No Social Media?

At the risk of being pedantic, I thought I’d write a post about why our small company doesn’t have social media. Back in the day, way, way, way, back in the day, I started a blog. This was back before Facebook existed. I had a MySpace. I had a Blogger blog. I actually made money (albeit, a dinner out was about what it covered).

Then came social media, fast and furious. I was training on HubSpot. Every time I blinked, it seemed like I had a new business social media page or account. I had 10 google accounts. I ran multiple Facebook business pages, twitter accounts, instagrams, and who knows what other social media time forget (like Gather.com). I was good. Oh so good. I was really good at content, and particularly at tagging other people and businesses that I knew would push the organic reach. It was easy to build followers, get interaction, and talk to real people about fun things I was part of creating. Pants on Fire 5k, I’m looking at you!

Somewhere along the way, monetization won in a big way. And the bots came. And social media, by and large, has become a toxic echo chamber where people feed their fear and anger, as they continue to splinter into smaller groups of people who only agree with each other.

Gone is the community, the sense of connection, and the joy. Gone is the illusion that the creators and owners of social media want anything but billions more to pile onto their already eye-popping piles of wealth. Long gone are any guardrails around reading factual information vetted by journalist (paid or citizen volunteers) who simply want to get the truth out.

What’s a small-town business owner to do? While I certainly don’t want to bring politics to the front and center, I cannot participate in an economic force that gives so much wealth and power to so few, while turning people against each other, and ignoring the real-world societal and mental-health impacts.

All of the above is why our small business does not have social media. We have our website, email, and phone. Reach out to us anytime. We are a small team, in a small town, committed to connection, in-person.