Social Networking: Business Builder or Time Waster?

Last time, I mentioned the frightening reality of seeing 191 Facebook invitations. Even scarier than that many people pretending to be my friend is that many were people I’d not heard from since we “accidentally” swirled their head in the toilet in 7th grade.

I’d suggested ‘splitting’ the Social presence to a) Friends, family and b) Business. Then, my marketing mind and all 3 of its neurons went a step farther:

Seemed wise to take a poll on the contractor business case for Social Networking. And we got the responses. Oh man, we got responses. Some were a little ‘heated’. At least one was likely from toilet-swirl head himself.

Controversy forces truth and helps affirm belief. So, among the contractor readers out there, one thing came through loud and clear.

And that was a general belief that Social Media is a big ol’...well, you can insert your own word there.

Not so fast. There are a couple warnings - -

Do not defend the personal case for Social Media after reading this. I get it. Totally valuable within limits, each can define their own.

If connecting with family, linking with old friends, or a video of you going into a spasmodic fit after shooting Dream Whip up your nose “works” for you, go for it.

Yet if you disagree with the assessment or have an angle to share, we’d love to hear it. Link below.

The Results Are In. And they aren’t that pretty…

Here are the questions and the answers.

1. I think Social Networking is a great way to stay connected and I do not distinguish between business and personal. We’re all one big happy wedgie.

Agree: 11%
Disagree: 82%
Other: 7%

2. I think Social Networking is a great way to stay connected and I DO try to maintain distinctions between business and personal.

Agree: 73%
Disagree: 21%
Other: 6%

Conclusion Questions 1 and 2: Clearly, a separation of personal and commerce exists, should exist. Recommended: Create user groups for your business.

3. I believe Social Networking has brought us/the company more business.

Agree: 14%
Disagree: 46%
Other: 40%

Conclusion Question 3: A full 85.5% said they either ‘did not’ get sales or what they got was a waste of time.

Worthy pursuit from this conclusion: Find those who get sales without spending disproportionate time.

4. I believe Social Networking is mostly a colossal waste of time, brain cells, a contributor to A.D.D., and possibly a drop in GNP.

Agree: 34%
Disagree: 51%
Other: 15%

Conclusion Question 4: Between 50% and 100% more respondents felt Social Networking was either a waste of time or virtually impossible to determine.

5. I’d like to see how to engage Social Media for my business with a good ROI relative to money AND time spent.

Agree: 88%
Disagree: 6%
Other: 6%

Conclusion Question 5: 8 times more want this ‘ideal’ but are unclear how to get it. We’ve already got the solution framework laid out. “Automation” without mind-numbing input and resource waste is critical. We’ve hired a couple experts and vendors to complete. Contact us if you have input for this.

What is most obvious: Contractors ‘want’ to engage, ‘see’ the need to engage. Yet sort of like going door-to-door and ‘effectively engaging’ with the entire city, the time investment is currently unvalidated.

Therefore: have a presence, link between Facebook and Twitter accounts, change your pages daily, spend less than 20 minutes per day on this.