Why you NEED to be on Snapchat (and other ABSURD lies)

Hey gang,

So I was planning to write an email about how much I hate most corporate social media accounts. But the more I thought about it, the more I felt like there was something the needed to be addressed first.

Right now, there are a lot of good marketers out there making really bad decisions when it comes to social media marketing.

People are creating massive amounts of FOMO in themselves and being dumb about where they’re investing their time, money and energy. 

The recipe for disaster goes something like this:

1. A new social media network appears
2. Hundreds, then thousands, then millions of new users sign up
3. Every tech / marketing site starts writing about it
4. The “5 reasons your company needs to be on X” blog posts start rolling in
5. A few large companies start creating accounts
6. You get scared of missing a huge opportunity, create an account, and it does nothing for your business

I’m not describing this process like I’m some “way-too-smart-to-fall-for-it” kind of guy. This is exactly the mistake I’ve made multiple times. There’s no shame in falling for it either—it’s so easy these days to get side-tracked by the noise, and it’s difficult to guess what’s going to be the next hot new thang.

Look, I just googled “should I be on pinterest”:

​There are approximately 17 million pages on Google with an opinion on why you’re missing out if you’re not on Pinterest (a channel that didn’t exist before 2010).

Think about this. I mean really, think about this.

The writers of these articles don’t have bad intentions. But their metric when writing these articles isn’t “how many businesses I can help grow?”. Their metric when writing these articles is “how many people are paying attention to what I’m saying?”.

That’s a very important distinction.

Most of the information you find on the web is meant to make you feel that everything is important, due yesterday, and that you’re missing out.

This has led many marketers to try new social channels without a clear strategy, fail because they don’t know what they’re doing, and then lose faith in social media as an effective business tool.

​Again, I’m super guilty of this myself.

The truth is that social media can be very powerful—if you know what you’re doing.

Here are some answers to common questions about social media:

1. Should you participate in every social media channel? No.
2. Should every company have a social media strategy? Probably.
3. How do you know if you should participate in a social media channel? Only if it helps you meet business goals, you can measure the impact, and you won’t suck at it. 

Keep an eye on my next email. I’m going to show you how to thoughtfully choose which social channels to participate in, what to use each social channel for, how to use social to impact your bottom line, and how to not suck at it.