Social Media, IT’S FREE?

How free is social media? You hear so many marketers saying that social media is free – there is nothing to buy. You go to YouTube, FaceBook and Twitter and it doesn’t cost you a thing to sign up,  “It’s FREE”. Yes when the marketers say it’s free, they
are right in the sense that signing up for social media is free. But is social media really free?

You have heard the clichés “Time Is Money” and “How Much is Your Time Worth?”
First of all you have to spend some time understanding how to use social media to your advantage. Understanding the in’s and out’s of social media is a challenge to most. Just learning the language can take a great deal of time. Overcoming the initial fear can eat up time because you’ll just sit there and stare at the computer screen deciding whether or not you should type something or not.  Believe me this fear is real! Some people even have had panic attacks from this fear.

Many of the people I have talked to tell me that it took them a few weeks just trying to understand how to engage with people in social media. Trying to market their business was just beyond them. They tell me they have wasted so must time with no results – that social media was just a waste of time and money for them. What they where actually telling me was that their time was worth something and they don’t like wasting it. Time is money.

In reality Social Media is not free. It is an investment. You may not spend a lot of money utilizing social media, but you will spend time learning and using social media in order to market your business. Did you know that some companies are training their employees and/or hiring someone to do their social media networking for them? That’s not free.

It is so important that you, as a business owner, understands how social media CAN work for your business. Starting off in the wrong direction can lead to disaster and cause you to lose out on one of the most exciting and rewarding marketing tools since the invention of the TV.

Next week we will be announcing an exciting new program which will help business owners understand the true benefits that Social Media offers in the growth of their companies. Stay tuned…