Līve Ambitions

According to statistics, more and more small businesses are beginning to use social media as a way to promote their business.  While I agree that social media has become the 800 pound gorilla in the room, I’m not quite sure whether it’s effective enough to justify the amount of time invested.  Before I go further, let me lay out the pros and cons of social media for small businesses.

Pros:

• Good way to leverage high-traffic social media sites.
• Good way to spread the word about your product or service.
• Good for branding your company.

Cons:

• Heavy investment of time and effort.
• Only effective for certain types of niches or industries.
• Little return.

This is my opinion, but I don’t think there are enough benefits to justify spending all day on Twitter or Facebook trying to sell your service.  I mean who has time for it?!  If you’re running a small business, I’m sure your time is better spent on more important things other than updating Twitter.

Social media works for big companies.

Bigger companies would benefit more out of social media – I mean the companies with enough money to hire a dedicated social media specialist.  With a dedicated social media specialist, companies can effectively leverage the power of social media.

Social media also works for SEOs, marketing and media companies.

This is what marketers do.  They devote their time and energy trying to sell their services and products to other marketers.

Why social media isn’t the best marketing tool for small businesses.

Social media requires a lot of time to do it right.  More often than not, small businesses don’t have the resources to do it cost-effectively.  You have to understand your audience.  If you’re running an ecommerce store, there is a thin line between being perceived as spammy and being newsworthy.

Most social media sites are used by marketers and people in the media business.  Real end-users and shoppers use search engines to shop or find information.

Google has officially jumped on the Twitter bandwagon.  According to their press release last week, Google has agreed to include Tweets in their search results.  I really hope Google does this in a way that isn’t obtrusive with the current search interface and layout.  Hopefully, the extent of Tweet results will be limited to Google’s search options.  It would be a bad mistake to include Tweets within the “normal” search results.

What do you think of this deal?

I knew this was coming.  Because Twitter is so immensely huge and popular, Izea decided to create an advertising platform based solely on tweets.  So, if you have enough money to blow, sign up with SponsoredTweets.com and have your favorite celebrity tweet something about your offer.

It’s a pretty clever idea.  A celebrity with a big following can potentially influence thousands of followers to buy.  Obviously to maximize ROI, the key here is to target the right celebrity to promote your product or service.

This post was inspired by ShoeMoney’s post about how he made $1,120 in one day via Sponsored Tweets with only 4 tweets.  Man…I would be happy with $1 per tweet.  Anyways, if you ever make it to web celebrity status, SponsoredTweets.com may be worth checking out.  I don’t think they accept peons like me. 

Most of you already know that I’m not much of a Twitter fan, but I still use them because it’s the hottest thing in social media.  Today, Twitter launched their new homepage design, and I must admit I like the new look.  It has a nice and simple design with a prominent search bar at the top. 

Besides design, what I look for in websites is their usability and practicality.  I’m having doubts about their new search feature.  It’s bad enough that most people don’t go past the 1st page when searching for stuff, but the results are real time which means that you’re not always getting the best or most relevant results.  Is content on Twitter really meaty and compelling enough to justify search based solely on Tweets?  What do you think?

Twitter is the hottest thing happening right now.  Practically every celebrity, TV show, blog and magazine have been asking viewers to “follow me on Twitter.”  Is it just me, or are there others out there that think Twitter is just overhyped and overrated?  Does Twitter provide enough of a value-added service to justify the amount of praise and publicity it’s gotten?  Or, is it just a snowballing effect of media hype?

I’d say Twitter is a fad.  The site has some practical uses, but it’s nothing more than a mini-blog.  I mean who cares about what someone had for breakfast, or whether someone is using the toilet.  So many people use Twitter for such mindless conversations, it’s ridiculous.  I think people will eventually realize that Twitter is social media built on hype.  It’s human nature to follow the herd, and it’s exactly what has happened with Twitter.

I think there are some individuals and businesses that may benefit from Twitter, such as the Kogi lunch truck in L.A.  The Kogi lunch truck tweets their whereabouts to their loyal customers everyday.  But this represents only a tiny fraction of the entire Twitter population.

The Bottom Line:  The only reason why Twitter has become so popular is simply because of all the hype and media sensationalism it’s gotten.  When you think about it, the ones that really use Twitter are the people in the media and marketing business.  I don’t know of any friends or family members who use Twitter.   Maybe I’m just old fashioned and prefer to follow new stories through traditional outlets such as blogs or news publications.