One of the most interesting points Gary Vaynerchuk made durring my interview with him was that he predicts Social Media is entering a “bubble” much like the web did just before the “dot com crash”.  Right now, everyone thinks they “need social media”, but few even know what that means (or just how wrong it is to say “We need social media”.  Social media is not a tv commercial, it is not a f**king Showtime Rotisserie Oven designed so you can “SET IT!!!…. AND FORGET IT!!!!”

At SXSW, Gary said something to the notion of “The worst thing that ever happened to ‘Social’ was adding the word ‘media’ to it” and I agree. Those using “social” for the focus of ‘campaigns’ as opposed to taking a longer term strategy are playing the wrong game. Social is the tool, the mentality, the LONG TERM strategy. Truly buying into social, committing to that kind of transparency, and setting it into a different category than the one you use to record click through rates, open rates, and conversion rates is not an easy task.

It is not about friends, or likes, or views. It is about truly caring and too few companies (and people for that matter) do.  I meet business owners and social media “gurus” alike almost daily who fail to recognize this.  The “yeah, yeah, that is nice, but….” mentality will not last.

Stop, look at what you are posting, creating, and sharing. Ask yourself “Why am I really doing this?” Do you really care?

If not, that’s fine. Just accept that this is a game you will not be playing for very much longer.