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Social Media Destroys Entrepreneurs. Grow Your Business Without It.

Andy Black

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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

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

And that makes your business way more resilient than a social media fueled one.

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).

Okay, gotcha. Makes sense though it's also a bit sad (people judging others by the easy to manipulate follower count).

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.

That's definitely a solid approach.
 

Andy Black

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Okay, gotcha. Makes sense though it's also a bit sad (people judging others by the easy to manipulate follower count).
Folks will check how engaged your following is. If they want to access your audience then they’d better not be like Seth Godin’s large but unengaged Twitter followers.

I think getting judged by the publicly available follower count and how engaged they are seems better than judging them by how fancy their graphic design is on their website.

I’ll often choose one piece of software over another based on how active their Facebook group is.
 

Andy Black

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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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If it's a B2B SaaS product you'll do WAY better somewhere else than on social media. I had two small B2B SaaS businesses and I grew both without any social media (and eventually sold them both).
I found out about Product Hunt. Do you have any experience with that? Or maybe you want to share how you promoted your B2B Saas Product. Mine is indeed also a B2B product.
 

Andy Black

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@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.)
 

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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:
smartphone.jpg
brain.jpg
 
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Kevin88660

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I think that one of the factors may be whether you like "socializing" this way with people or not. If you're forcing yourself to do it and have no idea why people do it without a business purpose in mind, then better not do it at all.



What do you mean by not losing out?
The younger kids 25 and below most identify by their instalgram account more by their offline identity more.

I think eventually its the younger generation who sets the agenda and trend in the future not the older crowd.

I just treat as a social version of the linkedin profile. Something I barely use, and of no use to me now, but I will update it once a while, and it doesn’t cost me much time.

I have created tiktok account for business purpose but it wasn’t getting any result and I stopped.

I have also written for Medium for writing experience but it wasn’t successful. Trying to format and get written content in good order is particularly a stressful and time consuming experience. So I stopped too.

I have a small success with youtube for business. I received some offers to collaborate and promote cryptocurrency trading platforms. I also have some paying members for members only video.

I wasn’t trying to be an instalgram expert and if one day I need to use instalgram for business I can accelerate it up quickly instead of starting from absolute zero.
 
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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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Social Media is a tool, like any other. Ironically it can make a tool out of you too. :rofl:

Great post @MTF !
 

MJ DeMarco

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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.
 

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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?

Most people can't NOT make it a time suck. It's designed in such a way that even smart people can easily get carried away.

I think getting judged by the publicly available follower count and how engaged they are seems better than judging them by how fancy their graphic design is on their website.

I’ll often choose one piece of software over another based on how active their Facebook group is.

That's interesting because I never even thought about checking any Facebook groups for any software. I rely on the sales page and non-affiliate reviews online.
 
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I found out about Product Hunt. Do you have any experience with that? Or maybe you want to share how you promoted your B2B Saas Product. Mine is indeed also a B2B product.

No, I never used Product Hunt. I know it works well for many people in software but I don't get it (like the entire "engineer" startup world).

Business #1: cold emails followed by cold-ish calls
Business #2: posting on relevant forums and word of mouth (needed only a few clients to get many more from recommendations)
 

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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.

Thanks for posting that analysis. That's exactly what I had in mind when saying that people don't even know if they get any ROI from their social media efforts.

I like Steve Cutts's work

I like his work, too! I also remember one more artist with similar drawings but can't remember his name now...

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.

I remember some story where the owner of an offline business (don't remember what it was, maybe a dentist?) told his employees to record a stupid TikTok video of them dancing.

Definitely a great way to lose respect of many of your loyal clients, not to mention abusing your employees.
 

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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.

Like I mentioned in the original post, it does depend.

From my perspective, for many, many businesses, it's just not necessary and can be harmful.

Maybe through embracing social media you'd get more sales... And maybe you'd be yet another social media business guru most entrepreneurs wouldn't treat seriously. Your strict "no guruship" policy is one of the main reasons why I participate here.
 
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I remember some story where the owner of an offline business (don't remember what it was, maybe a dentist?) told his employees to record a stupid TikTok video of them dancing.
National Health Service staff made tiktoks during the start of the pandemic to 'boost morale'. It got heavy criticism as the NHS is funded by taxpayers and so many operations were cancelled because of covid. We were also in lockdown at the time to 'protect the NHS'. My friends who work for the NHS hated those videos too.
 

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Do you have the same thoughts as running ads on these platforms? I don't have the time to post on social all day and I hate it anyways. I run ads on Facebook, Tiktok and Google with a lot of success. You mentioned you can't get emails of users directly from social media sites but I do get their emails and phone numbers after I get the sales from my ads. I agree with a lot of what you're saying here but as an owner of a fashion related Ecommerce company I don't know what I'd do without access to all of these people.

I understand that these followers on social media are not mine and can be taken away at any moment with a ban. It's actually a huge reason why I created my new company with my own website instead of Amazon. They have banned a ton of legit businesses without any reasons. I'll keep running ads and occasionally posting on these platforms as long as I can since I get 90% of new customers from them. Once I have them they are added to my email list and some signed up as brand ambassadors for word of mouth marketing.
 

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Do you have the same thoughts as running ads on these platforms? I don't have the time to post on social all day and I hate it anyways. I run ads on Facebook, Tiktok and Google with a lot of success. You mentioned you can't get emails of users directly from social media sites but I do get their emails and phone numbers after I get the sales from my ads. I agree with a lot of what you're saying here but as an owner of a fashion related Ecommerce company I don't know what I'd do without access to all of these people.

