Social Media Destroys Entrepreneurs. Grow Your Business Without It.

[MTF]

For most entrepreneurs few things are worse than social media. You think it’s helpful while it’s a parasite that slowly kills you and your business.

Social media platforms have spent millions and millions to persuade us that they’re indispensable for business.

If you don’t exist on social media, you don’t exist at all.

What a joke.

We all know that social media can be bad for individuals. But it's poisonous for business, too, and you may be better off as an entrepreneur without it.

Not everyone will agree with this post and that’s okay. This thread is about showing a perspective counter to mainstream advice. It’s not the ultimate truth, though. I’m not saying EVERYONE has to avoid social media in business at all costs.

Note: by social media I refer to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. I don’t consider YouTube social media (because it’s more of a search engine) or Reddit (because it’s just a giant forum with various subforums, similar to the Fastlane forum).

Warning: I swear in this post and I share my opinion in a blunt way. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.

Here are ten reasons why social media destroys entrepreneurs and their businesses:

1. You’re Putting More Effort Building Somebody Else’s Business Than Yours

Post ten times a day on Facebook (don’t forget about Facebook stories). Twenty times a day on Instagram (but thirty stories and forty reels). Upload ten videos on TikTok and don’t forget to tweet thirty times a day (and retweet another twenty tweets). It almost seems as if marketing today equals social media marketing.

Do it all AGAIN over and over again because the next day nobody sees your posts from the day before anyway. And if you ever figure out a way to crack the algorithm, it will soon change and you’ll be left behind again.

When you add it all up, you spend more time donating your time to social media platforms than spending it on your business. How ridiculous is that?

Few entrepreneurs ever calculate how much time, money, and effort they invest on social media. They don’t even know if they get a positive return from their investment.

That’s insanity. Not only you’re dedicating most of your business life to tasks that may not even be worth it. You’re also putting more effort building other people’s companies rather than yours.

Let me reiterate it because I find it F*cking incredible: did you start your OWN business to spend more time building somebody else’s?

How much do you enjoy being an unpaid Meta, TikTok or Twitter employee?

Is this what entrepreneurship comes down to these days? Filling the pockets of big, censor-happy corporations who don’t give two shits about you just so you can brag about your follower count?

2. You’re Only Getting Scraps

Even if you do everything right, at most maybe a few percent of your followers will see your posts. Out of them, only a few percent will take any action. Out of them, a few percent will do what you want them to do—buy your stuff.

In other words, you’re only getting scraps thrown at you by the social media platforms. And the more the platform grows, the less you get. It’s a natural growth cycle of every social media company. You can always count on the fact that they will grow at your expense.

You’re like that poor dog begging for food underneath the table. Only as time goes by, there are even more hungry dogs and less food on the table. Most goes into the mouths of the obese owners.

Moreover, social media platforms have a short lifespan so all your efforts are eventually for nothing. Ask anyone who has built a big following on Facebook how useful it is today. Meanwhile, a high-quality article on your own site can provide value for years.

3. You’re on a Never-Ending Content Treadmill

Social media gurus get on my nerves because their solution to any marketing problem is to post more. More, more, more, until you can’t do it anymore but you can’t stop because you’re afraid that if you stop, your business will end.

You become trapped on a content treadmill, posting endless amounts of content, begging to get some attention like an old wrinkly prostitute in flashy clothes.

The more you post, the faster the treadmill is. Since you can’t stop, you never have time and energy to reconsider what you’re doing and whether it’s the best strategy for your business.

Strategic thinking drowns in the sea of content you’re forced to produce every day just to stay afloat. And the worst thing is that whatever you produce, it’s often unsearchable and irrelevant the next day.

4. You Fail to Build What’s Most Important

The ONLY valuable asset in every business is a customer list. Yet, if you focus on social media, you fool yourself that your follower count is what defines your business.

You either spend time building your own platform or you build time spending other people’s platforms.

This forum is a great example of a platform standing on its own. I didn’t join it because I saw MJ on social media. I joined it because I read MJ’s book. I stayed because it’s an independent platform owned by a person who cares. For all I care, MJ may never post anything on social media. I want to read his content HERE, on his OWN platform.

Would your clients say the same about your business? Would they still work with you if you had no presence on social media?

Would you rather have 100,000 followers on social media or 1,000 loyal customers? (If you chose the former, sorry but there’s no hope for you LOL.)

5. You Judge the Value of the Business by the Number of Followers

My girlfriend has a podcast. She had a call with a potential guest today. The woman told her that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be featured in my girlfriend’s podcast because “nothing happens on her Instagram profile.”

My girlfriend only posts images with new episodes on her Instagram profile. But if you checked the podcast’s archives, you’d see over 75 episodes posted religiously every week, featuring dozens of recognized in her niche guests.

That poor guest is so brainwashed. She thinks that an Instagram profile counts more than your real-world track record. To make matters worse, she was SHOCKED how my girlfriend got podcast listeners through something else than Instagram.

My girlfriend is not an Instagrammer. She owns a podcast. That’s her business, not posting daily vlogs or other bullshit from her everyday life. She doesn’t even want Instagram followers who spend a tenth of a second liking her random images. She wants real listeners who invest hours listening to her episodes.

There are so many businesses that have few, if any, social media followers, yet kill it WAY, WAY more than brands that obsess about social media.

Do you help people through selling your products or do you chase status through posting meaningless social media posts?

6. You Waste Time and Mental Energy on Drama and Addiction

Social media thrives because it appeals to our most basic instincts.

Everything is designed in such a way to get you hooked and keep you there for as long as possible. Notifications, real-time updates, live stories. Then there’s inevitable drama and bullshit politics that’s impossible to opt out of.

Instagram will always pester you with profiles of plastic surgery enhanced half naked models of both genders.

Twitter will always pester you with annoying politics no matter who you follow.

Both Facebook and TikTok will always steal your attention through idiotic short clips designed to captivate your brain whether you want it or not.

Even if you’re strong-willed, there’s NO WAY you won’t waste your life each time you visit any of the social media platforms for “business” purposes.

Is this how you want to spend your valuable time?

7. You’re Contributing to Producing Mountains of Garbage

Most content on social media is F*cking garbage. I need to swear here because there’s no other way to describe it.

Twitter relies on bullshit, supposedly clever, one-liners that say nothing. Yet, our brains like these empty platitudes. So, like idiots, we retweet them. Long form, well though-out content is rare these days because it’s too hard for most people to read something longer than 280 characters.

