Is social networking valuable for business? Seth Godin, widely considered an expert in all things marketing, says it may well be useless.
Seth’s Take on Social Networking
Networking for networking sake is worthless, according to Seth who answered the question in a recent Open Forum Q&A.
Having hundreds of Facebook friends, or thousands of followers on Twitter may not be as valuable as having a handful of deep relationships you can count on, people who will be there when you make the big ask.
Seth points out that networking is always important when it’s real, and a useless distraction when it’s fake. The internet has allowed an enormous amount of fake networking to take place.
We are becoming too focused on breadth and not depth of relationships. We count who likes us today, and who doesn’t, and are consumed with the metrics (friends, followers, connections) and not the true nature of those connections.
What Matters are Where the Real Relationships Are
Seth says we should be asking ourselves “Are their people out there I’d go out of my way for, and would they go out of their way for me?” That’s what you should be tracking.
And how do you get there? By going out of your way for them, and earning the privilege of one day having that connection be worthwhile.
Running Time: 2min
Your Turn
I’d like to hear what you think of social networking for business? Agree or disagree with Seth in the comments below.
photo credit: bpedro
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Needed to be said. . . I know there are campaigns that can be leveraged using Twitter and FaceBook, I know this. . . but motive, like everything in business creates sincerity.
Networking is about sincerity.
My Twitter network is about meeting up, lunching and helping. I love it!
What about the value of ‘loose ties’? People who find jobs through their network often find it through a friend of a friend, not through the friend directly.
depth and not breadth is the most important, I agree. The point that I see as a value in breadth is that you have a greater chance of finding people that are interested in what you have to say – on something like Twitter. I only use FaceBook for family, friends and former students of mine, so I can’t speak about the business value of FB. I have a large following on Twitter, over 30k, and when I RT a post that I like I will often get that site owner that comes back to me to tell me that they gained followers following my tweets – and I’ve people that have credited sales to my tweets.
So, there is a value in breadth that can’t be ignored.
Very relevant. I wrote about this topic in my most recent blog post. Businesses are so busy jumping on the bandwagon, they forget to develop a plan or figure out how social media will be useful to them. Your business will not grow if you have a ton of meaningless relationships…
Great find, thanks for posting a link to the video.
@Garret
I love Twitter too, and there I have what I’m calling “breadth” of relationships…it’s great, numerous people to share with and learn from, but when it comes to a big ask, I’m not sure there are more than 1-2 people from Twitter I could go to.
Matt
@CK
I think Seth’s point was that when it comes to something big the quality of the relationship will be important. There is still a lot to be said for “loose ties”, and knowing a bunch of people on a more casual level, because as you say that’s how people get jobs, etc.
Thanks for your comment!
Matt
@McLaughlin
It certainly is a numbers game at some level of networking, kind of like CK pointed out there is value in loose ties. I think Twitter is the best example we have of a loose ties network…and if you build trust over time with a select few of your followers it can become the feeder to your core network.
Matt
@Mariano
I’m going to be doing some posts in the next couple weeks on social media planning and strategy. I agree with you, this seems to be an area many small business owners need education in.
Checking out your blog post now…glad you liked the video.
Matt
“Having hundreds of Facebook friends, or thousands of followers on Twitter may not be as valuable as having a handful of deep relationships you can count on, people who will be there when you make the big ask.”
I’m going to have to strongly disagree here, and here’s why. I have formed real life, deep meaningful personal and business relationships from people I have met on Twitter and other various social networking platforms. So for me social media IS about making new friends and forming real meaningful relationship.
For some Goof that doesn’t have comments on his blog and sold a few lame books to be lecturing on social anything seems ironic.
The reality is the almost 4000 followers and god knows how many friends on FB have not made any difference in what I do.
I’m fortunate enough to have some awesome people I know now but that took meeting 1000’s and getting blown off by some self-centered lamers.It was worth it.
@Gerald
But your not really disagreeing…and here’s why.
As Seth mentions you form deep, meaningful, relationships over time once you’ve earned the trust of each other. In your case you aren’t making friends just for the sake of having them, or “keeping score”, you are putting the time in to the friendships to turn them into something meaningful.
We first “met” on Twitter I believe, and have “known” each other for about a year now…had either of us not wanted to put the time into fostering a deeper relationship, we’d probably not be having this conversation right now. We’re a good example of doing it the right way, which I beleive is Seth’s main point.
Matt
@John
There’s the fire I thought this post would ignite!
What you’re saying is you’ve used the breadth of social media to add to the depth of your network. Right on!
Matt
Maybe adding a more personal type of networking would help out.
Once you have done something for someone you should be able to move it online.
I agree that social media can be worthless when you are not making genuine relationships.
So many people out there bragging on the number of followers they have on Twitter, when I know myself that most of those people aren’t event updating everyday themselves. They have ’surrogates’ do it for them or they post via Ping.fm. They don’t even show up!!!
