Social Media Not Always the Answer

We’ve noticed a strong uptick in the number of small businesses telling us they are disappointed with their social media efforts. 

The main complaint is a lack of results.  The other issue we hear about is social media is too time consuming.

We’re not the only ones hearing this.  Entrepreneur’s Is It Time for You to Get Anti-Social does a nice job of describing the complaints.  Key quote:

“Amid the hype about social networks and the many positive things they can do to help businesses build a buzz come tales from the social media counterculture — cases of trend-bucking entrepreneurs such as Wong making a strategic decision to de-emphasize social media …”

This reaction is common with technology trends (and social trends also).  Fast growing trends almost always create a countervailing trend of people unhappy with the main trend. 

This is especially true when a technology is as over-hyped as social media.  The hype results in businesses using social media when it’s not a good fit. 

This does not mean social media is not useful.  It just means it’s not always useful.