Instagram relies on even more bullshit soft porn pictures or other depictions of a “perfect” life along with even more idiotic empty quotes. Yet, we fall for this, too. It’s in our genes. There’s no way a healthy male is able to look away from a perfect pair of photoshopped boobs.

TikTok relies on cringeworthy, self-absorbed, completely retarded videos of teenagers thinking they do something meaningful. Yet, in their stupidity, they’re so captivating you find yourself watching one video after another. Later, you feel disgusted with yourself only to do it again the next time you “work” on TikTok.

Can you find valuable content on social media? Yes, you can. Not everything is garbage.

It doesn’t change the fact that most of social media content is utter junk. These platforms don’t reward in-depth content. They reward simplistic, controversial or straight up idiotic posts and videos.

Since people are so addicted to social media today, their attention spans are so short you have to transmit your message in a few seconds. What valuable things can you say in a few seconds? By default, you’re forced to contribute to this mountain of garbage every single day.

8. You’re Building an Unsellable Asset

It’s rare for most small businesses to succeed on social media. So, instead, most founders post under their own names. Their business becomes them. Yes, a personal brand may be valuable but a personal brand, as the name implies, is unsellable.

If this doesn’t bother you, then this point doesn’t apply to you. Yet, I’d urge every entrepreneur to think about a potential exit strategy. If you’re building your business through promoting yourself, then most likely you won’t be able to sell it in the future.

9. You Fail to See Other Opportunities

People new to business, particularly those who don’t remember the world before social media, assume that EVERY business needs to be on social media. They focus only on those business ideas that have a social media presence, ignoring the wealth of other possible opportunities.

Boring, but essential B2B businesses? Nah, where will I get my followers?

Offline businesses without an online presence other than a simple website? No way, how will I brag about my biz?

Low-key business models that rely on joint ventures and deal-making rather than social media content? No thanks, I’m too busy building my “credibility” on social media.

10. You Do What Everyone Else Is Doing

Being an entrepreneur means full responsibility for your decisions but also complete freedom over how you want to run your business.

Unfortunately, most people let the prevailing narrative dictate how they’ll approach their ventures.

If the “only” way to succeed is through fifty social media posts a day, let’s do it.

If the “only” way to succeed is through showing your boobs to horny teenagers (who will not buy your products anyway), let’s do it.

If the “only” way to succeed is through being a complete idiot dancing like a drunk moose, let’s do it.

Don’t be a sheep. Use your brain. Create YOUR business on YOUR OWN terms rather than letting social media corporations bully you into using their toxic platforms.

There, I said it.

Thoughts, love, hate—all welcome.

 

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[Mathuin]

Excellent post @MTF , I had been thinking a lot about this recently.

I joined it because I read MJ’s book. I stayed because it’s an independent platform owned by a person who cares. For all I care, MJ may never post anything on social media. I want to read his content HERE, on his OWN platform.

I'll admit i did join from watching MJ on social media/ podcasts, buying his books and then joining the forum.

Even if you do everything right, at most maybe a few percent of your followers will see your posts. Out of them, only a few percent will take any action. Out of them, a few percent will do what you want them to do—buy your stuff.

Reminds me of when MJ said he spent years building 150k fans on Facebook and Zuckerfuck shows his content to like 300 people.

I have been using social media as described in Unscripted to find needs, but as I'm looking at B2B, I'm finding a much better ROI on my time through reading Trustpilot Reviews, Articles and speaking with business owners.

I think they key is to just be very intentional when using social media. Also, still obvs great for paid traffic.

Mainstream social media summed up:

 

[MJ DeMarco]

I've always viewed social media as a necessary evil, however I would not go to the extreme and say that it destroys entrepreneurs and it should be avoided. It's very much like the "do I go to college?" question... the answer depends on a wide variety of variables.

That said, I know my reluctance to embrace social media has cost me sales and personal brand elevation. I've always viewed it as a dance with the devil ... limiting belief? Perhaps.

 

[Andy Black]

My thoughts on social media are similar, and different.

Off the top of my head:


1) "Don't tell the same people lots of things. Tell lots of people the same things."

I'm not getting on the content marketing treadmill and posting different things daily to the same people. I did it for a bit on Twitter and it got old quick. I did it a bit on a podcast for about 15 episodes always wondering why we "needed" to publish every week. Surely we'd be better to create a few exceedingly good pieces of evergreen content and publish when they're done rather than keep to a particular schedule?

My takeaway is that I'd rather develop a bit of content that works and then put ad spend behind it so it reaches more people every day.

Saying that, there are people who can post organically in such a way their message spreads to many new people. I suspect they have to post regularly though.


2) I develop those bits of content that work by repeatedly helping people.

• I often help people on 1-2-1 calls, and in communities such as forums, Facebook groups, etc.
• I'd rather not have to build my own platform, community, or audience just so I can help people.
• I find it helpful that others have done that and I can join in, contribute, and be a part of the community they've pulled together.
• On those platforms I can help people with XYZ and can get known as "The XYZ Guy".

3) Building a personal brand.

Sure, I've got one in the forum. Not so much outside the forum. I think I'd prefer to build non-personal brands at the mo.
However, we all have a personal brand, whether we intentionally build it or not.

We can't sell our personal brand, but we can leverage it to start and grow other businesses. We have our personal brand for life and as @Kak stated... it's also not taxable. It's a hell of an asset if we look at it that way.


4) For some, having an engaged audience on a platform allows them to do things they otherwise couldn't do.


5) I personally like being a consumer on each social media platoform for a while so I at least understand if from a consumer's viewpoint. That's because I have marketing clients and I don't want to just know about Google Ads. I tire of the platforms pretty quick though, and naturally drop out. If you're not wired to naturally get bored of them then yeah, be careful - the platforms are designed to get you addicted to the little dopamine hits.


6) Business for me is about making friends, building relationships, and creating win-wins. I don't mind meeting people on social media platforms. I don't feel I have to own the coffee shop to meet someone for a coffee and create a relationship. The platforms don't own that relationship.


7) I don't believe we *need* to build an audience to build a business. It can be a great way, but it's not the only way.

• [Article Discussion] - The "Audience First" Strategy
• Do You Start a Business With an Audience, Product, or Problem?

 

[Black_Dragon43]

5. You Judge the Value of the Business by the Number of Followers

I’m a bit autistic I guess, so the quotes are all over the place heh. I agree with a lot of your points but also disagree…

Having followers is valuable in its own right. If I have 1M followers on Facebook, I can transition them to any other platform, and build a cross-platform following. Then wherever I go there my fans are going to be.

Having followers, ie eyeballs, is, maybe, in this day and age, MORE valueable than making sales, because it makes making sales MUCH MUCH easier.