If people aren’t going to use online networking in the way it should be used, then yes, Seth Godin is 100% correct – it’s useless!
Personally, I’ve always said that it’s quality and not quantity. I’d rather have a small following of people who are genuinely interested in me and my business than thousands of followers who don’t care who I am!
My business has grown and it’s changed over the last year since I’ve been networking online! For me it’s been a wild ride! I wouldn’t suggest people not use social media venues for networking, but I do suggest that people be present and actually build honest relationshops – ones that will stand the test of time!
Eydie
@Eydie
“I’d rather have a small following of people who are genuinely interested in me and my business than thousands of followers who don’t care who I am!”
Couldn’t agree more…quality trumps quantity everytime!
Thanks for the comment,
Matt
I’m speaking to a group of about 100 women on Thursday – about using social media to help them grow their business – and, as I usually do, I’ll be telling them that it’s the quality of the relationships made and not the quantity!
So glad this topic finally came up!
Eydie
I also think social networking has the potential to be a valuable tool in running/growing a business; however, it is only ONE tool, and it is absolutely NOT about numbers, but about quality of the connections we do make.
I do not have thousands of followers on Twitter, nor do I want thousands. What I do have is a pretty good network of people with whom I am making friends, sharing advice, sharing my art and my progress, and from whom I am learning. There are several that I would meet up with in a heartbeat if we ever found ourselves in the same location.
Same thing with Facebook. I do not have a huge number of fans, but that page does give me viral potential, and I have a built-in mailing list.
Tools. Tools to make our lives easier. It’s how we use them and how we treat the people in our networks that counts. Getting business from them is a bonus.
BTW, I love “Small Biz Bee.” Excellent newsletter for a startup/noob like myself. Thanks!
Jennifer Moore
JenniferLynn Productions, LLC
@MGL
And vice versa…you can “do something” for somebody online and move it to the real world as well. But either way you are right on that you need to get to a personal level for it to have much meaning.
Matt
@Jennifer
I hear ya – I think I have about 16,000 followers on Twitter right now, and it’s impossible to keep up with all of them. It becomes a way to share information broadly as opposed to getting deep with each and every one. What happens though is you end up getting deeper with a few of them, doing things for each other (guest blog posts, etc) and eventually those relationships turn into the meaningful ones Seth was talking about. So in that respect Twitter is a tool as you say, and if we use it right we can foster a few deeper relationships from it.
Thanks for coming by, and I’m glad you are finding information here to help you! Let me know if you need anything.
Matt
@Eydie – I’m on Twitter 25+ days a month and know what you mean. I found a post by someone that really interested me, so I did a RT – since she got me to the post. Her reply came 2 or 3 days later and she wrote “I never posted that!” I went back to her tweets, found the link and sent it back to her.
Heck, if anything a RT is a good thing – but it is most useful if you are active AND remember what you did.
I suppose Tweeting and Drinking don’t mix.
@McLaughlin – LOL… Funny – Tweeting and Drinking don’t mix! LOL
And that’s the hard part… remembering what you posted! People post so often, unless they are keeping a spreadsheet how DO you remember? In addition, so many people are using sites like Ping.fm (as I mentioned in my original post) and send out updates to ALL their social sites at one time – an many times they hire someone to do it for them. They are NOT building relationships that way!
In my business, I do manage some of my clients social sites, however, I generally do the back-end stuff – I tell them they need to do get involved and post their own comments, etc.
Twitter is not my favorite venue in the first place. I prefer Facebook as it is there where I am actually making and building relationships. Why not join me there? http://facebook.com/eydies.office.com
Matt, I totally agree with Seth on all points. The issue I have with b2b social networking is that it not only consumes time even with management tools but can produce alot of noise without much substance. Quality versus quantity. Good network versus bad network.
For example I follow and have very few followers on twitter.Some people I just delete because their is nothing in common. All they want is to sell me something I don’t need. But some people I am connecting directly with them. My personal facebook page even though I have some real connects is mostly producing friends for fun folks not real business minded people.
I totally agree with Seth, nothing is as solid and as powerful as a real life network connection. What really matters is the real relationships like he said.
Till then,
Jean
First, I’m a big Seth Godin fan. I respect his insights, read all of his books, etc. I agree with Seth in that deep relationships can be a huge driver for your business when you cultivate them properly and offer something remarkable. With that said, I think social media can get there. I would imagine that Seth believes his relationship with some of his blog readers (me being one of them) are truly meaningful – it’s the people who read his posts, his books, interact with him, etc. I think successful social media marketers can connect on that same level. In fact, many of Seth’s marketing principles can be applied to social media, but just like anything else, you have to adapt those principles to the channel if you want to be successful.
Best,
Ryan Taft
http://www.squidoo.com/Catalyst-Marketers
Glad I heard this early enough in my blogging career.
Ganapathy´s last blog ..Good to great by Jim Collins