Social media detox

I’ve been watching the ongoing discussion of social media with great interest. It’s been an interesting decade since Facebook took over.

I was an online pioneer, but the one place I never transitioned to were the big social media platforms.

I resisted at first because I could see how much time people spent on them. This was apparent right away. I made a conscious decision that my time was better spent elsewhere, building businesses through more traditional means. Personal relationships I maintained the same way. That worked out pretty well for me.

Later I became really uncomfortable with the manipulation and behavior modification that was going on. Throw in how the networks profit from “outrage” (people share more things that upset them) and you have a really nasty system that I didn’t want to be part of.

All of my darkest feelings and suspicions have really come to light these last couple of years. I’m heartened that the light is shining on this, and people now are making more effort to unplug themselves.

But those issues are bigger than me. All I have control over is what I do. But I like to see myself as a positive example of someone who has zero social media presence and still does well for themselves.

Because of this, that means I have zero strategy to share on how to build a business on social media.

I always thought it was crazy, and still do, that I see businesses driving traffic to their Facebook url, and not to themselves directly. Why promote Facebook? And what happens when Facebook changes the rules, as they have, where your reach to your followers is affected unless you are willing to pay?

I’d much rather be in control. Full control. To this end I still find traditional email lists and marketing to be my preferred way of handling customer contacts, and focus on reaching new customers outside of social media.

When I work with entrepreneurs, I ask them what other means do they have to build their business and reach new leads, that don’t involve social media?

I’ve written in the past about “Blue Oceans and Red Oceans“. To me, social media is the best example of a red ocean. Why would I want to fight it out with all those other voices and competition?

What other ways are there? Exactly. What a powerful question to ask yourself. And when you answer it, you’ve started working in a Blue Ocean because your competition isn’t there.

And I get that someone will come to me and say “Well, I built a business of $X value through my Facebook profile”. Ok, great, good for you. I’m just suggesting there are other ways to accomplish this.

My blog is here to share my story, and my way of doing things. I acknowledge that my way is not conventional, as is my entire story, but it’s more important than ever to share that there are different paths to success.

And mine doesn’t include me having accounts on social media.