1. You’re Putting More Effort Building Somebody Else’s Business Than Yours

You go where your customers already are… you’re not building anyone’s platform, you’re just following the money. I’m not on Facebook to bring customers to Facebook, I’m on there to interact with the people who are already on there. Sure, that’s going to get them to stick on FB longer, maybe, but that’s about it.

7. You’re Contributing to Producing Mountains of Garbage

I agree. But whose fault is that? People are retarded. I honestly believe that. So should I try to make them read long content because it will do them good even though they spit on it, or should I rather accept the fact that they are retarded and can’t concentrate for more than 2 seconds on things and deliver things that they enjoy consuming, the way they enjoy it? You can fight the world, or move along with it. I think it’s smarter to move along with it, since you can’t defeat the world. Even if you disagree with them, it’s better to diplomatically be on their side. Look at Socrates - got suicided as they say nowadays, because he thought he could change the world…

 

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[Xeon]

Good post in theory but I respectfully disagree. What about all those folks who got traction for their business on social media?

The world has changed. Social media are now the touchpoints / entry points of the Internet.
You get the traction and amass an audience there, then funnel them to your own site / email list whatever.

That said, social media is not suitable for all businesses.

 

[doster.zach]

Note: by social media I refer to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. I don’t consider YouTube social media (because it’s more of a search engine) or Reddit (because it’s just a giant forum with various subforums, similar to the Fastlane forum).

Great post!

I agree, with these distinctions too. Only nit I think is that Reddit is both. The large subreddits are just as bad as other platforms in regard to meaningful content. If you niche down into smaller subreddits there is a massive distinction.

But yeah a year ago deleted all the social media off my phone and haven't missed it a bit.

 

[Kak]

After considering this more, and seeing @Andy Black s post…

I just think people need to be careful not to conflate a disdain for social medias, the distractions they carry, and the companies behind them, with a disdain for building and managing your own influence… Which is extremely valuable.

They are NOT one in the same.

Social media is just one, annoying, tool for managing this influence. I tend to like legitimate contacts in my phone and occasional text messages.

I also totally forgot about the podcast itself being a method of influence management. Authorship is another. Things YOU OWN!

@MTF s post reads into the hands of the introverted. Which is why I was immediately attracted to social media bashing, and generally still am.

 

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[Mathuin]

Good quote in re to social media sites from one of my new favourite mindset books, Bold and Determined Vol 1 (thanks @Johnny boy and @Angler for putting me on to this)

---

Leave the social networking sites for the lonely people, for the lost people. It’s for the narcissists. It’s for the people who have nothing else. They can have it. Unless you can earn from it you don’t need it.

The old friends worth connecting with aren’t playing around on social networking sites all day. The ones who actively use social networking use it for whining, complaining, cry- baby’ing, and ego boosting. They live online, but online living is no living at all.

Internet stars actively promote social networking for one very important reason – they earn from it. It gives them tangible results. It’s a cash cow because of all the people spending every day and night obsessed with their fantasy world. What the average Joe doesn’t know is that social networking is a big, big money-maker for the internet entrepreneurs. “But it’s a great way to connect with friends and family!” No it isn’t. People connected with friends and family for a really long time before the internet. Social networking is a great way for smart people to make a whole lot of money. That’s what it’s for and that’s how a smart person should use it.

There are three kinds of users of all social networking sites:
A) Earners: Big dogs who make big money from the social networking sites and who have the most followers.
B) Learners: Small dogs who are actively trying to become big dogs, they’re learning from the big dogs how to do it.
C) Cash Cows: People handing out money without even knowing it, the smart people capitalize on the cash cows.

E-mail is a perfectly efficient way to say “hi” to friends and family and leaves plenty of free time to learn and earn. The internet can be a tool of freedom or a vicious slave-master. Choice is ours. We know how the smart people use it.
You could be the man behind the screen making the money or you can be the man in front of the screen handing out your money without even knowing it. There’s a$$ to kick on the internet – if you aren’t the kicker then you’re the one getting kicked. Leave the positive and cut out the baloney. If you can’t learn or earn from it, baby, it’s time to burn it.

 

[MattR82]

Depends on the biz. But even then, I agree with you about how much it can be a time suck.

Post once every week or two but get really good at using influencer collabs. Let them do it for you.

 

[Andy Black]

Would you rather meet new people because a high-value friend of yours told their friend about you or because someone saw you have 100,000 followers on social media and through this silly metric decided you're worthy of their interest?

The former for me. That’s actually how my business has grown over the years. Clients spending $X on ads know other people spending $X on ads.

I picked up a client this week who wants to increase spend (profitably of course) to $30k/day. That’s via a referral. No way that person would have been browsing Facebook or TikTok and stumbled across me giving advice.

I have social media channels but I don’t post regularly to them. They’re for helping me “close” people who get into conversation with me. Like the guy above… I could link to a video on my YouTube channel and he could see I know my stuff and have enough followers that it doesn’t raise a red flag.

If you’re B2B especially then consider focusing on building relationships rather than posting content regularly to social media.

If you’re B2C then social media could be amazing for you.

Miss Excel does 6 figure months and had a 6 figure day selling her courses. Her goal is to hit 7 figure months. And “all” she seems to do is post videos to TikTok and Instagram.

Early when she was doing those videos someone from a company saw her and gave her a contract to produce educational videos for their company. So even B2B can work, because folks in business are also consumers.

Like for example?

Someone with a large engaged following can reach out to someone and be more likely get into a conversation with them. It can open doors because there is that social proof or the other party takes them more seriously (maybe because they want to access that audience).

What if a platform disappears? What if they ban you for some arbitrary reason?

We’re business owners. We should be prepared for that. If we’re running ads on a platform then make sure we get people onto our own list, and expand to other platforms when one is dialled in.

Someone signed up to my Google Ads membership because they detest Facebook. She’s running ads that genuinely help people and Facebook keeps disapproving them. She wants another channel that works, and she wants to give the two fingers to Facebook.

What’s smart is that she gets people from the ads to a page where they can buy a $10 eBook. So she’s building a list of interested buyers. So far she’s sold over 10,000 on Facebook, and excited to have sold 4 on Google. Once they’re in her world she emails them regularly, and presumably has an autoresponder series.

