I did an article a few years ago on deleting your Social Media accounts with the exception of using social media for business. For the most part, I stand by that advice, the only reason you see me on social media is for business.

The way most people spend time on social media is a waste at best and a state killer at worst. The fact is you’ll never feel better after trolling through other people’s phony highlight reels on Fakebook for 2 hours.

With that said, I recognize the game has changed. And I also recognize that most guys, especially younger guys, haven’t and won’t give up their social media accounts.

So the question is how to make social media work for you. And social media as a term isn’t even relevant anymore. I no longer see a difference between social media and the internet. All I see are online platforms competing for your attention by giving you information.

People are now just as likely to get their news and information on Facebook or YouTube as they are through internet search. This is a massive change from even 3 years ago.

The internet at least to me is now:

• Google search (because bing and everything else don’t count)
• YouTube
• Facebook
• Twitter
• Linkedin
• Instagram (Snapchat looks to be dying)
• (*Amazon of course is huge but beyond the scope of this article as it’s mostly for buying products)

Here is how I recommend using the above platforms

1) Google search

Use google search to get useful personal improvement content. You want to spend your free time reading and watching content that add to your health, wealth, relationships, lifestyle, content that can be found on this site. My favorite way to get content is to bookmark sites I like (I’m old school). You can also subscribe to newsletters but I’d stay away from most forums. Some are good to browse but the signal to noise ratio is mostly bad, you want to only get content from authorities.

For business, if you have a brand, you should get a website. Yes content is moving towards video, but you can still host and stream all that video content on your site. 95% of my money comes from my site and I don’t see websites going anywhere anytime soon. Also, of all the platforms, your site is the only one you own.

2) YouTube

In the last few years, YouTube has become a massive resource of useful information (as opposed to cat vids). Again use it primarily for personal development and subscribe to useful channels like mine.

You can watch comedy in your free time but don’t add that to your subscription list. Your subscription list should be sacred, and only filled with useful content. Stay away from news, negativity and politics.

On a business level, YouTube is a game changer, my channel gets more views than my website. In today’s market you can blow up on YouTube alone. I highly recommend a YouTube channel to help build your brand.

3) Facebook

Facebook, much life YouTube has become an all inclusive ecosystem. With that said, I much prefer getting my videos and articles from Google and Youtube.

I use Facebook for nothing except promoting my content and I have no Facebook friends and I recommend you do the same. If you’re going to use Facebook just use it for subscribing to good personal development content. If you do have friends, don’t look throught their page or subscribe to their updates, total waste of time, you can talk about what’s going on when you see them.

If you want to stay in touch with friends, just add them to your messenger, you don’t have to be friends anymore on Facebook to connect with them on the app. Or just do what I do and use whatsapp instead.

Outside of business there is no reason to post on Facebook. And if you are going to post, make sure you don’t post thought crimes. Facebook book will eventually demand ID and suspend or permanenly ban violators from their platform, this is very bad for you as a businessman.

Because Facebook for business is useful, especially if you’re selling an expensive service. Facebook ad campaigns put google adwords to shame, it is the best platform to advertise on.

You can build a business on Facebook alone, I know a lot of coaches who have. I haven’t done much with my Facebook except reupload my youtube vids as FB vids (better for ranking and reach). Also it it’s for business, you can add and message people as friends, because customer relations and getting clients.

4) Twitter

Again, as per all the above, don’t waste your time posting personal stuff or watching your friends twitter feeds. If you’re going to use it on a personal level, use as an aggregator for personal development content.

For business you can also use for promoting your content. I haven’t used it much except for promoting new articles and videos but will be getting more active in the future.

On twitter I get better open rates then on my newsletter, and Twitter is a platform where you can post 100 times a day without people getting angry, this is a big advantage if you want to use Twitter to get the word out.

5) Linkedin

Linkedin can be used as an aggregator for personal development content as per the above, but it’s not the best for content aggregation. What Linkedin is really good for is for your business profile. Linkedin premium is a salesman’s dream for finding and getting a hold of decision makers.

You can also use it to promote your content, I have a profile but I haven’t used it much to promote RLD, but will at some point in the future.

6) Instagram

Instagram, of all the platforms is the worst, I don’t even bother. I think it’s terrible as a content aggregator and following/posting personal stuff on there is a total waste.

For business, conversion rates are lower because you can’t post long form content or vids.

With that said, I know some people have figured out how to make money on instagram. Fitness and lifestyle brands can do well for some guys, but I think there are better channels, at least for me.

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