Not a day goes by where I’m not privy to hearing someone spew their hatred for Social Media. Most times I just ignore it because depending on why a person is using  Social Media their hatred of it might not matter. If you are a brand or a business and you need to utilize it hating it is a serious problem. Below I’ve compiled a list of the most frequently heard complaints and how to address them.

1.”I just don’t get it there are so many people talking about things that I don’t care about. It’s so negative. I’m tired of seeing people’s pictures of their children.”

Regardless to why you have social media sites you don’t have to have a constant stream of everyone that your friends with in your stream. (At least on Facebook)You wouldn’t let your annoying cousin just come into your home anytime they felt like it; why would you allow them onto your FB feed so frequently?

The next time your cousin Jim posts a video of kids fighting, Click the little tab on the his post that looks like an inverted triangle. A box will open with different options: Hide Post, Unfollow, Report, Save, More. You want to unfollow that person. You will still be friends and when you want to catch up with that person you simply type their name into the search box, go over to their page, and catch up with what they’ve been doing. Easy Peasy.

For Twitter you will need an app that hides certain people from your timeline.

2. “I hate commenting because I’ll get a notification every time someone comments.”

If you’re getting emails of these notifications go to your Facebook setting and turn those off. Whenever you comment on someone’s status click the little inverted triangle at the top right corner of the post, scroll down and click turn off notifications for this post. (Be careful to click the right option; you don’t want to unfriend your Aunt Pat.)

3. “I don’t have any friends or followers.”

Follow people that you find interesting and be interactive. Share interesting things. Most people will follow you back. Don’t be afraid to ask people to follow you back.

4. “No one likes my statuses or shares my posts.”

Be yourself and share tidbits of who you are. Don’t constantly share things like BUY MY BOOK or PURCHASE MY PRODUCT. People want to have a relationship with you so focus on building relationships. Share interesting things about you and your industry.

5. “The sites are like a vacuum and take up way too much of my time.”

Again you wouldn’t go hang out in the park or community center all day. Treat these sites as if they are physical spaces, because technically they are. Pick a time when you’re going to log on, share, and be interactive and stick to it.

6. “I don’t have enough content to share to build a good base.”

The internet is a vast dumping ground for content. Most of it can be shared very easily as long as you give credit where credit is due.

7. “I don’t get twitter. I don’t want to create a twitter account. Do I need one?”

You need to be wherever your people are. Twitter is as important as Facebook for some industries and Twitter doesn’t suppress your posts like Facebook does. It does take some time and energy to build a following base but to whom much is given, much is expected. Schedule some time to get interactive and to build on there and get to building. Also Hootsuite can be your best friend. (Though you should not solely depend on Hootsuite to build your entire fan/followerbase.)

8.”The people who I really want to see my posts don’t see them.”

That’s what the tag is for. I don’t tag all of my friends in everything but if I’m sharing something that I think they’d like or I want them to see it then I tag them in it. That way I can guarantee that they see it.

9.”Seriously I really don’t have the time. I need a Social Media Manager but I can’t afford it.”

Most companies (including mine) offer smaller packages for those on stringent budgets. Just be aware that smaller packages usually equal less interaction on the SMM’s part and will require work on your part. Also look around you, do you have access to interns or little cousins who are good at social media? Utilize them. They won’t get the same results as a professional but you’d be surprised at how well they’ll do. Kitchen Table used a teenage intern over the summer and she was AMAZING.

10. “I don’t feel connected to people. ”

Anything that has the word social in it is about connecting but if it’s face to face contact you crave then initiate it. Facebook isn’t keeping your friends away from you. More than likely their lives are, which is why so many people love social media. It’s a way to connect when you don’t have time for face to face. Use your social media sites to initiate contact. The next time Judy posts a picture of her new haircut say  “Oh I love what you did with your hair. I can’t wait to see it in person. Let’s do lunch Friday.”  If your friends can’t or won’t hang out with you in person after you tell them then the problem isn’t social media…

Social Media is not going away. In today’s market place some companies won’t even talk to you unless you have an active thriving social media presence. Being active and creating a presence is a lot easier than people make it out to be. Make it work for you not the other way around.

If you don’t need it for your business or to build your brand then delete it. But even people who write blog posts about hating Social Media have share tabs linked to their social media sites so who are they kidding?