 

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[MTF]

Someone asked me in a PM about the best marketing strategy alternatives to social media. Here are some of my thoughts (I'm NOT a marketing expert and this is just me brainstorming):

• Influencer marketing. This probably sounds a bit counterintuitive but hear me out... Instead of investing your own time and effort into creating social media content (and most likely getting little in return because you're an entrepreneur, not a social media celebrity), what if you delegated this job and hired some influencers in your niche? This way, they do what they do best and you do what you do best. Influencer marketing is like borrowing trust and reputation so it can quickly help you position as a serious player in your industry. There are at least a few successful businesses I've learned about through YouTubers promoting or endorsing them, for example CuriosityStream, Nebula, and StoryBlocks.
• SEO. I wouldn't rely on SEO alone as Google is as unpredictable as social media platforms. Still, for many businesses it's one of the main sources of traffic and may provide excellent results for years, without any extra work once your articles rank well.
• Paid advertising on big platforms like Google, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, Bing, Twitter, LinkedIn, Pinterest, etc. You can spend time creating free content for these platforms or spend money to advertise on them and use your time for something that produces better returns. It can be very scalable (but also risky if the platform bans you for violating some obscure guidelines).
• Marketing on non-social-media content platforms: newsletters, podcasts, blogs. Many of them offer sponsorships as well as custom deals where they can, for example, become your brand's ambassadors. Since you'll be usually talking directly with the person behind them, it's also a great way to build relationships (which is impossible when using paid advertising on big platforms).
• Sharing your expertise. Find relevant podcasts where you can be a guest. Write guest posts for popular blogs. Do AMAs. Answer questions on Quora. Find journalists who write articles about your niche and connect with them (Help A Reporter might be good for that).
• Community marketing. Find relevant communities (forums, chat groups, subreddits). Participate in them. Provide value and build your reputation. Reach out directly to people who are interested in learning more about what you do.
• Cold outreach marketing. Cold calls and emails can still work. Don't just send spammy emails, though. Personalize each email and put more effort into reaching out to potential prospects.
• Conference/event marketing. If you're selling something a bit more expensive, you can sell it as you're attending conferences/events with people who are your target audience. I believe one of the key reasons why Tim Ferriss' 4HWW book took off so much was because he kept asking top players at conferences to read and review his book.
• Word of mouth/referral marketing. These won't start right away but once you have enough clients, it's possible you won't have to do much other than focus on encouraging them to spread the word about your business. This also includes rewards for referring new clients.
• JVs (joint ventures) and affiliate marketing. Jay Abraham has some excellent resources on how to structure JVs and access other people's assets to grow your business. Affiliate marketing can also work as long as you convince successful marketers to promote your products.
• Marketplaces/existing platforms marketing. I built my self-publishing business exclusively through leveraging Amazon's platform and organic reach. Other examples include developing Shopify plugins or themes for specific platforms, for example WordPress or Ghost. The idea is to sell your product where people are actively searching for it.
• Acquisition marketing. Find an existing platform (blog, newsletter, podcast, community, website) that has already attracted your target audience. Buy it and use it to promote your business (but do it smartly, without killing the website). Rinse and repeat.
• Discount/deal websites marketing. This includes participating in time-limited big bundles or getting your product listed on a platform like AppSumo.
• Branded product marketing. If you have a cool product, brand it in such a way that the friends of your customer will instantly know where to get one for themselves. This also includes stuff like "powered by" for online tools (for example, email marketing or landing page providers). In other words, make each customer a walking free advertisement.
• Marketing through advocacy. Start a foundation or an association that advocates a cause relevant to the people who are in your target audience. For example, if you're selling barefoot running sandals, you can start an association of barefoot runners.
• Marketing through a cause. Any business model that incorporates a non-profit element in it (for example, "buy one and we'll donate one" or "10% of profits go to X") can benefit a lot from increased exposure and goodwill.

I probably forgot some ideas but I think it's a good start.

 

[Andy Black]

A lot of people hating on social media platforms because of how they’re a time suck or because you can’t reach their audience.

Don’t make it a time suck then?

And maybe figure out how to give them what they want so you get what you want?

They’re tools that you may or may not use.

You probably don’t *need* to be on social media platforms, the same way you probably don’t *need* a website.

If you’re going to use them then get the ROI on your time and money spent.

I have Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and YouTube accounts. I post maybe once a month or quarter. I log in every weekday to check my inboxes… as sometimes people reach out, and sometimes it’s not spam.

I post multiple times a day in communities (this forum and a few Facebook groups). I prefer engaging in online communities rather than posting to an “audience” (I’ve even come to dislike the word audience).

I’d like to do better on those platforms but it’s not a priority (note I didn’t say I don’t have time).

 

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[Andy Black]

My issue is when people post content endlessly but it doesn't have purpose other than "you have to be on social media."

^^^ This.

Our job as business owners is to set the right goal and then make it happen.

It’s our fault if we don’t set a goal or set the wrong goal.

 

[Andy Black]

I think most businesses approach social media platforms and forums wrong. They publish posts and try to get people to landing pages they own and email lists they own.

The power is in conversations and building relationships.

In this forum alone I’ve messaged over 3,000 people. Many of those conversations have even led to Zoom chats.

That’s how B2B works imo. Make friends, build relationships, create win-wins.

If those conversations reveal common problems that you can solve then you can try to automate some of that relationship building.

I feel people try to automate too soon.

So maybe approach social media platforms and forums as places you can have conversations with people and help them there and then, rather than as some content marketing lead-gen exercise?

 

[Mathuin]

I can't remember who it was on here who mentioned about changing the location of your Twitter news but its great. Means I don't have to read the heading and subheading of BS mainstream articles. Allows me to more intentional on Twitter.

I've set my location to Kyrgyzstan.

I think most businesses approach social media platforms and forums wrong. They publish posts and try to get people to landing pages they own and email lists they own.

The power is in conversations and building relationships.

In this forum alone I’ve messaged over 3,000 people.

Many of those conversations have led to Zoom chats.

That’s how B2B works imo. Make friends, build relationships, create win-wins

Excellent point, thanks Andy

 

[James Klymus]

Use social media as leverage. I understand the argument you're making, But I think you're letting a jaded perspective get in your way. I say that respectfully.

Social media is leverage. It's a way to cultivate and communicate your brand and message to an audience. The smart business people don't rely on social media completely. They build their audience and get them over onto an asset that they can control, Like an email list or their own website.

Yes, your following can vanish in an instant, at the whim of facebook (Meta), But attention is one of the hardest things to earn in the world, and social media is a way (Not the only way) to cultivate that attention and leverage it.

My advice is forget all of the brain candy content (girls, dancing, boobs, cars, flashy shit) and focus on how you can use it as leverage. No one says you have to scroll social media all day long, use it for business and get out.

As a thought experiment, good post. I believe it's healthy to understand counterarguments to your own beliefs and opinions.

