The Dark Side of Social Media

 

For at least a couple years now, everyone who’s anyone has been saying you NEED to use social media for your wedding business.

“It’s where the brides are, it’s free marketing, it’s the wave of the future, it will change your entire life…”

This isn’t 100% true.

You don’t HAVE to have a Facebook page or a Twitter account to grow your wedding business. And it isn’t exactly “free” because it costs your time, eating up those precious minutes you could use to do something else. However…

If you’re a wedding business with a limited marketing budget who needs to reach your target market as quickly and inexpensively as possible, social media belongs in your marketing activities.

Consider these social media statistics:

• 84% of couples use the internet to plan their weddings, according to the Wedding Report.
• There are over 800 million Facebook users. At my last check there are 1,459,740 engaged females age 21-32 on Facebook in the US alone.
• The average user spends 55 minutes on Facebook each day.
• Twitter has fewer users (175 million accounts) but those users are more likely to follow a brand they purchase from than on Facebook, according to this Twitter vs. Facebook infographic.
• Every post and tweet makes it easier for brides and grooms to find you whether they’re on or off their social media accounts.

One look at the demographics and it’s clear that your target brides are using social media, particularly Facebook.

Everyone’s so busy shouting from the rooftops about how critical Facebook and Twitter are for your wedding business, but very few people talk about the dangers of social media. That’s right, I said it’s dangerous.

In fact, if you don’t watch out, social media can HURT your business and even DECREASE the number of weddings you book.

Let’s take a look at the Dark Side of social media…

• It is a colossal time waster.

A quick visit to Facebook can easily lead to an hour long voyeuristic journey through your friends’ photo albums, and watching a single Youtube video can lead to hours wasted on dumb pet tricks and giggling babies.

• Every minute you spend on Facebook and Twitter is a minute you’re NOT spending on something else.

This is also called an, “Opportunity Cost.” Every thing we choose to do has a hidden cost because we’re sacrificing every other opportunity we could be pursuing with that time. If we’re updating our Facebook status, we’re consciously choosing NOT to follow up with leads or prepare for that big wedding this weekend.

• It feeds our addiction to distraction and interruption.

If you keep checking your Facebook and Twitter feed, it takes forever to get anything done. Each time someone posts something vaguely interesting, it keeps you from working on the money-making activities of your business.

Studies show when we are interrupted during the course of working on something, it takes us 20 minutes to get back into that uninterrupted flow state. That’s 20 minutes wasted with each interruption.  
 

Despite the dangers of social media, it’s still one of the best marketing tools for a wedding business…as long as you have a real strategy based on results.

I recently starting using the Social Media Black Belt system from Christine Dyer of BridalTweet.com. Let me tell you, it was an eye opener!

The first time I got out a timer to track my 15 minutes, I realized how truly inefficient my social media activities have been. Most of the time I’d fall down the black hole of Youtube videos, photos and blog posts, which made me want to avoid Facebook and Twitter altogether.

I’m finally streamlining and limiting my social media activities so that I’m ONLY focused on what gets results. (Okay, I still take a moment to get goofy with my real life friends and family on social media now and then.)

5 Rules for Making Money With Social Media

Here’s a quick summary of what I’ve learned so far…

Social media activities only work to get REAL leads if:

1. Your accounts are set up for maximum visibility.
2. You post the right topics at the right times.
3. You focus ONLY on activities that get results.
4. You measure those results to track your progress.
5. You limit your time with a routine to scheduling activities and use tools to increase your efficiency.

This system lets me do more focused lead-getting activities in 15 minutes per day on social media than most wedding professionals do in an entire year.

Wanna join me? Watch these  FREE videos from Bridal Tweet to learn how it’s done. (Note: you need to login or register for Bridal Tweet to check them out.)

What do you think about using social media for your wedding business?

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