CHAPTER 6
The Social Media Hype
Social media has been entirely overhyped in recent years. If you listen to many of the talking heads, they’ll tell you to have your Facebook fan page updated, while tweeting and YouTubeing, all while providing a +1 and “Like” to everything you do. Social marketers are beating down your door, enticing you with Likes galore and more friends and fans than you could possibly know what to do with. It can get to be really old, really fast if you listen to all those talking heads. Don’t get me wrong; I think that social media is changing the world in more ways than we can imagine, but the magic is not as euphoric as some will lead you to believe. Businesses big and small are having salespeople from marketing firms or places like Groupon, Facebook, LinkedIn, Foursquare, and many others promising monumental returns based on ads. Marketing agencies are proposing online gimmicks that will make your message spread across the web like wildfire. It will be the next viral hit! I am sure some of it is not doing any harm, but the question remains, “Is it worth the cost?”
You will have to answer this for yourself. If you are on Facebook, what are your interactions with brands like? If you tweet, how often do you have conversations with brands? I am in the business, and I will tell you that I do not have them very often. I personally prefer to use the spaces to interact with people. Human connections are the most important to me. Through those human connections, I ...
