[Exposed] Why You’ll Regret Spending Too Much Time on Social Media

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Social media is great. You can use it to promote your business, increase your brand reach, and increase customer interaction with your company. However, most of us get so wrapped up in using social media we often make the mistake of prioritizing it over our website. In fact, if you end up going down that path it can be detrimental to your business. Have you ever thought about how much time you actually spend on social media? A few minutes a day? A few hours? I know that everyone has their own process and methods, but if you are spending more time on social media than you are on your website, you may end up regretting it.

What's The Worst That Could Happen?

You might be thinking, "It's just a social account"? Sure, this might be true, but there are many of us that put so much time and effort into the various social media channels, we fail to think about what might happen should these channels no longer exist. Or much worse, what would happen if your account were to be deleted? For example, any social network can modify their terms of service and decide that you violated them and simply delete your account. Perhaps a competitor gets a large number of users to report your profile for spam or other "violations". Next thing you know your account is flagged, resulting in suspension/termination. You're left with nothing. All of your work is gone. Trust me, there are plenty of shady companies and people out there who will do whatever it takes to eliminate their competition, including crippling your social presence.

Remember When MySpace was King?

Speaking of competition, remember when nothing was as big as MySpace and it would never go away? Then along comes Facebook, Twitter, and Google+ which pushed MySpace out of the public eye in just a few short years. With each social network, we truly do not know what their shelf life will be. Think about all the time spent building up your MySpace profiles only to have them be pretty much worthless at this point. At least with a website, you have ownership and can continuously build upon the work you have put into it to establish your brand.

Focus on What You Own

I am not saying you should ignore social media, rather that you focus more time on utilizing channels/websites that you have ownership of. By doing so, you ensure yourself of building on something that no one can take away from you. By spending less time on social media you can spend more time generating content, enhancing user experience, or conversion rate optimization; you will not have to worry about losing any of the work you have done.

Social Media Should NOT be Your Primary Web Presence

In fact, it should be used to support your website, not replace it. With so many different social media channels available, it makes sense to seek out which ones can support your website. For example, you might use Youtube to host your product videos while embedding them on your website. Or use Twitter to promote your latest blog posts, while using Facebook to share how your business is active in the local community, and you could use create a B2B LinkedIn strategy to generate leads. All of these activities should ultimately lead users back to your website at some point where you further engage and connect with them and to ultimately convert them. However, I think we should all be aware of just how much time we devote to these channels and to promise ourselves we will devote just as much, if not more time to our own websites. Do you feel you that social media is causing you to neglect your website? If so, what are you going to do about it (if anything)? Or do you feel you have a good balance between social and your website? Sound off in the comments below.
17 Comments
  • Dragan Nikolic March 4, 2013

    Couldn’t agree more with you, Chris. Social media should be no more than 10% of time spent building a brand.

    • Chris Makara March 4, 2013

      Thanks for dropping by Dragan. Glad you feel the same way about social media πŸ™‚

  • rankya.com.au March 27, 2013

    Thanks Chris, I agree with you absolutely, because the website itself is the bread and butter for any website, and if the website lacks the foundations, then what’s the point of driving internet visitors to your social profile. Because they will check your website afterwards anyway. Social is social and is a useful tool to a degree, but not when the website is being neglected along the way. I have re-tweeted this for you because I feel it is great information for all website owners.

    • Chris Makara March 28, 2013

      Thanks for stopping by and thanks for the RT! Sounds like you and I are on the same page πŸ™‚

  • Torus Digital May 21, 2013

    In an ideal world I’d agree with you. The fact that many businesses opt for a second rate website that is inactive and out of date, badly formatted with broken links and broken grammar, while their facebook page is the platform where they pour their content onto, is the truth.

    I agree they SHOULD have a website with all their media on as well as a nice blog page to keep it all current but – they wont pay for the things they SHOULD have. (They = lots and lots of small businesses)

    Should tumblr become the new must have social media content provider, they’ll just feed that – because it’s free and easy to do πŸ™

    • Chris Makara May 24, 2013

      Good points. It’s funny how SMB’s are typically quick to jump on the next social site instead of fixing their archaic business site.
      It will be interesting to see what happens with Tumblr moving forward…

  • Patti Stafford May 23, 2013

    Great post, Chris. I have to admit I miss the original MySpace. It allowed you to be creative and display your own unique style and personality. The newer sites, like Facebook and Google+ are basically cookie cutter sites—one look to rule them all. How boring. They also cater to the people who are too lazy to learn a little bit of HTML code and get creative. Just my opinion there.

    My personal Facebook account is more of my playground. I share things that grab my attention. The social media sites I use for business (i.e. Twitter, Facebook fan page) are as neglected as my website, most of the time. As a service provider, my own site gets shoved to the backseat. Finding the balance can be a bit of a struggle at times.

    • Chris Makara May 24, 2013

      Patti, thanks for taking the time to comment. It can definitely be a juggling act to keep on top of all the social sites and your own website. I know the feeling of neglecting your own site due to client committments and just life in general πŸ™‚

  • Midnight Office August 26, 2013

    Yes, I faced a lot of disappointment recently as I looked through my followers list to find some pre-qualified sales leads. So many were spammers, not related to my business whatsoever, or were clearly hoping for Team Followback. I wasted a lot of time learning how to build up my Twitter profile and base in order to find the right people with whom to network. Legit businesses are still definitely there – I’ve found great companies – but it has taken a huge amount of time to figure out who is real and who is not.

  • @SHAMfreakinWOW October 20, 2013

    Very important message. Thanks for putting into perspective for us newbies who try to do too much at one time.

    • Chris Makara October 21, 2013

      you are welcome, thanks for stopping by to comment πŸ™‚

  • Shelly Drymon November 9, 2013

    I suppose I had not thought of it in terms of losing a social media platform. I started on My Space, but left because I just didn’t like it.

    Working on what you own is great advice!

    • Chris Makara November 12, 2013

      Shelly, thanks for taking time to leave a comment. I am glad to hear that this post helped you see the importance of continuously focusing on web properties you own for the long haul πŸ™‚

  • Ashutosh R May 5, 2014

    Ye so right!

  • Raul Tiru May 14, 2015

    Hi Chris, Nice posts. I do have a few comments, hope you don’t mind sharing πŸ˜‰ (bet you won’t). You talk about how vulnerable we are if we depend on Social Media accounts (MySpace example). Have you ever thought what would happen if Disqus decides to change their service drastically?
    All your comments could disappear.

    I know it’s not easy to design your own comments, it can be pretty costly. I use Disqus too on my website. Just wanted to address it ;).

    As far as Social Media goes. You are absolutely right. I find myself spending too much time on it too. It’s not a waste of time, but I bet I could me more productive spending it on other matters. I will be more cautious, now you have addressed this.

    I’ve just added you on Linkedin and Twitter. Hope to hear more from you soon (I’m already in your mailing list).

    • Chris Makara May 14, 2015

      Good point about Disqus…I was tempted to switch back to the default WordPress comment system, but haven’t decided yet.

      You can export your current Disqus comments to import as default WordPress comments – https://help.disqus.com/customer/portal/articles/1104797-importing-exporting

      Social media is great and all, but there definitely needs to be a balance to it.

      I’ll be sure to follow you back on LinkedIn & Twitter if I am not already doing so πŸ™‚

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