clients who are there.

So when does social media make sense?

Social media makes sense when you have two things:

• A commitment for the long-term
• An ability to add value

Without these two factors, you will NOT be successful at social media.

Now let me explain them:

A commitment to the long term – Followers with large social audiences have built them over months and years. It’s a program. It’s consistent. It’s a commitment. It’s a long term effort. If you expect to get results tomorrow, you’ll be disappointed.

Adding value – I use value here as a relative term. Value could mean entertainment or education. Or it could mean connections or training. Depending on your market and customers, this will be different.

And that’s it. Sure there’re strategies and tactics. Sure you may need to allocate some budget to paid ads or hire a social media manager.

You’re building a platform. You’re building a brand. That takes time. You need to think like a celebrity. Like a vlogger. Like a pro athlete.

Either you’re in or you’re out. There’s too much noise for you to be half-in and half-out on social. You’ll just waste money and effort. There are 1,000 better ways to spend your marketing dollars and time.

Commit the time and get serious, or just get out.

It’s that simple.