I sent this response to a community member who was inspired by the piece on Time. The person plans to leave social media because apparently the individual thinks he/she is spending too much time therein.
The biggest victory in life is victory over your time. If you master your time, you will win your future. Greatness has been achieved not because of special talent but rather via total dedication, perseverance and commitment through mastering of time. A man who cannot manage his seconds will wander through the boundless of time.
My Response (edited for public): Greetings. Social media is not overly bad if you use it productively. It is the largest marketing channel in our time. I am always here (LinkedIn, one hour per day) because this is my CNN, NTA, etc for my companies. The key question is this: is that social media adding value to you or your career? I have no Facebook, Twitter, etc accounts because they offer no value to me. But I spend time on LinkedIn because it expands my business missions. So, the answer is not necessarily leaving social media just for leaving. The key is making sure you find value in new technologies because in this world, social media will run commerce and industry.
That is it people: why will I send money to Guardian and NTA for adverts, when if I post something here, real professionals comment, and share. Everyone needs to build his or her Webinality especially if you are in consumer business. It is better to be speaking to people that want to listen than shouting on radio when no one cares. Social media is not bad – what is bad is when you have no personal social media strategy on what it can get for you.
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There is a global disintermediation which social media is enabling: you must find a mechanism to find a space if you run a business and want your message out. Yes, some Nigerian women live on social media to market stylist hair designs to Nigerians in diasporas. If you think they are always wasting time on Instagram and Facebook without knowing those are their offices, you do not understand the new world.
LinkedIn Comment on Feed
The social media platform is actually most functional office for many players in the services industry, commerce and their constituents. The physical offices are largely there to maintain the obsolete idea that a business must have a physical address, but the reality is that no deals have been struck in many of those offices, many come via social media.
The nature of work has changed drastically, you do not measure people’s seriousness or productivity level by when they wake up early in the morning to join traffic queues, or how rough their palms are. People run companies that generate millions from their homes, some work more than ten hours daily. Just have your working tools wherever you are, you don’t need to wear suit and tie in order to prove that you are working.
The social media platform offers so much, but you must also learn to be a player, not just a mere spectator. If you leave social media, where do you go then? The people you plan to meet physically may be chatting and exchanging documents, while you talk to them. Just have a strategy, marketing does not mean you must be running an advert; you can be doing so without even knowing
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