Is Social Media a Time Waster?

How many times have you read about all the benefits of social media - how it can build a following, create interest regarding your brand and so on? There are so many articles on the subject, it can be mind boggling to sift through all the information. On the other side of the scale, there is also quite a bit of info about how social media is nothing but a time waster. So which side do you believe? Social media can indeed be a wonderful outlet for driving business, but if you aren’t making good use of it, then yes, you are wasting your time. But how do you even tell if you’re spinning your wheels or actually making progress to your destination? There are a few signs to look out for.

You’ve covered all your bases and are on all social media platforms (and don’t need to be).

You may be wondering if all businesses need to be on every single social media platform there is and the simple answer is no. Such platforms as Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, Google+, etc. all have a good and bad side, and some businesses may truly do well to use all of them, but that is the minority. It truly depends on the type of business you have. If your business does well with image heaving branding, you would do well with Instagram. If you are more consumer driven, you would do better to consider LinkedIn or Google+. If the social platform isn’t relevant to your brand, stop wasting your time, and only use those social platforms that are truly relevant to your business.

No sense of order.

Social media is a job all on its own and if you are handling it all by yourself, chances are, you aren’t seeing the results you should. Questions to think about: who writes your content? Who posts it and monitors the results? Who interacts with your followers and responds to questions and comments? If you answered “you” to these questions, we have a problem. It’s important to delegate these tasks so that you aren’t using all of your creative time. Having others on your team to take care of the social aspect will ensure that you are indeed getting the most benefit out of social marketing.

You don’t have an editorial calendar.

An efficient social marketing campaign is organized. It’s smart to write and organize your content in advance. Obviously, issues will come up and you can deal with them as they happen, but try and do as much of the work ahead of time as possible. Without any type of calendar to keep you on track, you’re simply wasting your time trying to come up with material at the last minute instead of having a strategic approach.

Obsessive Compulsive over real-time social feeds.

You definitely want to keep track of your followers and interact with them in order to build and maintain relationships. However, you need to have a plan. It’s important to be organized about your response method. It’s not going to help anyone, including yourself, to be glued to your computer 24/7 watching the new feeds come in. This is the wrong way to engage with your audience. Instead, be smart and methodical with your responses and have people on your team to help.

You aren’t tracking your results.

Social media is a yo-yo of ups and downs and it’s important to monitor your results and see how your marketing efforts are faring. If you don’t bother to check in every now and then, it’ll be hard to tell whether your efforts are actually helping your brand or just wasting your time.

Social media takes a bit of smart planning and discipline for it to be worth your effort. But it truly doesn’t have to be a chore. Have help within easy reach and be savvy about the platforms you choose to engage in. It’s entirely possibly to grow your business through social media if you are diligent, smart, and willing to accept help from others.