False economy What’s in it for me? Understand what makes the

Social media is bullshit
What’s in it for me? Learn not to get fooled by 
the hype around social media.
Social media has become ubiquitous in recent 
years. Be it a “find us on Facebook and Twitter” 
button on every product or commercial, or its 
role in major social upheaval like the Arab 
Spring, social media often finds its way into the 
news.
Not only that, but there is a growing number of 
products and people who aim to offer you or 
your business the secrets to unlocking the power 
of social media. Furthermore, they’ll tell you that 
social media is indispensable, and that without it 
you’re simply missing out on potential profits.
So you probably have been intrigued enough to 
try your luck and get in on social media 
platforms to promote yourself, your product or 
your business. All those books by so-called 
experts told you to do it, so it is important to do, 
right? WRONG!
In these blinks, you’ll learn:
Why you do not need to have an active social 
media account for your business
Why total accidents can lead to huge record 
deals
How marketers breathed life back into their 
businesses just by inventing new words
And finally, how marketers invent their expertise 
out of thin air just to sell you some bullshit.
The social media revolution in society and 
business is a myth.
In recent years, social media has been hailed as 
revolutionary and as a marketing tool that no 
entrepreneur or business can neglect if they 
want to be successful. But are these 
assumptions about social media really true?
Let’s start with the fact that most social media 
outlets are actually owned by corporations. Sure, 
it’s true that there was a time where we more or 
less had an equal voice on the web, and you 
could use your blog, for example, to 
independently gain access to an audience and 
be heard. But today the majority of the most 
popular 
blogs 
are 
owned 
by 
media 
conglomerates like Google, Time Warner or 
AOL.
In fact, most sites with user-created content are 
actually exploiting their users: people create 
content for free for sites like the Huffington Post, 
which the big corporations then turn to profit 
through advertising.
Furthermore, there’s nothing too new or 
revolutionary about social media. In fact, most of 
these “new” sites are simply reiterations of older 
ideas: before Twitter, there was AOL Instant 
Messenger; before Facebook, there was 
Classmates.com; and even Google has been 
around since 1999.

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And they’re no more “revolutionary” than they 
are new. There is no real difference in the way 
we interacted with media before the advent of 
social media and what we do now: we tweet 
about what’s happening on TV, not the other 
way around.
Moreover, all the hype around social media 
sounds a lot like a pitch for a get-rich-quick 
scheme: just use social media and soon you’ll 
be a millionaire, too!
Social media is not a revolutionary marketing 
tool, but a handful of success stories where 
someone like Justin Bieber was lucky enough to 
get rich after becoming a YouTube sensation 
make it easier for Marketers to sell us the 
“secrets” of making money on social media, and 
for Analysts to sell their advice to businesses.