 

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[TonyStark]

This is extremely good

Will revisit this after work

 

[ekateriv]

Great post!

I agree, with these distinctions too. Only nit I think is that Reddit is both. The large subreddits are just as bad as other platforms in regard to meaningful content. If you niche down into smaller subreddits there is a massive distinction.

But yeah a year ago deleted all the social media off my phone and haven't missed it a bit.

I agree. I am growing and getting user feedback from reddit and there is a meaningful difference in engagement between 3k to 30k to 300k groups. My advice would be to start prototyping with the 3k group, do only extremely useful posts that are less frequent on the 30k group (major product milestones and helpful responses only), and avoid the 300k+ groups altogether.

 

[Kak]

Well done @MTF great post. I hate these social medias so much.

I couldn’t agree more. This is precisely why I like my text message community. It’s mine.

I have a Facebook, I don’t post on it. I have it because of a mens group at my church and nothing else.

I have a Twitter, and it’s a waste of time, but I felt like “I needed something” and I hated it the least.

 

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[David Fitz]

Since reading this post and anytime I'm on social media I can see now it's sucking me in. It's best to use these tools for your business and to make money and other than that, you need to limit your time on them.

It's easy to get dragged into someone else's entertainment, arguments, opinions that do absolutely nothing for your life.

I went on Twitter to get some news about what's going on in Ukriane and before you know it, I'm looking at comments from Tyson Fury and Conor McGregor arguing. How does that help my life?

Avoid avoid avoid. Reminds of a book I need to read again called Deep Work!

 

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[MTF]

Here's another high-profile story of someone who realized how terrible the content treadmill is:

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dy6urKkCer4


They scaled down from 45 people to a team of 6 and cut out ALL social media. Before they posted all the time on social media along with never-ending paid ads. Now their two main sources of traffic are YouTube and their newsletter.

The craziest thing is that before, his 45-people company made $30m a year in revenue yet made less in profit than he does now ($4 million) with just a few million in revenue and a 6-people team.

In the video below he says around 5:00 mark that when he stopped posting on social media channels 2 years ago they all died. The only exception was YouTube which, as I mentioned in my original post, I don't count as "true" social media.

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQ5WuEtsMt0

 

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[MTF]

This is extremely good

Will revisit this after work

Thank you.

Great post!

I agree, with these distinctions too. Only nit I think is that Reddit is both. The large subreddits are just as bad as other platforms in regard to meaningful content. If you niche down into smaller subreddits there is a massive distinction.

But yeah a year ago deleted off all the social media off my phone and haven't missed it a bit.

Yeah definitely Reddit has some terrible subreddits though it has the benefit that if you write something there once, people will be able to find it and read it for years (and it ranks well in search engines).

 

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[MTF]

I'll admit i did join from watching MJ on social media/ podcasts, buying his books and then joining the forum.

I consider podcasts their own platforms, in the same way as blogs.

Reminds me of when MJ said he spent years building 150k fans on Facebook and Zuckerfuck shows his content to like 300 people.

Yes, that's why I mentioned it.

I have been using social media as described in Unscripted to find needs, but as I'm looking at B2B, I'm finding a much better ROI on my time through reading Trustpilot Reviews, Articles and speaking with business owners.

You're taking the less traveled path which means figuring things out on your own but ultimately more rewards.

 

[MTF]

Good post in theory but I respectfully disagree. What about all those folks who got traction for their business on social media?

The world has changed. Social media are now the touchpoints / entry points of the Internet.
You get the traction and amass an audience there, then funnel them to your own site / email list whatever.

That said, social media is not suitable for all businesses.

Like I said in the first post, I'm not saying it doesn't work for anyone. I'm not denying that you CAN get traction on social media. And it may be even smart AS LONG AS you do send them to your own platform. But most fail to do that and sooner or later pay for it.

The world has changed and it keeps changing. The new trends I see are:

• More digital ownership (largely fueled by blockchain solutions but also cultural reasons). People want to own their platforms.
• Less trust in centralized solutions, and particularly social media. These platforms hurt themselves a lot by censoring people so much in the last two years.
• The reemergence of newsletters as a viable business model. I might be biased here but I'm signed up to some newsletters I really enjoy and look forward to but I don't have the same relationship with any creator on social media.
• The rapid growth of podcasts. Each podcast is a separate media company and usually marketing it on social media doesn't work that well. It's a more closed environment where you do better if you interact within it (as I mentioned in my response to @Kak's post).

 

[Andy Black]

@Kak, maybe you could record videos of your podcasts and get someone to extract sub 60 second soundbites and then post to YouTube and other platforms. I saw Alex Hormozi videos on TikTok and YouTube Shorts and they’re pretty good sub 60 second nuggets extracted from his longer presentations, and I dare say he’s doing them intentionally now too. I may do this next quarter.

Heck, you can get people to comb through your podcast library and pull out nuggets and make 60 second videos out of them (without it being a talking head video). Talk about an endless treasure trove of content.

You’re articulate, have a message you’re passionate about, and are a good looking guy.

I’m sure there’s swathes of people who’d be raving fans if they could just discover you.

Can you add that extra twist to the end of what you’re already doing? Can you be the front-man of a machine that pumps out your content/message to the masses?

Are you doing people a disservice by not taking that final step to get your message out to them?

(This isn’t just directed at Kak and I’m NOT suggesting Kak start dancing in his videos - unless that’s what floats his boat of course.)

 

[Tony100]

For most entrepreneurs few things are worse than social media. You think it’s helpful while it’s a parasite that slowly kills you and your business.

Social media platforms have spent millions and millions to persuade us that they’re indispensable for business.

If you don’t exist on social media, you don’t exist at all.

What a joke.

We all know that social media can be bad for individuals. But it's poisonous for business, too, and you may be better off as an entrepreneur without it.

Not everyone will agree with this post and that’s okay. This thread is about showing a perspective counter to mainstream advice. It’s not the ultimate truth, though. I’m not saying EVERYONE has to avoid social media in business at all costs.

Note: by social media I refer to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. I don’t consider YouTube social media (because it’s more of a search engine) or Reddit (because it’s just a giant forum with various subforums, similar to the Fastlane forum).

Warning: I swear in this post and I share my opinion in a blunt way. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.

Here are ten reasons why social media destroys entrepreneurs and their businesses:

1. You’re Putting More Effort Building Somebody Else’s Business Than Yours

Post ten times a day on Facebook (don’t forget about Facebook stories). Twenty times a day on Instagram (but thirty stories and forty reels). Upload ten videos on TikTok and don’t forget to tweet thirty times a day (and retweet another twenty tweets). It almost seems as if marketing today equals social media marketing.

