Social media marketing - participation or procrastination?

It may seem strange that I’m asking this question… particularly given that a number of my previous posts discuss the virtues of social media. But Lyndon Antcliff got me thinking about my social media habits with a recent post regarding social networking… or as he referred to it - notworking. And I have to admit, I am indeed guilty of the ‘not working’ syndrome at times.

One of the best things about starting a blog these days is the amount of useful information that is disseminated by fellow bloggers. It seems that ‘how-to’ lists outweigh even porn these days on the web. However, being able to interpret and implement the massive amount of information can also represent a challenge. Where do you start when there are so many tips and hints? Social media is a perfect example. Depending on which list you’re reading, the following attributes are the most important to social media success:

1. Creating a network of friends with similar interests.
2. Creating visibility by regularly contributing articles for community consumption.
3. Creating discussion and debate by commenting on articles others submit.
4. Sharing benefits by voting on articles others contribute.
5. Subscribing, reading and commenting on blogs of other prominent community members.
6. The list goes on…

And while I don’t doubt that a blend of all these activities is definitely pointing you in the right direction, how much is too much? Some participation is essential to establish credibility as a community member. But at what point does participation become unproductive - or ‘notworking’ as Lyndon put it. Could time spent on the tactics above be utilised better elsewhere?

From a personal perspective, I’ve been implementing all of the above social media tactics… some more actively than others. Most recently, I had placed an emphasis on article submission to Sphinn. I figured getting my face on the front page would be fantastic for personal and blog branding. But the reality of the situation was that it was practically impossible to beat the pros to the punch when submitting quality content. Indeed, I suspect most pro bloggers have article trading agreements with fellow power users that allow their colleagues first crack at new articles. And there’s nothing wrong with that… it’s smart marketing on their behalf.

But ultimately, it made me think twice about what I wanted to spend my time doing… digging around desperately looking for third party content to contribute to Sphinn, or spending my time developing my own quality content for submission. The same principle applies to each of the social media participation tactics listed above. Each takes time to implement properly, which is time that could be spent doing what is most important - developing my content.

It’s my sneaking suspicion that the creation of quality content serves as a conduit to all subsidiary social media activities anyway. Quality content creates discussion and debate within the right communities. Regular discussion leads to friendships and relationships with community members, which naturally facilitates further conversations on other community member blogs. And the development of friendships over time will also open opportunities for mutual submission agreements with fellow bloggers.

Ultimately, it’s important to remember that the primary aim of social media consumers is the discovery of quality content. So it makes sense that the quickest way to win respect and visibility is via content. So while I won’t be retiring my StumbleUpon and Sphinn accounts, it’s time to spend more time writing and a little less time ‘being social’.

TagsSocial media, social news, Sphinn, StumbleUpon