Is Facebook Marketing a Necessity Or a Waste?
Facebook is definitely NOT a necessity for online marketers. In fact, contrary to what the majority of “gurus” are telling you, I think that most online marketers are better off WITHOUT accounts on social media like Facebook, Linked In, Twitter, etc. Here’s why:
Social media is a time-eating machine.
It is so easy to get carried away checking other people’s profiles, reading their updates and having useless conversations. You’ll cover up time wasting with the excuse “But I’m Working On My Business! The Gurus Say That Facebook Is A Must!”:) The hours will fly by, more so-called “friends” will be added, but will it really contribute to your bottom line?
All this talk about “building relationships” and landing big clients due to those relationships – it all sounds good, but has these people tracked the TIME they spent on it? $1,000 paycheck sounds impressive, but quickly loses its appeal if it took 1,000 hours getting to it:)
Don’t get me wrong – I’m not saying that all social media is bad. Let me repeat what I said: “MOST online marketers are better off without accounts on social media”. MOST does not equal ALL. So who are those select few online marketers who do benefit from Facebook, Linked In and Twitter?
*They have a strict limit on their time spent on social media (for example, 30 minutes per day) and stick to that limit
*They have a plan before they log on
*They focus all their social media efforts on building their list
The money is in the LIST. It’s not in a number of “friends”, “fans”, “connections” or “followers”. What if Linked In closes your account for whatever reason? What if it goes out of business? What if it has a horrible server crash and data is lost? You must build your own mailing list of your contacts and have a backup copy on your own computer, so you don’t put your business at the mercy of the 3rd parties.