Social media has changed a lot of things in the last few years. It’s changed the way companies have to publicly respond to customer complaints, its increased the spread and speed of information, it helps people stay in touch, its given us a closer inside look into many celebrities lives, and its become a standard way companies, people, and blogs promote themselves.
A lot of people love social media so much they’re addicted to it, perhaps including you. But not so much for me. I feel a bit like the odd ball in the room because I find social media painful and rather a waste of my time. When you have the 20th picture of a friend posting a selfie or a fabulous vacation picture, it gets kind of old don’t you think?
Too Many Platforms, Too Little Time
My biggest pain with social media is time. I have a hard enough time as it is juggling all my work hours, family issues, personal time, to-dos, and blogging. Social media is one of the first things that drops off my priority list. Exercise is second, but I’m doing a little bit better about that this year.
Minutes can rack up so quickly on Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc. if you’re not careful. When I first started using Facebook, I lost hours of my day just clicking around reading people’s walls and looking at pictures. It was fun in the beginning, but then I just got so frustrated that my time was getting eaten up doing something so unproductive.
And as for platforms, I can’t even count all the social media platforms on both hands. There’s too many to keep track of. I gave up on that a while ago. I don’t even have a Google+ account for myself or a page for my blog. I’ve had that on my to do list for over two years now lol, but I still haven’t taken the time to set one up. I just can’t be bothered! Maybe I’m missing out, but does anyone really use Google+ these days?
Some of my non blogging friends use it to post pictures, but that’s the most exposure I’ve had with it. I have Google+ buttons on my site that someone installed for me ages ago, but I really should figure out how to remove them since I never ended up creating my own account! I suppose Google+ may help with SEO (?), I’ve heard decent things about the authorship feature, but I just can’t get the motivation or any sense of urgency to sign up.
Social Fads Fade
Part of the other reason why I stopped signing up for social media platforms is I got tired of trying to keep track with all of them. I mean how many platforms do we really need? I can barely keep up with one. I have no idea how some people manage more than 2 on their own.
I was also one of the very last people amongst my friends to join Friendster and MySpace several years ago and that was a bust. By the time I signed up, the platforms had dried up and my friends had moved onto Facebook. I didn’t get anything out of them after I finally took the time to create my accounts, so I felt annoyed about that and delayed signing up for FB for more than a year after that too.
Am I The Only One Who Is Paranoid?
Another reason why I don’t like social media in general is because I’m paranoid. I just don’t feel comfortable publishing pictures of myself and essentially diary entries that strangers could get access to. Sure there are security settings in these apps, but what really is secure online these days?
Just look at what came out recently about Snapchat. The company misled its users to believe that all of their texts, videos, and pictures were being auto deleted, when data was actually being stored. The whole concept of Snapchat is shady imo, and I’ve never had an account with them before, but it just goes to show you never really know how safe your electronic information is.
Even a social media giant like Facebook has had instances where private messages and wall postings have become public by accident due to bugs or hacks, and people have had their identities stolen, or been fired from their jobs for saying something stupid. I decided a while ago to boycott installing the FB app on my phone after I found out they accessed phone contacts and other files without the users’ permission. I’m sure things are a lot more secure now, but I just don’t want to be bothered with the hassle of the next bug, bad upgrade, or data breach.
I’m fine publishing some personal stuff publicly on my blog however because I have a heck of a lot more control with that. I only upload what I’m comfortable with, and I know that whatever I publish is 100% public. Simple as that.
The Overbearing Oversharing Syndrome
Another reason I am just not into social media is because of the overwhelming amount of over-sharing that goes on. Some people retweet the same blog post 10, 20 times, are constantly self promoting, post about every single thing they’re doing, or are uploading selfies all the time. Some of that could be automated (ex. retweeting), and I’m sure sharing their day to day events are fun for them, but I’m just not into that. It feels like a chore to post stuff to social media to me. I guess that’s why some people choose to outsource their social media to freelancers, but I can’t justify spending money on that. Maybe it’s because of my introverted personality.
Social media is a way to share our own voice and I just think it’s weird to constantly be self promoting because I don’t even do that with my closest friends. But I suppose if I look at my blog as a business, it’s a lot less weird. Because businesses have to build their brands and market themselves to grow and get in front of customers/readers, social media can help a lot in that regard.
