I have always contended that social networking is not a cost-effective use of the solopreneur’s time.

Now data from a new survey by Michael Stelzner confirms it.

According to the survey, people who have been using social media for a long time spend on average more than 20 hours a week on social networks.

Now, if you are a solopreneur working 40 hours a week, that means you’d spend half your working time on social networks — clearly impractical for self-employed people who valuable their billable time and productivity.

No wonder the survey notes that those working for a company are twice as likely as business owners to spend 20+ hours a week on social networks.

My conclusion: while social networking requires a minimal investment of money, the low ROTI (return on time invested) limits its desirability as a marketing activity for self-employed professionals.

How much time do YOU spend a week with social media?

Do you measure the ROTI — and find it worth the time invested?

Which social networking sites and activities account for the bulk of your time spend with these media?

Get the survey report here:

http://www.whitepapersource.com/socialmediamarketing/report/

New media evangelists have long denigrated e-mail as “interruption marketing” and praised both search and social networking as non-intrusive alternatives.

The younger generation (my teenagers) also seems to shy away from e-mail, preferring Facebook and texting as their primary means of online communication.

In an article in Direct (3/09, p. 8), Ken Magill notes that e-mail marketing remains “the top online applications,” with more than 9 out of 10 Internet users sending and receiving e-mail.

Do you agree that e-mail is not only a viable but an extremely profitable online marketing channel, and will be for many years to come?

Or do you side with new media gurus who predict e-mail marketing is going the way of the dodo and the dinosaur?

In an interview with DM News (3/2/09, p. 10), Kent Lewis, President of Anvil Media, said that current social media platforms and communities do not have much of a chance to become a meaningful part of the overall online markeitng mix.

Lewis explains: “Users have demonstrated time and again that they not only ignore advertising in social media, but eschew it.” He cites as proof that Facebok generated only $2.50 in ad revenue per user per year.

Why is Lewis so negative about marketing with social networks? “Social networks are seen as personal collaboration and communication platforms, not information or research tools,” he claims, though here he cites no research to back up this assertion.

He believes we should concentrate our online marketing not on social media but on search engines, because they “effectively connect buyers with sellers” and “advertising is welcomed.”

Do you agree with Lewis that social networks are an insignificant part of the online marketing mix today?

What do you think are the most effective online marketing methods right now? Social networking? Organic search? Pay per click ads? E-mail?

“The only way to bring in real money from your blog or web site is to deal with the ‘c’ word,” says veteran mail order marketer Jim Straw.

“Yes, I’m talking about ‘charging’ for your content,” says Jim. Not — as so many new media gurus advocate — giving it away.

“Take a look at a few successful Internet marketers and pay attention,” advises Jim.

“It shouldn’t be too hard to guess what really brings in the big bucks — subscription-based products with recurring revenue!”

I imagine the readers of this blog will have a field day responding to Jim — both pro and con.

Let’s see if I am right…..

Normally, by the time you read about a new idea in marketing, it’s too late for you to stand out as an early adopter, because the early adopters are all already using it.

But online video is a growing trend, and it’s NOT too late for you to boost your online conversions, sales, and traffic with it!

According to an article in NJ Biz (10/6/08, p. 5), video sent as data over the Internet will grow from 10% of all video this year to 35% by 2013.

Yet right now, most Internet marketers are not taking advantage of the selling power of online video: most landing pages and web sites you see are text and graphics, with little or no streaming audio or video.

Have you tested adding online audio or video (or both) to your web sites, landing pages, and micro sites? What lift have you seen in conversion? Or (heaven forbid) did the online video actually DEPRESS response?

My colleague Denny Hatch is one of the most respected of the “old school” direct marketing copywriters and publishers operating today.

He says the reason so many Internet marketers get it wrong is that they fail to apply DM selling techniques online.

“One reason for the dot.com bust was inexperience,” Denny writes. “Quite simply, many of the hotshot twenty-something marketers did not have a solid grounding in the basics of direct marketing. They did not know how to make an offer, how to ask for an order, and make it easy to order.”

Yet I increasingly hear new media gurus saying that old-school direct marketing copy is the WRONG way to go on the Internet — that it’s all about conversation, free content, social networking, and making a connection.

Many new media marketers have posted comments on this blog saying direct marketing copy is irrelevant and will soon disappear.

So what do you think?

Are Denny and I dinosaurs, writing our direct response copy, doomed to extinction? (The money we both make from our copy would seem to indicate not.)

Or is he right, and is knowing how to sell the missing ingredient that stops so many Internet marketers from converting their brilliant content and concepts into cash?

What say you, Dear Reader?

It seems to me that large corporations have a decided edge in optimizing their Web sites for search engines over small business in general and solo practitioners in particular.

Reason: SEO is a complicated process with many different time-consuming and labor-intensive tasks, from keyword research to optimizing press releases.

A bigger company can afford to dedicate one or more employees full-time to each of these major tasks. For instance, I know a company with a full-time staff person who does nothing but seek incoming links, one of the steps in SEO.

By comparison, if you are a solo entrepreneur or an understaffed SOHO, no one in your office may be able to spare more than a few MINUTES each week securing incoming links to your Web site.

Is there any way a solo or SOHO entrepreneur can compete with medium or large companies in the SEO game … any tricks or shortcuts you know to level the playing field?

“Dad,” my oldest son Alex called from our living room, where we keep one of our family PCs at home. “You’re on YouTube!”

And he’s right:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aLnD6YyyVD4

I didn’t know it, but a conference promoter put video of my speaking at his Internet marketing event on You Tube.

My questions is: does this benefit me in any way? How can I measure it?

In my old age, I am being dragged kicking and screamining into the brave new world of Web 2.0 — and I have barely begun to master Web 1.0!

Do YOU market with social media? Does it work? How do you know?