I don't have the same thoughts on running ads on these platforms.

I hate Facebook Ads and was banned from them a few times for no reason (like most businesses). Still, I understand how crucial advertising there can be, even though I don't like it.

If you're driving ads to get sales (and not to get "engagement" or likes), that's excellent and it shows you know what you're doing. My issue is when people post content endlessly but it doesn't have purpose other than "you have to be on social media."

I also don't mind using social media in a way that helps grow your business as long as it's not mindless content production.

For example, I think that sponsoring social media influencers can be a great way to grow your business. It takes all the content treadmill work off your shoulders, often for a relatively low price as most influencers don't make that much money.

I understand that these followers on social media are not mine and can be taken away at any moment with a ban. It's actually a huge reason why I created my new company with my own website instead of Amazon. They have banned a ton of legit businesses without any reasons. I'll keep running ads and occasionally posting on these platforms as long as I can since I get 90% of new customers from them. Once I have them they are added to my email list and some signed up as brand ambassadors for word of mouth marketing.

IMO you're being smart and strategic as you're aware of all the risks and focus on building your own platform.

Just wondering aloud, not judging: can you build a resilient business if 90% of your customers come from one channel? At what point should an entrepreneur diversify? Should you diversify for long-term security even if it comes at the expense of (present but not guaranteed in the future) profits?
 
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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.
 

Yinyem21

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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 wel

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.
 

Yinyem21

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I would say from the business pov it is quite straight forward. On the long term basis is it going to be worth it for your business? Everyone is different and every business is different.
Yes you are right, because most people use social media for fun.only few saw it as a business center
There are people who like social media and they are likely to find reasons to justify why they need social media for their business. I have seen good outcomes on that and as a result their business grows. It could also be a hindrance and time waster. I think it is a double edge sword.

The part I couldn’t get is why people spend a lot of time on social media for “social” reasons. I find hard to get addicted to where my acquaintance went for dinner or international travel.

I do take photos of my own life and update in Instagram maybe once every 3-6 months. I do it to not to lose out. I treat it like a “task”. I totally don’t find the need to check it daily.
 
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Ed Schimmel

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No, I never used Product Hunt. I know it works well for many people in software but I don't get it (like the entire "engineer" startup world).

Business #1: cold emails followed by cold-ish calls
Business #2: posting on relevant forums and word of mouth (needed only a few clients to get many more from recommendations)
Thanks MTF,

I am looking into posting on relevant forums at the moment. Cold emails and calls seem somewhat difficult. I don't have an email list either.

Posting it on Product Hunt, I also hope to get a better idea of whether or not there is actually a market for my product. Adds on Facebook were not successful. The likes I got were for the photos used and not the product.
 
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Justin L

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Mainstream social media summed up:
socialmedia.jpg
Very accurate lol. That's why I use none of those platforms.
 

Andy Black

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Very accurate lol. That's why I use none of those platforms.
I never saw a post from a celebrity on Twitter. Or a single political post. I think Twitter is the platform to connect with people.

I’ve seen amazing sub 60 second videos on TikTok. When people only have 60 seconds to explain something they get to the point much better. I’ve picked up tips from very smart people. @Lex DeVille is starting to play with TikTok and I may later.

I didn’t like being on Instagram as it seemed over run by bots.

I’ve never been on Reddit but I believe @Fox had a post do really well.
 
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MTF

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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.

I'm 100% sure that if you appeared as a guest on 100 podcasts you'd have WAY, WAY better results than from messing with social media.

You don't want just exposure. You want targeted exposure to people similar to your vehicle.

Podcast = podcast listeners

newsletter = newsletter readers
 

Vinz

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Totally agree that 99% of content on social media platform is complete shit.
Even YouTube which I thought of as the last good platform, now has just the majority of the content which isn't even entertaining or useful.
 

MTF

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Totally agree that 99% of content on social media platform is complete shit.
Even YouTube which I thought of as the last good platform, now has just the majority of the content which isn't even entertaining or useful.

When it comes to censorship and random banning, YouTube is as bad, if not worse, than other big platforms. But I think there's a lot of good content there as long as you find the right people who don't rely on gimmicks to promote their channels.
 
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mauryarty

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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.
This is very insightful and resonates with me, saving this for reading again.
 

ZackerySprague

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Growing up as a kid, I spent most of my time on Social Media as an escape from reality. I was the middle child out of my 3 siblings.

My older sister got into the wrong crowd, never fully paid attention to me at all. She did bad stuff and got onto the wrong path.

My younger brother did the same. As for my mother, she barely paid attention to me, she was always on the phone with my sister listening to her complain all the time.

As for my dad, he would always be watching TV or downloading stuff from the internet on his PC.

I found virtual reality (video games) and social media as an escape from my problems. But now that I look at it, I wasted so much time on Facebook.

I could be wrong, but I always had this thought that people who use entertainment or get into other substances have issues of their past that they do not want to deal with. For me, my issues were with my family, one could say that my family basically neglected me as a child growing up. I didn't know this at the time really but learned all about this recently in my mid to late '20s.

I have several friends who are addicted to their phones when I hang out with them. It's kind of sad really because you don't get to establish a good friendship these days.

Social media at least for me in the past has created this instant gratification. With this instant gratification, we don't understand what it means to work hard to achieve things. And for the generations that come after me, I feel bad because I think they will have it much worse.

I have a friend whose little sister lives on her phone all the time, it has become the "parent" of her life so to speak. She doesn't know what discipline so to speak.

She did something very bad to me, that I won't say on this forum, but made me realize that if and when I have kids. I do not want to raise my kids this way.
 

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