Stop Trashing Social Media!
Beware mini rant.
Getting fed up with the way social media is dismissed as no good.
It's always talk about 2 options, organic traffic and paid advertising.
WHY would you pay and keep on paying when you have excellent tools at your fingertips.
It is an excellent tool BUT you need to take the time and effort to build it up.
Once you get to 10,000 or so followers on twitter it takes on a life of its own and followers just keep growing. You do still need to work at it, just like anything else.
If you make the effort of a little time every day you will gain new followers every day. Just follow and have followers in your own field, that is pointless, you are preaching to the converted.
You don't need to waste hours on there, keep it to a minimum and just do what you are there for.
I share my posts to Linked In, Instagram, Pinterest, Twitter and Tumblr. The more your posts get out there, the more likely they are to be seen and get interested people coming to read your posts.
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I agree. However, some people spend the majority of their time on social media. They throw themselves into it and it ends up eating up many hours per day. Then they are disappointed when they don't get sales.
People need to understand that content has to come first, not social media. If they are not adding new content but just spending time on social media, then there is nothing new on their website for the social media followers to read and share.
I am like you. I am following more people every day on Twitter and getting more followers every day. I know someday the number will be high enough to be useful. In the meantime I know organic traffic is my bread and butter.
Hi Jessica, I thought that the most effective way to use Social Media is to promote each new post on your website using a brief intro followed by a link to that post. Commenting on others posts is secondary. What do you think?
Edwin
Thank you Jessica. It can be a time waster if you let it. I don't have time to waste though so ts just business use.
You are right on Linda. Social media can be an intangible asset that puts money in your pocket as opposed to taking money out of it. It just takes time.
You will always have detractors. It is similar to people who complain about how phones have taken over the lives of people. Or to people who gave their two cents about how the internet was just a fad.
Social media, smart mobile phones, and the internet are all tried and true methods of reaching out to an audience and helping them with a problem.
There are people who work with innovation and those who fight it for whatever reason. The ironic thing is there is no right or wrong way going about it. Everyone has their own Standard Operating Procedure. It just so happens that those that work with innovation usually see far more success than those who fight it.
Keep on building Linda, have a wonderful day.
Thank you Kevin.
I don't like to think that newer people come along and get put off using a good resource without trying it because of a few posts.
To be fair the human race does tend to be resistant to change in general. They just don't realise that change is necessary otherwise we stagnate. After that we exist rather than live to our full potential.
Social Media is definitely huge. I've not been a huge fan of it (always viewed it as a way people largely waste their time) but recognize the value in it and am changing my view over time.
Actually know of many people who do either all or the majority or their marketing on FB through direct messaging of people. They've built $8k+ monthly incomes (some much much more) entirely from that.
Thank you, I agree it is.
I wasn't a fan, hadn't been on it at all until I needed it for business.
I still consider it a time waster, just not my time. I don't linger, just do what has to be done and off again.
It's good when people can use it like that. Good luck to them.
Don't disagree with the main point that time and effort are needed to build followers.
But there are other reasons not to engage with social media entities. Particularly those that try to control/suppress information flow, influence politics in one direction and track/score behaviors of people that are 'properly aligned' or not.
There are people who decide not to use social media for those reasons, and it's not about the dichotomy between paid advertising and organic traffic.
Thank you for your comments Marc.
I ignore politics and religion on social media. If a person follows me with highly political, religious or bad language in their timeline I do not follow back.
If followers of mine share such things so they appear in my timeline they are unfollowed, likewise unsavoury pictures etc.
If people don't want to use it for particular reasons that is understandable and their right.
I am talking about those who dismiss it out of hand because they don't use it.
Yes it is David.
I do like a good discussion and like to hear others views.
If we stay open minded then opposing views give food for thought and can change our own views a little.
Thanks, I wish it was more useful though! There aren't a lot of alternatives to social media for success in affiliate marketing, so by choosing not to use the ones not like, someone is making a choice to limit their growth -- out of principals.
I don't have any good alternative choices at the moment, but I suspect there will be a backlash of competitive pressures eventually. There always is.
Thanks Linda, it's good to know it's possible to navigate through the land mine. What I don't know if it is possible to do, is avoid, for example, Facebook making money off of my presence in some way even so!
Just make sure you tie up your settings as tight as possible. I don't allow location from FB or Google. No address, no phone number. No family or any posts through my timeline unless I allow it. I have to physically click to allow it.
My personal page is very boring and I like to keep it that way.
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If used correctly, social media can make a big difference. But it takes time. We have to focus on creating quality content and then the rest.
I'm currently using Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and Instagram. I've been thinking of trying Facebook paid ads, but I'm not sure yet.
Thanks for bringing this up.
Thank you Enrique, I agree.