Face it: if you are reading this, you probably have a social media co-dependency when it comes to marketing your business. It’s okay. You are in good company and you can get out of it if you want. The Great Facebook and Instagram Blackout of 2021 (October 4) couldn’t have been better timed to make my point. More and more I am seeing entrepreneurs manically attempting to leverage social media as their source of new business. It’s exhausting.
They are trying to be present on three, four and even more platforms – I mean – my goodness – the more the merrier, right? They are posting daily, and even several times daily, with live streams and videos multi-streamed to multiple platforms. They are direct messaging strangers with offers, using in-platform advertising, hash tagging, liking and following. They are posting quotes that provoke and inspire, adding glamorous “authentic” photos of themselves, and asking people to fill in the blank and caption their bizarre photo.
Sound familiar? Yeh. I’ve done it too, and will likely continue to do so.
Why Social Marketing is a Problem
Besides the fact that when a social platform you rely on goes down, so do you— we have begun using social media as a marketing crutch and our true marketing muscle is atrophying through lack of use.
Let me explain.
I love social media.
It is seductive.
I began my marketing and branding career as a graphic designer, and the lure of eye-catching and powerful imagery is etched on my soul. I use it myself. All. The. Time. And it works to grow awareness for who I am, what I do, and what I am up to. It builds my credibility and my authority. That being said, what I see today is a four-fold problem:
We confuse followers and like with impact. The only way to convert a like or follower into a client or customer is to move them from their anonymity to a real conversation. That means you need an email. A phone number. A face (not photo-retouched) with a name. You are going to need to build a relationship with this follower before they will trust you enough to buy more than your $29 download.
This happens when we invite them into our world – and grab a cup of coffee. We have a workshop, or deliver a talk. Social media makes us feel big and important if we have lots of followers, but we are only as powerful as that last real conversation we actually had.
We are using social media to hide from our vulnerability. When we have conversations that aren’t cloaked by DMs and click funnels, we are at risk for rejection. Ouch! To say who we are and what we are offering up as a solution, or ask for the referral, the testimonial or the invitation to the dance, means we are baring our souls just a little.
A rejection of our business, at this level, feels like a rejection of us. It feels personal. And it is – except it is about them, and what they are looking for – not your validity as a human being. So, let’s just stick with social media, and then the rejection won’t hurt as bad. Never mind we are avoiding the very thing that can grow our business most effectively.
We think bigger somehow translates into better. This is greed and the root of our co-dependency. Perhaps addiction is a better word. I am reminded of the child who has discovered something they desire insatiably, like sugar, and they proclaim: Me, more, now! That is not how social media works. Thousands of followers creates attention, and conversation. It also can create a big, noisy mess (and last time I checked, a big mess is never a better mess). I’ll quote Gary Vee (Mr. Social Influencer himself): Let’s say you have 20,000 followers on Instagram and 12,000 of them buy ten copies of your book because you posted about it. That type of conversion means you have an engaged audience consuming your content. That’s valuable. On the other hand, let’s say you have 200,000 fans. When you post something and it gets zero engagement, those followers have zero value because (1) they either don’t care about your content or (2) they’re not real. Either way, your follower count does not represent their real value to you.
We are impatient as F…. There is a myth that simply will not die: You can shortcut your success using social media. We are flooded with 30-minute and 1-hour on-demand workshops telling us how we can go from impossible debt to 7-figure businesses in a month (OK – maybe three.) Most of these stories, when you scratch the surface, are 15- or 20 -year (and even longer) climbs to success. My first rise as an entrepreneur happened before there was an internet. Yes, I am that old. There are rarely shortcuts, and if that’s what you are aiming for, I ask you: if you hate your work so much you can’t nurture its growth process for the long haul – what the heck are you doing in it in the first place??? (OK. I get it. You love it, but you are running out of money. But that’s a case of poor planning, and social media isn’t the cure.)
How to Break Free of Social Media’s Crippling Effect
As I said earlier, I use social media a lot myself. The difference is I use it as a tool I can leverage or do without. I don’t rely on it to make my meaningful connections for me. Instead, I get out there. I speak. I write. I do networking. That’s where the magic happens. Let yourself be seen – unedited, un-Photoshopped, and without the heavy hash tagging and links to your funnel.
I have a number of clients who want me to write blogs for them, and I adore that work more than words can describe. However, like social media, there is this subtle implication that the blog is going to suddenly catapult them to the top spot in the search engines, and customers will be beating down the door. I tell them – it ain’t so!
I get several new clients a month reaching out to me because of blogs I have written. True. The thing is – many of those blogs are a couple years old. They grew in power over time. And I never, ever, ever, make them sound like the company brochure. That is not the power of a blog. Blogs provide a chance to demonstrate your view, and your voice, and your vision. That’s the only thing social media is really good for anyway.
So use social media, but not as a stand-in for the real you. Have those conversations that scare you, but instead of trying to race to the sale because you failed to plan enough cash reserves, just have a conversation. Talk about what matters, and build trust – one person, one connection, one relationship at a time.