You’re Wasting Your Time on Facebook and Twitter

Is Facebook and Twitter a waste of time? It is when you would be better off spending that time on other other marketing activities. Twitter and Facebook can be powerful marketing tools, but not for everyone. How do you decide?

If you are a business that people really don’t use that often, I don’t think you should use social media tools built for networking. For example, I think realtors are wasting their time on Facebook or Twitter if…their purpose is to find new clients. The average American moves every seven years. In between, those people are not looking for realtors. They’re not really interested in following a realtor on Twitter or Facebook. I think the same goes furniture stores, carpet stores, and other businesses with an infrequent purchase cycle. These types of businesses should be spending their marketing time on other social media tools. But where?

When customers seek you out only every several years, you need to be ready when they do. You need credibility and authority. You also need to be found on the internet. So the answer is:

Credibility + Authority + Searchability = Blogs

So stop wasting your time marketing to potential customers on Twitter and Facebook and blog your way to new customers. Be there when they are ready to search for you.

But don’t delete your Twitter and Facebook accounts. The real power of these platforms is networking. I use my Twitter account to network with other marketers and bloggers around the world. Your Twitter stream can be a great learning and networking resource.

So where are you using your social-media marketing time? How can you be more effective for your type of business?

For more information on social media marketing, see these articles:
Blog Your Way to Credibility and Authority
Social Media: What to do for your business.
What’s the Best Business Use of Twitter?

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