Do it all AGAIN over and over again because the next day nobody sees your posts from the day before anyway. And if you ever figure out a way to crack the algorithm, it will soon change and you’ll be left behind again.

When you add it all up, you spend more time donating your time to social media platforms than spending it on your business. How ridiculous is that?

Few entrepreneurs ever calculate how much time, money, and effort they invest on social media. They don’t even know if they get a positive return from their investment.

That’s insanity. Not only you’re dedicating most of your business life to tasks that may not even be worth it. You’re also putting more effort building other people’s companies rather than yours.

Let me reiterate it because I find it f*cking incredible: did you start your OWN business to spend more time building somebody else’s?

How much do you enjoy being an unpaid Meta, TikTok or Twitter employee?

Is this what entrepreneurship comes down to these days? Filling the pockets of big, censor-happy corporations who don’t give two shits about you just so you can brag about your follower count?

2. You’re Only Getting Scraps

Even if you do everything right, at most maybe a few percent of your followers will see your posts. Out of them, only a few percent will take any action. Out of them, a few percent will do what you want them to do—buy your stuff.

In other words, you’re only getting scraps thrown at you by the social media platforms. And the more the platform grows, the less you get. It’s a natural growth cycle of every social media company. You can always count on the fact that they will grow at your expense.

You’re like that poor dog begging for food underneath the table. Only as time goes by, there are even more hungry dogs and less food on the table. Most goes into the mouths of the obese owners.

Moreover, social media platforms have a short lifespan so all your efforts are eventually for nothing. Ask anyone who has built a big following on Facebook how useful it is today. Meanwhile, a high-quality article on your own site can provide value for years.

3. You’re on a Never-Ending Content Treadmill

Social media gurus get on my nerves because their solution to any marketing problem is to post more. More, more, more, until you can’t do it anymore but you can’t stop because you’re afraid that if you stop, your business will end.

You become trapped on a content treadmill, posting endless amounts of content, begging to get some attention like an old wrinkly prostitute in flashy clothes.

The more you post, the faster the treadmill is. Since you can’t stop, you never have time and energy to reconsider what you’re doing and whether it’s the best strategy for your business.

Strategic thinking drowns in the sea of content you’re forced to produce every day just to stay afloat. And the worst thing is that whatever you produce, it’s often unsearchable and irrelevant the next day.

4. You Fail to Build What’s Most Important

The ONLY valuable asset in every business is a customer list. Yet, if you focus on social media, you fool yourself that your follower count is what defines your business.

You either spend time building your own platform or you build time spending other people’s platforms.

This forum is a great example of a platform standing on its own. I didn’t join it because I saw MJ on social media. I joined it because I read MJ’s book. I stayed because it’s an independent platform owned by a person who cares. For all I care, MJ may never post anything on social media. I want to read his content HERE, on his OWN platform.

Would your clients say the same about your business? Would they still work with you if you had no presence on social media?

Would you rather have 100,000 followers on social media or 1,000 loyal customers? (If you chose the former, sorry but there’s no hope for you LOL.)

5. You Judge the Value of the Business by the Number of Followers

My girlfriend has a podcast. She had a call with a potential guest today. The woman told her that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be featured in my girlfriend’s podcast because “nothing happens on her Instagram profile.”

My girlfriend only posts images with new episodes on her Instagram profile. But if you checked the podcast’s archives, you’d see over 75 episodes posted religiously every week, featuring dozens of recognized in her niche guests.

That poor guest is so brainwashed. She thinks that an Instagram profile counts more than your real-world track record. To make matters worse, she was SHOCKED how my girlfriend got podcast listeners through something else than Instagram.

My girlfriend is not an Instagrammer. She owns a podcast. That’s her business, not posting daily vlogs or other bullshit from her everyday life. She doesn’t even want Instagram followers who spend a tenth of a second liking her random images. She wants real listeners who invest hours listening to her episodes.

There are so many businesses that have few, if any, social media followers, yet kill it WAY, WAY more than brands that obsess about social media.

Do you help people through selling your products or do you chase status through posting meaningless social media posts?

6. You Waste Time and Mental Energy on Drama and Addiction

Social media thrives because it appeals to our most basic instincts.

Everything is designed in such a way to get you hooked and keep you there for as long as possible. Notifications, real-time updates, live stories. Then there’s inevitable drama and bullshit politics that’s impossible to opt out of.

Instagram will always pester you with profiles of plastic surgery enhanced half naked models of both genders.

Twitter will always pester you with annoying politics no matter who you follow.

Both Facebook and TikTok will always steal your attention through idiotic short clips designed to captivate your brain whether you want it or not.

Even if you’re strong-willed, there’s NO WAY you won’t waste your life each time you visit any of the social media platforms for “business” purposes.

Is this how you want to spend your valuable time?

7. You’re Contributing to Producing Mountains of Garbage

Most content on social media is f*cking garbage. I need to swear here because there’s no other way to describe it.

Twitter relies on bullshit, supposedly clever, one-liners that say nothing. Yet, our brains like these empty platitudes. So, like idiots, we retweet them. Long form, well though-out content is rare these days because it’s too hard for most people to read something longer than 280 characters.

Instagram relies on even more bullshit soft porn pictures or other depictions of a “perfect” life along with even more idiotic empty quotes. Yet, we fall for this, too. It’s in our genes. There’s no way a healthy male is able to look away from a perfect pair of photoshopped boobs.

TikTok relies on cringeworthy, self-absorbed, completely retarded videos of teenagers thinking they do something meaningful. Yet, in their stupidity, they’re so captivating you find yourself watching one video after another. Later, you feel disgusted with yourself only to do it again the next time you “work” on TikTok.

Can you find valuable content on social media? Yes, you can. Not everything is garbage.

It doesn’t change the fact that most of social media content is utter junk. These platforms don’t reward in-depth content. They reward simplistic, controversial or straight up idiotic posts and videos.

Since people are so addicted to social media today, their attention spans are so short you have to transmit your message in a few seconds. What valuable things can you say in a few seconds? By default, you’re forced to contribute to this mountain of garbage every single day.

8. You’re Building an Unsellable Asset

It’s rare for most small businesses to succeed on social media. So, instead, most founders post under their own names. Their business becomes them. Yes, a personal brand may be valuable but a personal brand, as the name implies, is unsellable.

If this doesn’t bother you, then this point doesn’t apply to you. Yet, I’d urge every entrepreneur to think about a potential exit strategy. If you’re building your business through promoting yourself, then most likely you won’t be able to sell it in the future.

