networking

Let me ask you a simple question: Does your investment in social media generate business income?

For most of the creative professionals I ask, the answer is either: “No, not really” or “I don’t know.”

The more I invest in social media, the more I get the feeling that this social media thing is just one big giant fraud – an elaborate ruse designed to do nothing more than monopolize time and energy chasing after likes and followers.

If you listen to the social media gurus, they’ll tell you straight up – your business MUST be on social media.  You MUST engage your followers – the more active you are, the more likes and followers you can acquire…ergo the bigger audience you have the more crap you can sell them.

It gets even worse (as if investing your time isn’t already enough, they want your money too) – they’ll also tell you that you need a hook.  You have to offer free products, discounts, contests, pay for ads – anything to drive interest and get more likes and secure more followers.

Who exactly benefits from all of this?  The social networks sure do.  The social media gurus do to.

But what about your business?  How much are those thousands of likes and legions of followers really worth to your business in real world $$$?

Because here’s the thing – I’ve got a sneaking suspicion that the return on investment for social media is ridiculously small – or in other words, social media is probably not worth the time and effort you put into it.