There is a lot of debate these days about the effectiveness of social media. Indeed what prompted me to write this article, was a question posed along the lines of – which was most effective social media or face to face presentation.

If you want to sell – you need to be in front of qualified prospects. This is where so many businesses fail.

Do not confuse activity and results. We all know Pareto’s Law 80 / 20, that is only 20 per cent of effort produces 80 per cent of the results. Dabbling away at social media may feel like an effective promotion of business, but when you read the rest of the banal comments about “don’t know whether to have pizza or Chinese tonight” you can’t help but wonder is that the best place to try and promote your business.

Would you wade through all the tweets to find a plumber if you had a burst pipe in the house. You may be well advised to go to a business networking site to satisfy the need, but a social networking site – I don’t think so!

Prospect – qualify – close. Yes you can use social networking to prospect, but you can also waste a lot of time. No matter how much people like you, if they don’t have a need for your service or product, then they aren’t going to give you their hard earned cash.

A lot of social networking is a bit like the business equivalent of, flirting – but never asking for a date.