9. You Fail to See Other Opportunities

People new to business, particularly those who don’t remember the world before social media, assume that EVERY business needs to be on social media. They focus only on those business ideas that have a social media presence, ignoring the wealth of other possible opportunities.

Boring, but essential B2B businesses? Nah, where will I get my followers?

Offline businesses without an online presence other than a simple website? No way, how will I brag about my biz?

Low-key business models that rely on joint ventures and deal-making rather than social media content? No thanks, I’m too busy building my “credibility” on social media.

10. You Do What Everyone Else Is Doing

Being an entrepreneur means full responsibility for your decisions but also complete freedom over how you want to run your business.

Unfortunately, most people let the prevailing narrative dictate how they’ll approach their ventures.

If the “only” way to succeed is through fifty social media posts a day, let’s do it.

If the “only” way to succeed is through showing your boobs to horny teenagers (who will not buy your products anyway), let’s do it.

If the “only” way to succeed is through being a complete idiot dancing like a drunk moose, let’s do it.

Don’t be a sheep. Use your brain. Create YOUR business on YOUR OWN terms rather than letting social media corporations bully you into using their toxic platforms.

There, I said it.

Thoughts, love, hate—all welcome.

100% agree.

We stopped using social media for our business 2 years ago. I had plotted a weekly graph showing sales vs website views vs social media reach.
- I found no relationship between social media reach and sales.
- I found no relationship between social media reach and website views.
- I found a strong relationship between website views and sales.
- I noticed jumps in sales when we posted email newsletters.

--> Therefore we stopped doing social media and instead focused on SEO and email newsletters. I like SEO too because it is more passive. Prior to this we did get relatively good traction on Instagram but the business saw little results from it. It's worth noting that 1) People do not go on Instagram with the intention of buying. 2) You may get a buzz from increasing follower count but are they are actually your target audience or is there 0% chance of them ever buying your product.

A lot of small business owners are misled that getting likes and followers will result in lots of sales. I occasionally go on Linkedin and I see one company that shares all it's Tiktoks that are funny but have no relevance whatsoever to their business. They are some sort of agency - See I can't even remember what type of agency they are! And even if I could remember, I have no interest in buying any services from an agency. But YES Tiktok is the place to be! If you're not on Tiktok you are missing out! Fear of missing out could be a reason why entrepreneurs are misled.

Building a facebook group targeted at your specific target audience is a good use of time and reaching out to your target market on Linkedin is good. Mindlessly posting crap to get as many likes as possible is not good. It will also depend on your niche. If you want to sell courses on how to get rich with trading then social media might work lol.

I am biased as I struggle to relate to other young people who spend all their time on their phones. Even in school I didn't get it. I couldn't care less about snapchat, instagram or tiktok. I prefer to meet up with friends at restaurants, pubs or in the outdoors than communicate through a phone. I like Steve Cutts's work:

 

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[Andy Black]

Was it in relation to the fact that you need to target the right, young enough platform if you want to make it big there? Or in other words, if Instagram sucks today then don't struggle there because it's a lost cause (you're too late) and it's better to go to, say, TikTok (where maybe you'll still be early enough).

Yes. At the start a platform is trying to get growth (usually via funding) so rewards content creators with reach. Later on the platform needs to monetise the attention they’ve built, and throttles organic reach and replaces it with pay-to-play.

That’s straightforward. It’s just that Nicolas broke it down per platform.

And yeah, TikTok is in that growth phase. With YouTube releasing Shorts to counter it.

 

[Ricardo Scotta]

For most entrepreneurs few things are worse than social media. You think it’s helpful while it’s a parasite that slowly kills you and your business.

Social media platforms have spent millions and millions to persuade us that they’re indispensable for business.

If you don’t exist on social media, you don’t exist at all.

What a joke.

We all know that social media can be bad for individuals. But it's poisonous for business, too, and you may be better off as an entrepreneur without it.

Not everyone will agree with this post and that’s okay. This thread is about showing a perspective counter to mainstream advice. It’s not the ultimate truth, though. I’m not saying EVERYONE has to avoid social media in business at all costs.

Note: by social media I refer to Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and TikTok. I don’t consider YouTube social media (because it’s more of a search engine) or Reddit (because it’s just a giant forum with various subforums, similar to the Fastlane forum).

Warning: I swear in this post and I share my opinion in a blunt way. If you don’t like it, don’t read it.

Here are ten reasons why social media destroys entrepreneurs and their businesses:

1. You’re Putting More Effort Building Somebody Else’s Business Than Yours

Post ten times a day on Facebook (don’t forget about Facebook stories). Twenty times a day on Instagram (but thirty stories and forty reels). Upload ten videos on TikTok and don’t forget to tweet thirty times a day (and retweet another twenty tweets). It almost seems as if marketing today equals social media marketing.

Do it all AGAIN over and over again because the next day nobody sees your posts from the day before anyway. And if you ever figure out a way to crack the algorithm, it will soon change and you’ll be left behind again.

When you add it all up, you spend more time donating your time to social media platforms than spending it on your business. How ridiculous is that?

Few entrepreneurs ever calculate how much time, money, and effort they invest on social media. They don’t even know if they get a positive return from their investment.

That’s insanity. Not only you’re dedicating most of your business life to tasks that may not even be worth it. You’re also putting more effort building other people’s companies rather than yours.

Let me reiterate it because I find it f*cking incredible: did you start your OWN business to spend more time building somebody else’s?

How much do you enjoy being an unpaid Meta, TikTok or Twitter employee?

Is this what entrepreneurship comes down to these days? Filling the pockets of big, censor-happy corporations who don’t give two shits about you just so you can brag about your follower count?

2. You’re Only Getting Scraps

Even if you do everything right, at most maybe a few percent of your followers will see your posts. Out of them, only a few percent will take any action. Out of them, a few percent will do what you want them to do—buy your stuff.

In other words, you’re only getting scraps thrown at you by the social media platforms. And the more the platform grows, the less you get. It’s a natural growth cycle of every social media company. You can always count on the fact that they will grow at your expense.

You’re like that poor dog begging for food underneath the table. Only as time goes by, there are even more hungry dogs and less food on the table. Most goes into the mouths of the obese owners.

Moreover, social media platforms have a short lifespan so all your efforts are eventually for nothing. Ask anyone who has built a big following on Facebook how useful it is today. Meanwhile, a high-quality article on your own site can provide value for years.

3. You’re on a Never-Ending Content Treadmill

Social media gurus get on my nerves because their solution to any marketing problem is to post more. More, more, more, until you can’t do it anymore but you can’t stop because you’re afraid that if you stop, your business will end.

