Andy Swan » “Social marketing” zzzzzzzzz

“Social marketing” zzzzzzzzz

June 29, 2010 – 11:45 am

You’re not going to sell much to your twitter friends. Or your facebook friends.

Spending all day “getting followers” (which means following people you don’t want to read just so they’ll follow you back) is……drumroll…..a WASTE OF TIME.

Twitter and facebook is the freeloader zone. They don’t want to pay you for anything. Good for celebs, not a big deal for business.

The barrier to entry (getting on twitter and getting followers) is so low that it’s almost a given that there is little $$ on the other side.

Your focus has to be on creating real relationships. Social tools can help you do that if you use them right.

But please, stop the follow spam and billy mays twittering. We are NOT buying.

Win.

Jacques

Andy, just stumbled upon your blog. Finally, a sane perspective. Its funny to see how companies and individuals are flocking to social media sites in an effort to not be left out of the next big thing. Reminds me of the "Emperor’s new clothes".

DGogo

Amen!
Farmville only makes Farville money...

Wesley Verhoeve

Absolutely true. It reminds me of bands using bots to add more and more friends on MySpace, and it leading to.....nothing.

Lynn

FB is social - that's pretty much it. And twitter...I have pretty much given up on. There is so much inane noise, that it exhausts me and I seem to attract call girls and hookers to follow me. Pretty much a waste of time. Linked in is for grown-ups and far more valuable for business relationships.

Mark Essel

Solid message Andy.

I think social networks will improve in value once delusions of grandeur are taken off the table and genuine connections and utility are left standing. The first move that helped me was to shrink my input feed (who I keep follow) to a reasonable size, then relentlessly filter out low value voices. Facebook was zero value to me, so I deleted that account.

Nazik

Totally agree. I wonder the the people who twitter all day have real jobs?