But I’ve also seen one too many cases of a blogger or public figure post things on Titter or FB that really damaged their image. People can say the dumbest things that can ruin their reputation and make them appear so unprofessional. I’m continually shocked with the number of people who publicly bash their own clients, colleagues, and even families over social media and complain about things that should stay behind closed doors.
Does Social Media Really Help That Much With Traffic?
Social media doesn’t strike me as a great way to bring traffic compared to writing high quality, consistent content. But since I’ve never been very active with social media, what do I know?! I’ve never given it much of a chance, so I could be missing out.
But most bloggers I’ve conversed with in the forums seem to stick to 2-3 social media platforms max to concentrate their efforts and get the most out of their time. When I do get around to sharing, I only do it on Twitter and Facebook. I try to do it simultaneously via Buffer or Hootsuite to be more efficient, but my Buffer app has been really buggy lately and I haven’t taken the time to reinstall it.
Overall, my progress with social media has been really pathetic over the last 3+ years, but the good news is my blog is doing just fine. I don’t have an impressive number of likes, followers, or tweets, but I also haven’t ever shared something I came to regret. So I feel good about that.
STARTING A MONEY MAKING BLOG
It’s been over six years since I started Financial Samurai and I’m actually earning a good passive and active income stream online now. My online presence has allowed me to pursue other things, such as consulting for various financial tech startups as well.
I never thought I’d be able to quit my job in 2012 just three years after starting Financial Samurai. But by starting one financial crisis day in 2009, Financial Samurai actually makes more than my entire passive income total that took 15 years to build. If you enjoy writing, creating, connecting with people online, and enjoying more freedom, learn how you can set up a WordPress blog in 15 minutes like this one.
Leverage the 3+ billion internet users and build your brand online. You never know where the journey will take you! There are professional bloggers now who make way more than bankers, doctors, lawyers, and entrepreneurs while having much more fun, much more freedom, and doing less work.
Updated for 2017 and beyond.
Just yesterday a blogger friend of mine, who has over 70,000 FB likes announced she was saying goodbye to Facebook. I agree, business people are finding social media to be low on ROI in terms of time. I do, however get good traffic from Pinterest so I’ll continue to put efforts there.
Holy smokes, 70k likes? I have to wonder how many of those are real. That’s a big number. I think it’s shady that so many people on sites like Fiver sell FB likes and Twitter followers and such. Anyone who can get 70k without any shadiness is doing well. But obviously they didn’t get much out of FB to be throwing in the towel.
The other thing that drives me crazy are how so many business sites try to get people to login to their separate websites using a FB login. There’s no way I’m ever doing that!
That’s aggressive!
Id for sure keep my FB account and just reduce the number of postings. No need to go to extremes!
Funniest thing is when people tweet and post updates while at work. What a productivity killer. SM is another way for workers to slack off during the week.
A lot of companies block social media sites from their servers but that sure doesn’t stop the true addicts from posting from their smart phones! I see that a lot, that and texting.
On a personal level I really wrestle with whether to delete my FB account or not. I have the same concerns and paranoia as you, but with so many friends and family that I only stay in touch with through social media it seems very selfish to cut it off. I’ve scaled back to only checking it around 3 times per week, which is helpful.
Yeah that’s a tough one. It does make it easier to keep in touch with family and friends who you don’t get to see in person very much. If you keep your account you could shrink your FB friends list way down.
Checking 3 times a week sounds like such a lot to me bc I can’t even remember the last time I logged on lol. :)
Thank God someone else finally spoke up about this! I also find most social media to be useless as well. And I can totally agree with you for the reasons you stated here.
In terms of blogging, my worst traffic (lowest time per page) comes from social media. I’m sure some big bloggers do well with Facebook or Twitter, but i cant seem to recreate that kind of success.
The only real SEO benefit is helping to get your pages indexed and creating some low level base nofollow links.
Haha glad to hear I’m not the only one who feels this way! I used to feel guilty about not spending time on social media, but not anymore.
I agree with your thoughts Peter, other than:
“Social media doesn’t strike me as a great way to bring traffic compared to writing high quality, consistent content.”
If people are finding their content more and more through social media channels, then if I write awesome quality content and no-one sees it other than other personal finance bloggers, its not going to help me grow my site very quickly!
At the moment, my greatest source of traffic is from social media. Is anyone else in the same boat?
That’s cool that it brings you a lot of traffic. If it’s working for you then keep it up. For me it hasn’t been worth the time I put into it so I stopped.
