From Tom Johnson’s When Social Media Becomes Hollow post, the emphasis is mine:
It’s not that I dislike Twitter or blogging or podcasting or Facebook or the infinite number of new social sites. For me, it’s the idea that social media’s only purpose is to grow your business and readership. I dislike the idea that it’s all essentially a business motive. You build trust so you can influence others and get them to follow you and subscribe to your newsletter. You engage in social media so you can increase your visibility, so people will link back to you, buy your products and services, and so you can take in more money and increase your product offerings. You engage in social media so you can expand your reach and little by little dominate the world.
When the discussion about social media revolves around this end game, I start to feel uneasy.
There are times where social media abuse reminds me of get rick quick schemes. Usually the only ones who get rich are the ones selling the schemes.