Quick Question: Is Social Networking for Business Over-Valued?

I believe social networking definitely has the potential for substantial value.  Smart social networking provides a means to quickly engage others (both directly known and unknown) to an organization, business, product, idea, cause or goal across platforms.  Effective social networking provides the opportunity for an individual, business or organization to efficiently market, brand and sell itself to parties across borders.  High-level social networking provides an introduction and connection to commence valuable projects, more or less projects that would otherwise never be possible.  Relationships created today through social networking will directly and indirectly create immense valuation and ROI across global markets.

At the same time I believe social networking is a buzz concept that businesses and organizations often jump into with the hope of quickly striking online gold through no real viable plan.  I believe I am able to say with certainty that social networking is often poorly engaged and performed.  And I believe for most businesses and organizations that social networking, as it is practically performed, results in little dollar-added value.  This does not mean I believe social networking lacks the potential for much added value to most businesses and organizations but rather that the current use of social networking does not translate to much actual revenue for most businesses and organizations.

1. A Brief Intro to My Background

I am in no way a tech expert.  I have never claimed to be a tech expert and to be upfront at this point in my career I have no interest in being a tech expert either.  I cannot write code, program/fix a computer or design any electronic images worth seeing.   However, I respectfully do know much more about tech and tech issues than the average attorney.

Out of law school I first worked for two internet companies, one in Washington, DC and the other in Silicon Valley.  I received a crash course on the power of the internet and technology.  Based on this I have always utilized technology, including social networking, software and applications, throughout my law practice.  Similarly I have acted at times as an evangel of technology.  Throughout my career I have persuaded many other professionals (both legal and non-legal) to increase their use of technology for improved efficiency as well as revenue.  Yet, I am beginning to question if social networking may be over-valued.

2.     I have traditionally placed strong value in Social Networking.

I have utilized Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn for business purposes for years.  In fact I am so old (almost 42) that I can remember the precursor to what we now know as online Social Networking, which was chat rooms in places such as AOL and TheGlobe.com (which was arguably the first major online company (albeit very temporarily as it did not last long). 

Online social networking in some form has been a component of my entire career.  My first job out of law school was at Politics.com, and we hosted through our site (by utilizing a co-branded Yahoo network) the first online chat with a major political candidate (former U.S. Senator and 2000 Presidential candidate Bill Brandley).  This and other chats were also a precursor to what we now know as social networking.  People connected during the chats.  Also before, during and after chats online participants would virtually congregate in chat/discussion rooms and interact with each other.

3.    Online Social Networking is now a major Buzz-Phrase

When I talk to business people with limited online presence, they often believe getting active in online social networking is either the missing key to their business prosperity or will raise their business to new heights.  I regularly speak with individuals in business who for the first time are  engaging a social network campaign and believe the campaign will quickly bring big money in the bank.  Especially for people with limited tech knowledge, partaking in social networking seems an opportunity to quickly unlock the mystery of internet fortune.  Social networking appears modern, forward-thinking and cutting-edge. In fact when business people my age start social networking, they often feel engaging a social network campaign even makes them feel young and connected to youth.

Social networking has a cachet that implies being technically advanced, and from a practical standpoint it can be exponentially cheaper and more efficient to commence a multi-platform relatively extended online social networking campaign than, as an example, to run just a couple television ads.  Additionally a benefit of social networking is that the individual, business or organization at least has some lasting control over the results of ongoing social networking.  For example if an organization new to Twitter puts substantial time and expense into building a Twitter presence through ongoing sponsored listing campaigns, after the sponsored campaign ends the organization continues to have whatever followers have accrued.  In other words, if you pay Twitter to feature your account and then stop, your account continues to maintain whatever Twitter followers you gained by having the featured account campaign.  This differs from running a commercial on television for example, where once the commercial has run, the value of the campaign entirely ends until another television commercial is purchased.

 4.  For Most Businesses, actually Making Real Money from Social Networking is Not Easy.

I am just going to post information in support of this statement on Twitter and Facebook accounts for business.

Twitter

I use, like and value Twitter.  That being said, unless a user has a tremendous number of followers, it is very difficult to translate tweets into real revenue.

A.  Every day new people open Twitter accounts and immediately try to market themselves by tweeting something similar to: “Just saw A River Runs Through It again- You’re the best! @BradPitt

They then receive no response to their initial and subsequent tweets, and tweeting to practically no one is more than a waste of time.  Tweeting to no one is fairly demeaning.  If someone has a successful and/or busy business, it makes no sense why that same person would just start regularly wasting time by tweeting to practically no one.

B.  Anyone who has used Twitter for any period of time knows Twitter is full of fake, spam accounts. There must be hundreds of thousands of fake accounts featuring different pretty girls as the profile photo who profess love in nonsensical English to every account followed.  These accounts are at best extremely annoying.  When my Twitter account got to a certain level, I started receiving dozens of these fake accounts as followers every week.  I tried to delete every fake follower I received, but still some Twitter users with large numbers of followers do allow these fake accounts to build up their numbers.

C.  Some Twitter users tweet almost nonstop, which makes many followers ignore their Twitter account feed entirely.

Facebook

Practically no business owner I have interacted with claims to make virtually any revenue from their business Facebook page.  Facebook is a simple platform for viewing family pictures and/or friend updates, but it provides a poor platform for business information.  On a personal note my law firm business Facebook page has over 2400 likes, and the page still has so little value I seldom update it. 

I used to regularly visit a Facebook business page for a popular local restaurant here in Baltimore named Clementine, as they updated their Facebook page daily with great pictures and specials.  It was the best, more interactive local business Facebook page I ever visited, and my family liked regualrly going there.  However, Clementine closed earlier this year, so their outstanding Facebook page could not have brought them too much business.

Obviously a benefit of a Facebook business page is marketing, but the best business use of Facebook pages for marketing are often for businesses with no real need to market on Facebook anyway.  Internationally known sports teams for example do not need to run an engaging Facebook page for fans to like their product.  Conversely, I cannot imagine an individual who does not like FC Barcelona, Real Madrid or Manchester City to suddenly become a fan based on an engaging team Facebook page.

 5.  A completely under-utilized Social Networking tool is likely Fitbit.

This probably deserves its own article, but Fitbit maybe the most under-utilized social networking tool.

Fitbit is a little strap worn like a watch, and it keeps track of fitness.  There are different versions of Fitbit, but every Fitbit at least counts daily step numbers for exercise.  Using a Fitbit allows an individual to keep track of their step numbers in an account, and friends with Fitbits may be added to an account for step number challenges.

For example, tomorrow I have several consultations and meetings scheduled, so I might normally not get much exercise.  Yet, if I invite one of my Fitbit friends to a daily step challenge, especially if I talk trash, I will be more motivated tomorrow to at least walk up steps at work than ride the elevator.

I do not have many friends on my Fitbit account, and all friends on my Fitbit account are also Facebook friends.  However, friends on my Fitbit account are much closer friends than most of my Facebook friends.  The truth is I do not want to share my exercise regimen with every friend on Facebook, and I also do not care to know most of their exercise routines.  Moreover, I am also uninterested in engaging most Facebook friends in exercise challenges.  

For these reasons Fitbit provides the opportunity for a more engaging social network platform, and any more engaging social network platform provides opportunity for business.  Still to my knowledge Fitbit is not utilized as a social networking platform for business, as to this point Fitbit has not engaged itself as a possible third-party business platform.