Pointless Social Media Marketing Activities

To all marketing on social media platforms,

Do you agree that most of the social media marketing (SMM) things to do listed below are now practically pointless activities and result in little or no ROI. Please comment below and tell us what your experience is.

Habitual and pointless social media marketing activities that waste your time, money and energy.

This is not a total critique of SMM per se, but rather an attempt to get to the root of what really works and what is just wasted energy. Let's list these activities first, the platforms should easily come to mind. I will not mention names to avoid retaliation as few of them have any concept of fair play or ownership of the error of their ways, on the contrary the total domination of their competition and enslavement of their users is their only business model.

Constantly posting to groups or so called communities ...who's listening?
Using bots or auto posting services to post at recommended times ...who's reading them?
Answering and asking questions on Q&A platforms ...who's listening?
Producing and posting half-baked promotional content ...why should anyone care?
Posting and commenting on bulletin boards and forum platforms ...mostly lost in translation.
Telling the echo chamber what you had for breakfast and how you feel about that news byte ...?
Commenting on the posts of those who have thousands of apparent followers ...useful idiots.
Blogging ...what is the percentage of bloggers making a living from blogging.
Churning out click bait type content ...go for it as this still works on YouTube.
Following influencers and celebrities in the hope of being noticed ...in another life maybe.
Inviting total strangers to like your page ...you will remain strangers.
Do you want to add total stranger to your business contacts ...why not.
Canvasing reviews from people who have not used your service ...can they be verified.
Swallowing SMM rock stars bs claims whilst waiving cash about ...oh yeah baby.

All the activities above are employed towards one end and that is to capture visits to your content, there is zero real conversation involved. Can we not yet see how futile and counter-productive this "anti-social" activity really is. Why do we believe such insincere and shallow communications could produce any lasting or meaningful results, this is delusional thinking. There is nothing social or sane about treating others online in a way that you would never dream of doing so in the flesh.

Obviously the above behavior does not describe and account for all such social media marketing activity, it is a large portion though. I admin 80+ Facebook business groups and I would estimate that about 10-20% of the content posted would be considered sincere, legitimate, well-crafted and thought out by marketing standards of just a decade or so ago.

The primary goal of all social media platforms is to keep their members busy on the platform and for them to return to the platform as often as possible, i.e. to consume your time and attention in order to sell ad space, you are the product that is sold and you don't get paid a cent. Does one need to state the obvious more to fully describe why we have these "marketing" activities pushed on us by these platforms.

Disclaimer: Yes we have the same posting features on our platform, the big difference is that we do not have an auto posting ability, and aren't constantly encouraging posting and then making exaggerated claims as to effectiveness by pointing to useless vanity metrics, and all the while charging for ads displayed on your page or group that are hardly noticed by anyone. Our platform posts also don't immediately fall off the page and therefor they have longevity.

The listed activities account for about 90% of SMM efforts, how are they working for you? Have you picked up the common thread yet, a lack of integrity would describe it. Social media has trained people to be shallow and insincere and to say and do whatever it takes to get a click, like, share, wink, poke or sale, basically to use each other. Online people have become more plastic and transparent than tupperware.

Why on earth do otherwise normal people think they need to be fake once online? Maybe it is because we are so used to being lied to and manipulated by the powers that be that we think we need to do the same thing to get any reaction from others. I admit that at times I've almost come to believe this myself, that unless you manipulate people you can't get through to them at all, as this is all they have ever known and seem to respond to. This is a very sad state of affairs.

Advertising and marketing used to require imagination, skill and facts, whatever happened.

There is lying, cheating, stealing and manipulation everywhere. Research most large corporations or platforms and it does not take long to pick up on a pattern of endemic deception. Under scrutiny many have finally admitted fudging the numbers and faking it until they made it, and what is worse is the general populations indifference and acceptance of these methods of getting ahead, as if envious of their guile, the anti hero archetype or the allure of the sociopath. Is this the type of society we want to keep building.

Nothing new here, in some cultures deception is taken for granted, it's a given in taking care of business via haggling and hustling. How naive to think we had progressed beyond this human defect. So maybe no big surprise finding so much deception online, new and better tools for the same old tricks. It's enough for sensible people to conclude that social media and especially SMM is a complete waste of time and money and so is our post-modern consumer driven society. Once again it is this Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde psycho flip once people log onto their favorite platform and engage in their morally bankrupt roleplay and post whatever they think will do the trick and get the fix with no regards to truth or integrity. As if there is no alternative behavior available to them and they are nothing but mindless consumer drones plugged into the matrix.

It's one thing putting your best foot forward and another thing fabricating your whole persona. Internet tools today give you every help you need in conjuring up a fake reality for the sake of making a quick buck, and it would seem that most people are becoming expert with these tools. We even have fake celebrities that are celebrated for their guile in fabricating sophisticated faux realities along with the attendant lavish lifestyles, its a whole new art form. There are some very creative content creators today, creative and imaginative content is not the issue, the issue is a dire lack of truthfulness and fact checking.

Who's more popular Batman or the Joker, the Joker seems to enjoy a stronger pull these days, his stock has jumped thanks to the internet. Honesty and integrity is boring, bring on the clowns and let's have some excitement around here folks. Bad publicity is good publicity playing the Joker, you can't lose as there are always enough wishy-washy suckers to entertain onto their feat and into your pocketbook, it's easy as pie for these hucksters. There is a part of the brain that has evolved over eons to just love the joker and his entertaining antics, ho ho ho you got me again it cries with delight. In some twisted and obscure way people love being lied to, political rallies demonstrate this fact perfectly.

So what is the conclusion then, carry on regardless being led by the nose by an ever more technologically sophisticated deception matrix as if you have no choice, or buck the trend and display truth and integrity and swim against the current, what role will you play in this SMM game and in society as a whole.

If you would like to promote your business or venture in an authentic and sincere manner and also support other small business owners seeking the same, then you're welcome to join our entrepreneur network that works on the principal of mutual respect and reciprocity.

All comments and suggestions are welcome, please add them below. Our platform is a free thought ⁄ free speech zone.

View our Entrepreneur Articles on our vision to build up local small business.

Regards, Justin Grounds.
Founder & Admin

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