Based on my Google Analytics data, social media traffic is a tiny portion of my traffic. I just use SM to connect with folks gradually over time, share new stuff, and have fun.
SM is a productivity killer for corporations, unless you are the SM head or an SM agency!
You seem really good at Twitter because you use your phone a lot to check and have conversations with people. Even though I have apps on my phone I don’t actually launch the apps to see what other people are posting. The few times I’ve had short conversations with other bloggers it has been fun.
For most food blogs, Pinterest is the number one source of traffic. And Google has freely admitted that authorship, which is gained through a G+ page, affects ranking.
At the end of the day, though, I’d say that if you find the conversations on social media pointless, you are probably following the wrong people. Today, I participated in two different conversations on the topic of gender and stereotypes.
I can totally get how Pinterest is a great platform for food blogs. I used Pinterest once to find Christmas presents and it is pretty fun to see so many different types of pics to get ideas and find new sites.
Sydney, Timely post. Here’s my take. I use social media exclusively for my business. (hardly anything personal goes online). I focus on twitter, linkedin, google+and facebook. It drives some traffic to my website and gives me a chance to share and support others in my network. I think it helps, but as with most options, needs to be used with discretion.
Yeah it can be helpful for business and networking. I didn’t think LinkedIn would get as large as it has.
I’m also a social media odd ball. Sure, I use Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest to promote my blogs and others that I read, but I spend a fraction of the time on social media in general. I can occasionally get sucked into Pinterest, those visuals hook me every time, but the other two I’m rarely on. I also think that social media platforms are definitely venues for over sharing and gleaning too much information – I really wish facebook would stop asking me where I went to school, where I live, etc.! I’m not telling them! Because you never know what they’ll use that information for. Maybe I’m just paranoid. ;)
That drives me crazy about FB too!!! I agree that of the different ones, Pinterest would probably be the one I could get hooked on the most. That said I downloaded the app about 7 months ago and only used it once. :)
I use social media as a form of marketing for my blog. I think we are in the earliest stage of social media and eventually only the strong ones will survive. I am careful too as to how much information I am willing to publish.
Yeah I do wonder which ones will still be around in the next few years. I read an article a few months ago that FB is loosing it’s popularity amongst the younger users, but it still seems to be a widely used platform that isn’t just going to disappear overnight.
I think the use of Social Media is overrated. Unless you are already a famous personality, SM is just noise.
Good to get news, but that’s it.
I actually don’t trust SM as a platform to get news. There are too many spoofs. But it does help word travel very quickly when stories break.
I don’t see the need to go beyond the Big 4 (G+, Pin, FB, & TW) in terms of using social media. I’m still learning how to use those effectively and mostly only use them to promote my blog.
The two issues I see with SM are how it zaps our time from engaging in other meaningful activities and the false sense of relationship it builds, especially with young people. Kids would rather communicate through these channels than have meaningful relationships in the real world. I don’t think we’ve realized the full impact that is having yet.
Yes it is pretty scary how it’s affecting kids and what they think is “normal” communication. It’s definitely impacting soft skills for young people entering the workforce.
I actually like social media. Well as far as blogging is concerned. Gives you a ton of ways to get more visitors and build your audience. With that being said I will say basically like you are you do not want to get overwhelmed and overkill it. I mainly focus on Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. I see some who try for every social media site under the sun. Then they get overwhelmed and focus too much on them. Instead of focusing on their content and being productive.
That’s nice you enjoy it and are able to find more visitors. I still find it a bit of a chore and prefer to focus on my content and staying on a regular posting schedule.
I also into social media for marketing purposes, it is a great platform to reach a wide group of audience especially for my blog. It does contribute to bringing traffic to my site, but not that much.
So far, social media has been useful to me and I will continue using it. It really consumed someone’s time a lot, but if that bothers you. Hiring a VA 2-3 hours per week to manage your social media accounts is good enough.
Having a VA help out is good if you trust them to represent your voice. To me I just can’t stomach paying someone to manage SM that doesn’t bring much traffic to my site. If my traffic doubled or tripled then I’d probably feel better about paying someone to help out if I really trusted them.
You’re totally right! I have a love/hate relationship with social media. Pinterest drives 40% of my traffic, so I spend time there, but other platforms I’ve been outsourcing to my husband. There just aren’t enough hours in a day to took up with all of it, and even if there were, it probably wouldn’t be healthy!