How You The Customer Are Ruining Social Media

Posted by John Paul in social media

Open Your Eyes and Look Deeper

This post has been in my head for a longgg time. It needed to finally be unleashed haha

I have been noticing that Social Media/Social Media Marketing is going down the same road as Internet Marketing went into years ago.

More and more marketing dirt bags selling garbage. 

How is this your fault?

Keep reading to see what I mean and how and what you can do to help reverse it.

My goal with this post is to help open your eyes (you see that kids wide open eyes? haha) and to help push quality up and garbage down so that we ALL benefit in the end.

Have You Been Here

Your struggling to get your blog up or your online business up or to just make money online, and you see this all new Golden widget that will have you sitting on a beach drinking icy cold Coronas in 5 days?

I been there a few times in my early days and this is what I have learned…
You see the pretty sales page and it looks awesome in every way, shiny and new with lots of stats and photo proof and all the right words to get you all giddy inside and you BUY BUY BUY.

You then get your golden widget and you most likely will do one of 2 things:

  1. You open it quickly and dive in and realize it’s all half information or just bad information or to make it work it would take huge amounts of money to succeed. 

You then curse the industry and the marketer and vow to fight the online marketing demons.

OR

  2. You get the new golden widget and you do nothing, you let it sit there, knowing you have so much riding on this that you’re too afraid to even try the widget…afraid to fail.

Soon you forget the golden widget on your shelf all together and continue to buy new golden widgets hoping that will be the one to get you on that beach guzzling icy cold Coronas.

And the cycle continues, you throw it on the shelf, to afraid to take action and you then continue to BUY BUY BUY.

I Been There

I been at both places a couple times in the beginning of my journey online.

I fell for stupid shit thinking it was the answer.

I wasted money and time, I got pissed and cursed the industry.

I have put so much into a couple golden widgets I bought that I let them sit there for months, thinking..

“no hurry, all the answers are right there when I need them”

Both scenarios in the end lead to negativity in the industry, fear of buying again and lets the crap marketers keep on selling their garbage.

YOU Are The Solution

Remember how bad the Internet Marketing/Make Money Online niche got years back?

Well I am seeing the same happening to Social Media.

So many “experts” selling crap they know nothing about just to take your money.

The blame goes equally to the scam artist and to YOU the customer.

When you buy crap products and services from people and don’t do even the smallest amount of research into that person first is a BIG mistake on your part.

Research…HUH?

If someone is selling a how to get traffic tool then take 5 min and visit all their sites and see what type of traffic their are getting and…

If the site he owns is  2 yrs old and his Alexa score is 1 or 2 million then obviously this is not the guy to buy traffic advice from.

Right?!

If you look at a social media “expert” selling you a product helping you get better results on SM, then take 5-10 min and look at his Social Media profilers to see how he is doing. Look at his blog and see if he is getting his posts shared, if not, then this is not the guy to buy advice from.

Since social media at its core is about sharing, so any SM expert worth anything will at the very least know how to get their stuff shared… PERIOD!

Right?!

When you the customer don’t take the time to do your research a few negative things happen:

First -  You hurt the industry by letting the scammers keep selling crap.

Second – You hurt the “real” marketers selling quality products and services.

Third – You hurt yourself!

When you buy crap over and over again  it will make you jaded and will keep you from buying helpful, useful quality products and services that WILL help get you on that beach with your icy cold Corona.

Look Past The Pretty Stats

My man Marcus from TheSalesLion.com did a post about social media numbers are all fake. and he is right. Numbers can be faked or moved to show what you want them to show.

When looking at a new golden widget to buy, you need to look deeper:

sales page testimonials – are nice BUT not enough

stats in images and videos – are nice BUT not enough

well written informative copy – is nice BUT not enough

You need to look away from the sales page and look at what the seller is doing online.

Like I mentioned above…

If they sell a traffic product then visit all their sites and check there stats, that way what you find is on you and can’t be faked.

If they sell a social media product then get into all their social sites and websites and see what they are doing, again seeing is believing and what you find can’t be faked.

If they sell a SEO product then check all their sites ranks and at the very least check their main keywords and see if they rank, again this can’t be faked.

Now that you took 5-10 min to look deeper past the pretty sales page if what you see MATCHES what they are selling then BUY BUY BUY and refer them to anyone you know that could use their product.

BUT!

If what you find doesn’t match what they are selling then walk away saving yourself money and frustration and any hard feelings against the industry.

This is how YOU can help keep the social media industry cleaner with less garbage being sold and pushing the quality to the top.

Think About This

Do you know who stitched up the first American flag?

If you say Betsy Ross you would be completely wrong.

It was Mary Pickersgill.

Never heard of her?  Don’t worry you’re not alone.

So why is Betsy Ross the one in all the history books and the one you learned about in school?

Because her grandson had some really nice professional looking papers with a nice emotional story and took all that and told the world that Betsy Ross stitched it and everyone believed it.

That is what great promotion will do..so stop looking at the loudest and best looking products.

Chase The Activity To See The Proof!

Tags: Blogging, customers, selling a product, social media, social media experts, social media marketing, social media products, social media services