Social Media – If It Was Easy Everyone Would Do It

Social Media – the buzzword of the last decade or so and the panacea to all of your marketing ills. The silver bullet to rejuvenate your sales and put your brand on the map. I’m reminded of a phrase my grandad used to say “if it was easy everyone would do it” and I think it holds particularly true for social media.

Over my years being involved with social media I’ve seen lots of different faces come and go. Lots of people with pep in their step, the new kids in the class as it were, bright eyed and full of zeal. I remember some of the people I first connected with online many moons ago when starting to use social media for LadyUmbrella like Chris Reimer, Jason Sadler and Krisha De who have all gone on to be pretty successful in social media. However, for each one who has persisted online and in social media there must be hundreds who have fallen by the wayside (inflating social media user account numbers I’m sure).

Social Media – If It Was Easy Everyone Would Do It

Often times people approach social media with the notions mentioned in the first paragraph and a nice smidgen of hubris “Sure, it’s just Facebook and Twitter, it can’t be that hard, I’m going to rock it!” but it doesn’t take long for the reality to dawn on them. Social media really isn’t a cake walk. There are many demons to the social media life that often don’t get mentioned – like when a Facebook update gets ZERO LIKES or when your tweet gets NO RESPONSES and your site gets only a piddling of traffic.

There are no overnight wins in social media (unless you’re Charlie Sheen but then, technically speaking, that’s #biwinning)

The reality is that social media, whilst it can be an effective tool for getting traffic to your site, is a slog and a half. There are no overnight wins in social media (unless you’re Charlie Sheen but then, technically speaking, that’s #biwinning) and if your mindset isn’t correct when approaching social media you’ll struggle to get a win in 6 months.

In social media you have to be able to take the rough with the smooth and try pace yourself. All too often people get burnt out in the first few months – keep your blogging powder dry, social media is a marathon and not a sprint. And you know what, marathons are hard and that’s what makes completing them such an achievement. If it was easy, well, everyone would do it and then the achievement would be diminished! Win your race!

P.S. Thanks to Elena for all the graphic design work for this post and previous ones.