7 Reasons Social Networks Are a Waste of Time

April 14, 2009 by yelena
Filed under Burning Questions, blog

Q: I have profiles on several social networking sites. But I don’t think they can help my business and I really don’t have time to waste. Twitter seems especially useless, yet I keep hearing about it. Am I the only one who hasn’t drank Kool-Aid yet?

A: Yes, Twitter et al. are a huge waste of your time if

Your target audience is not on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, etc
You remain silent or communicate infriquently
You only talk about yourself and your products
You constantly sell
You do not send personal (direct) messages at least once in a while
You do not have a daily routine established
You do not track your social media results

Luckily, every single one of these reasons can be easily fixed:

Do not assume your target audience is or is not using social networking – check! You can start at Pew Internet with these reports – Adults and Social Network Websites, Twitter and Status Updating, and the one about babyboomers using Twitter.
Post at least 1 status update each day on each network. Save time by adding Twitter application to your Facebook profile and by using FriendFeed. Many websites now provide an option of notifying Twitter of your updates (new articles or press releases, newsletter broadcasts, blog posts, etc). But using these automation options doesn’t mean you can skip the “human” update.
Of course, writing about yourself and what’s going on in your world is easy. But there are many other things and people you can talk about – upcoming events, interesting articles, resources, tips, sharing your friends’ and clients’ accomplishments, etc.
Instead of selling, how about giving something away, like maybe free tips or links to helpful resources.
Don’t just broadcast your updates, communicate directly to people in your network. It is really easier than it seems. Check out your connections’ status updates and reply to a couple. Re-tweet or otherwise repost (with full credit) usefull links, tips, quotes, etc. Contact at least a couple of people from your network each week with direct messages or in-mail to congratulate on their accomplishments, ask for advice, offer help (no hard sell), etc.
Establish a daily and a weekly to-do list for each network (download free Social Media in 30 Minutes a Day guide for sample checklists).
Google Analytics is free and a great way to track the results of your social networking efforts. Other great tools include Tweetburner (use it as a convenient URL-shorterner and click tracker) and Tweetstats.