I was listening to The Minimalist Podcast today, and they had an interesting discussion of if Social Media is actually needed anymore for promotion. Obviously it's a benefit, but is the benefit worth it?

One thing I did really agree with is talking about how a smaller connected community, like how forums used to be, is more intimate and close knit than social media can be. They said that humans are meant to have a smaller group of people around them to discuss the specific topics rather than having millions of people in one room trying to participate in the same discussion at once.

I definitely agree with that. Make forums great again! The age of forums is one that I long for, but I digress, that's not where we are today. Today the meta seems to be about trying to do what you can to feed the algorithm to get as many eyes on your content as possible, despite if the person agrees with you, finds what you're trying do useful at all, or who knows what.

More eyes means more potential customers, so that's good, but if it's just feeding the social media machine, then what's the cost? Much of social networks work by addicting people to their platform and feeding people the extremes to get them to engage, rather than feeding good content that is actually helpful.

I know that for me personally spending time on social media is draining and leaves me feeling empty inside... I know I need to do it, apparently, if for nothing else than marketing Anthology Gateway. But is it really the best use of my time and energy? Is it really the best way to bring in customers?

What are your thoughts?