Stop Selling Yourself Short

When we entertain the idea or begin the process of starting a business, the idea is always the same: We have a product or service we want to sell to a lot of people. Social media has gained a lot of attention for being the great equalizer between the astronomical budgets of corporations and the meager to non-existent start-up funds of many small business owners. But there is a quiet movement towards monetizing these social media efforts that could be putting your business in the hole.

In our great country, we seldom take the time to question the argument that more is better...which is why companies of all sizes border on desperation as they try to get consumers to follow them on Twitter or "like" their Facebook Page. An excellent example of this was recently mentioned by Kizer & Bender, a duo of retailing experts I had the pleasure of interviewing recently (Link Below).

Did This National Restaurant Chain Put Too Much Love into the Like?

Articles like this have to make you wonder: What is the potential profit of having one person like your Facebook Page? Considering the potential cost of their efforts to reach 100,000 fans, they must have valued it pretty highly. To me, it just sounds a little unwise to put all of your eggs (and money!) into the social media basket.

However, Bucca di Beppo had one thing going for them: The people they were trying to reach were already involved with the brand. They weren't strangers just looking for a gift card -- these people had already subscribed to a loyalty program through the restaurant.

The rush to gain a following has become so urgent for some people that they turn to third party groups to artificially boost their numbers. Did you know you can buy Twitter followers now? I don't know how reliable the business is, and it certainly isn't my attempt to endorse them here, but Get TwitterFollowers claims they can get you thousands of new followers for a small price. While it sounds tempting, what are you really going to get out of it?

The fact that there is a "need" for this kind of business really says that people are willing to pay to have ANYONE look at their content. In reality, I think it just circumvents the process of natural selection in the business world. If you're passionate and have a good product, things have a way of working out over time.

Don't sell yourself short over impatience or desperation. The whole point of social media is that you can get word out to people for FREE. So stop falling for the idea that, regardless of the cost, more is better.