You’ve probably seen like 47,000 posts about how social media is ruining everything, how the algorithms are trash, and how we should just all delete our accounts and return to carrier pigeons. I even saw a headline from Marketing Brew that said, quote, social media use is plateauing as users face scroll fatigue.
Despite that and how I’ve been feeling personally, I’m not quite ready to poo poo social media as a marketing channel. For some businesses, it works for coaches, creators, and service providers who sell what they know. It can be incredibly strategic, and even for the rest of us, it serves a purpose. Just maybe not one that’s commonly shared.
Resources
- Fellow Business Owners mentioned:
- The Final Touch by Lundyn
- Emily Aborn, Small Business Casual
- Jen Fieldman, Human Design Inspired Marketing Strategist
- McKenzi Taylor, Cactus Collective Weddings and Taylored Photo
- Tool of the Week 👉 SE Ranking
There are many apps out there claiming they are an SEO tool. This is one of them. My preferred one. It has a simple interface. Support has been responsive when I use it. I use it for site audits, page specific audits, and finding back links for client websites. I definitely underutilize this tool. (They claim they are an agency tool, but solopreneurs can benefit from it as well.) - Recommended Podcast 👉 Why Do You Always Feel Like You’re Struggling on the Sabrina Zohar show.
In this episode she goes into how to get through it. A lot of the times she’s talking from a single person perspective and a lot of the time, the concepts still work even if you’re not single. It got me thinking, because it was gearing toward how most people share positive things on socials. We can’t see their struggles. And then I thought, I don’t want to share my struggles. I don’t even like to share them with myself. It feels whiney. And I don’t want to give them “life”. I want to feel them, find a solution and move on. And you know what, if I kept seeing/hearing about someone’s struggles, like if someone shared more struggles than positives, I’d think, uffda, how depressing and I wouldn’t follow or watch.
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I’ve been all over the map with social media. Started using it personally some years ago, then shifted to business back in 2019-2020. Took all the courses. Even worked with an Instagram strategist named Lundyn from The Final Touch (shoutout to her as that was genuinely the most helpful thing I ever did for my Instagram strategy).
Then things evolved. My business changed. I stopped using it. Started again. Stopped again. You know how it goes.
I wasn’t making it important because I was trying to force it to be something it wasn’t.
Which was trying to do what everyone else was doing.
And forcing the “pro strategies”.
A few weeks ago, I made a decision. Instead of carefully crafting every post to “follow the rules” I decided to just post what I wanted.
Some days it’s about website marketing, SEO, or digital strategy, the stuff my business actually does.
And other days it’s literally whatever pops into my head that morning:
- A rant about ChatGPT
- Running with my dog
- A podcast episode I loved and wanted to share
The carefully planned posts don’t perform any better than the spontaneous ones.
So what’s the point then?
I had to completely reframe my relationship with social media or I was going to lose it.
My purpose has never been to get likes or go viral. But I had hoped it would sell my services.
And I realized that’s not actually how I use it. It’s to connect with other business owners.
Not to shove services down anyone’s throat. Not to “sell sell sell.” But to share what I know so other small business owners can improve their businesses.
To show up as someone who also happens to run in the morning and listen to podcasts and has opinions about apartment living drama.
I asked a couple of business owner friends how they’re using social media, and their answers reminded me that there’s no one “right” way to do this.
Mckenzi Taylor is a Las Vegas-based entrepreneur, professional photographer, and the founder of several wedding-related and content businesses, most notably Cactus Collective Weddings and Taylored Photo. Here’s her take on how she uses social media…
McKenzi Taylor took a completely different approach. She realized that checking her business accounts was triggering too much comparison, so she hired someone to manage them. Now she uses her personal IG account to post family adventures and as a way to look back on her year. “It makes me feel fulfilled,” she told me.
Jen Fieldman is a marketing strategist who specializes in combining marketing with human design and here’s her take on how she uses social media….
Jen Fieldman uses it primarily as an awareness tool. Most of her clients come through referrals, but Instagram keeps her visible. Her key insight? She only uses channels she actually enjoys. Even though her audience listens to podcasts, she’s not creating one because “as a generator in human design, it does not light me up. It actually sounds terrible and like a lot of work.”
Jen also keeps separate personal and business accounts. Her personal one is for her dog and political views, while business stays business. She curates her feed intentionally with people she wants to learn from plus some fun accounts, because “otherwise I’m not gonna do it.” She’ll delete apps for a weekend or leave her phone in the hotel room on vacation when she needs a break.
Here’s how I’m using IG now…
On my feed I share about:
- Website marketing, SEO, AI SEO, digital strategy tips (a couple times a week)
- Things I’m learning from other podcasters and business owners (big fan of Emily Aborn’s Small Business Casual)
- Life stuff that’s part of my story like running, which is huge for me
In my stories:
- More personal day-to-day moments
- Random observations about life and business
- Thoughts that might actually help someone who needs to hear them
The personal stuff matters because it helps people get to know you. You matter. The personal stuff builds trust. It reminds your audience that there’s a real human behind the business.
The Takeaway
Social media might not be your primary marketing channel. Hell, it might not even be your secondary one.
But if you’re already there, or thinking about being there, maybe it’s worth approaching differently.
Not as a “must-win algorithm game” but as a place to actually connect with the people you want to work with. To share what you know.
Maybe, like Jen, you only use platforms that genuinely feel good to you. Maybe, like Mackenzie, you realize you need to step back and let someone else handle it. Maybe you use it like me and stop overthinking every post and just share what’s on your mind.
Drop the expectation that every post needs to “perform” and trust that the right people will find you.
That’s it. That’s the strategy.