You become trapped on a content treadmill, posting endless amounts of content, begging to get some attention like an old wrinkly prostitute in flashy clothes.

The more you post, the faster the treadmill is. Since you can’t stop, you never have time and energy to reconsider what you’re doing and whether it’s the best strategy for your business.

Strategic thinking drowns in the sea of content you’re forced to produce every day just to stay afloat. And the worst thing is that whatever you produce, it’s often unsearchable and irrelevant the next day.

4. You Fail to Build What’s Most Important

The ONLY valuable asset in every business is a customer list. Yet, if you focus on social media, you fool yourself that your follower count is what defines your business.

You either spend time building your own platform or you build time spending other people’s platforms.

This forum is a great example of a platform standing on its own. I didn’t join it because I saw MJ on social media. I joined it because I read MJ’s book. I stayed because it’s an independent platform owned by a person who cares. For all I care, MJ may never post anything on social media. I want to read his content HERE, on his OWN platform.

Would your clients say the same about your business? Would they still work with you if you had no presence on social media?

Would you rather have 100,000 followers on social media or 1,000 loyal customers? (If you chose the former, sorry but there’s no hope for you LOL.)

5. You Judge the Value of the Business by the Number of Followers

My girlfriend has a podcast. She had a call with a potential guest today. The woman told her that she wasn’t sure if she wanted to be featured in my girlfriend’s podcast because “nothing happens on her Instagram profile.”

My girlfriend only posts images with new episodes on her Instagram profile. But if you checked the podcast’s archives, you’d see over 75 episodes posted religiously every week, featuring dozens of recognized in her niche guests.

That poor guest is so brainwashed. She thinks that an Instagram profile counts more than your real-world track record. To make matters worse, she was SHOCKED how my girlfriend got podcast listeners through something else than Instagram.

My girlfriend is not an Instagrammer. She owns a podcast. That’s her business, not posting daily vlogs or other bullshit from her everyday life. She doesn’t even want Instagram followers who spend a tenth of a second liking her random images. She wants real listeners who invest hours listening to her episodes.

There are so many businesses that have few, if any, social media followers, yet kill it WAY, WAY more than brands that obsess about social media.

Do you help people through selling your products or do you chase status through posting meaningless social media posts?

6. You Waste Time and Mental Energy on Drama and Addiction

Social media thrives because it appeals to our most basic instincts.

Everything is designed in such a way to get you hooked and keep you there for as long as possible. Notifications, real-time updates, live stories. Then there’s inevitable drama and bullshit politics that’s impossible to opt out of.

Instagram will always pester you with profiles of plastic surgery enhanced half naked models of both genders.

Twitter will always pester you with annoying politics no matter who you follow.

Both Facebook and TikTok will always steal your attention through idiotic short clips designed to captivate your brain whether you want it or not.

Even if you’re strong-willed, there’s NO WAY you won’t waste your life each time you visit any of the social media platforms for “business” purposes.

Is this how you want to spend your valuable time?

7. You’re Contributing to Producing Mountains of Garbage

Most content on social media is f*cking garbage. I need to swear here because there’s no other way to describe it.

Twitter relies on bullshit, supposedly clever, one-liners that say nothing. Yet, our brains like these empty platitudes. So, like idiots, we retweet them. Long form, well though-out content is rare these days because it’s too hard for most people to read something longer than 280 characters.

Instagram relies on even more bullshit soft porn pictures or other depictions of a “perfect” life along with even more idiotic empty quotes. Yet, we fall for this, too. It’s in our genes. There’s no way a healthy male is able to look away from a perfect pair of photoshopped boobs.

TikTok relies on cringeworthy, self-absorbed, completely retarded videos of teenagers thinking they do something meaningful. Yet, in their stupidity, they’re so captivating you find yourself watching one video after another. Later, you feel disgusted with yourself only to do it again the next time you “work” on TikTok.

Can you find valuable content on social media? Yes, you can. Not everything is garbage.

It doesn’t change the fact that most of social media content is utter junk. These platforms don’t reward in-depth content. They reward simplistic, controversial or straight up idiotic posts and videos.

Since people are so addicted to social media today, their attention spans are so short you have to transmit your message in a few seconds. What valuable things can you say in a few seconds? By default, you’re forced to contribute to this mountain of garbage every single day.

8. You’re Building an Unsellable Asset

It’s rare for most small businesses to succeed on social media. So, instead, most founders post under their own names. Their business becomes them. Yes, a personal brand may be valuable but a personal brand, as the name implies, is unsellable.

If this doesn’t bother you, then this point doesn’t apply to you. Yet, I’d urge every entrepreneur to think about a potential exit strategy. If you’re building your business through promoting yourself, then most likely you won’t be able to sell it in the future.

9. You Fail to See Other Opportunities

People new to business, particularly those who don’t remember the world before social media, assume that EVERY business needs to be on social media. They focus only on those business ideas that have a social media presence, ignoring the wealth of other possible opportunities.

Boring, but essential B2B businesses? Nah, where will I get my followers?

Offline businesses without an online presence other than a simple website? No way, how will I brag about my biz?

Low-key business models that rely on joint ventures and deal-making rather than social media content? No thanks, I’m too busy building my “credibility” on social media.

10. You Do What Everyone Else Is Doing

Being an entrepreneur means full responsibility for your decisions but also complete freedom over how you want to run your business.

Unfortunately, most people let the prevailing narrative dictate how they’ll approach their ventures.

If the “only” way to succeed is through fifty social media posts a day, let’s do it.

If the “only” way to succeed is through showing your boobs to horny teenagers (who will not buy your products anyway), let’s do it.

If the “only” way to succeed is through being a complete idiot dancing like a drunk moose, let’s do it.

Don’t be a sheep. Use your brain. Create YOUR business on YOUR OWN terms rather than letting social media corporations bully you into using their toxic platforms.

There, I said it.

Thoughts, love, hate—all welcome.

Well, maybe you are saving me a lot of time.
So, thank you.
I have a small sales brand that I started because a marketing digital course.
I started with a site, after a i went on youtube, twitter, last night i made my first pin on pinterest.
And guess what?
The most of my sales came from for other site that a have no mention on my social medias...
Until read this post, I was thinking... well, maybe a I need more folowers...
Thank you again!

 

[bakhman]

I had the same experience when I was working as a DJ when taking a break from my career a couple years ago. A fellow "entrepreneur" suggested I make an FB page, deliver tons of content like music reviews, photos, and mixtapes, and after 4-5 months of that, absolutely nothing came of it. I even bought fake followers. Literally got 15 likes across 50 posts.

Networking will always be superior.