One of the biggest problems I see with female entrepreneurs running online businesses… is that they are equating social media with running a business.
They’re posting to their Facebook Page, trying to grow a group (it’s tough!), posting on Twitter, falling down a rabbit-hole on Instagram (pictures, stories, videos, and the rest!), pinning like crazy on Pinterest, trying to master Tik-Tok, MeWe, YouTube and half a dozen other social networks most of us don’t go anywhere near.
They’re researching new scheduling tools, working out the best time of day to reach their audience, worrying about the perfect colour scheme, does this font go with that font – and if only they were just a little bit better at Canva then they’re really start getting traction and making those sales.
They’re spending upwards of FOUR HOURS every working day posting Mindless Graphical Crap [TM] to a plethora of social media networks – with no substance or strategy behind these posts.
WHEN WAS THE LAST TIME A MALE FRIEND OR FAMILY MEMBER YOU KNOW SPENT ALL DAY FANNYING AROUND WITH CANVA IN THE BELIEF IT WOULD GROW HIS BUSINESS?
A lazy click from someone scrolling as they spend yet another quarantine afternoon horizontal on the couch balancing a bag of Cheetos on their bare navel – does not a business make!
TRUTHBOMB: Nobody ever dropped $2000 on a course or programme because someone is AMAZING a Canva-created graphic posted on Facebook!
Marketing is more than Social Media
I get it. Fannying around on Facebook can be fun – and combine that with the message that we ought be marketing 60% of the time, it’s very easy to reconcile that “fannying around with Facebook” with actively marketing your business.
But unless you step back away from these noisy channels and ensure your understand both your niche AND your customer base – then you are indeed… just FANNYING AROUND ON CANVA!
You do not need to be present on every channel.
Go claim those channel names. Trends change and you don’t want to find a channel in its infancy today is the Go To in 3 years but that does not mean you need to be posting there 3 times a day and make it a formal stream of your scheduling strategy!
The best thing you can do when you’re growing your business is to focus on just ONE channel.
ONE!
Most gurus will tell you to hang out on the channel where all your “ideal clients” do. But the reality of that is that most people use Facebook – but being a user is not the same as being an ENGAGED USER!
You could post a “cute kitten” photo this afternoon and get 3000 likes. But is that really business growth? Or… just 3000 people liking kittens!
Ask yourself. Do you use Facebook for mindlessly scrolling? Or to get real information?
Posting quotes, memes et al is fun and easy. God knows I’ve fallen into that trap myself in the past. But it’s distracting. It distracts you from actually marketing with integrity and purpose – AND keeps you busy doing doing “stuff” which makes you FEEL like you’re growing your business – when you’re NOT – and what’s worse? You’ll feel a failure because your business didn’t grow off the back of a few inspirational quotes.
Not a great way to live!
Step back.
Choose that ONE channel you are going to master and use to spread the actual message of your business.
It’s sensible to use the channel YOU actually enjoy using yourself because you’ll be more “you” and come across more naturally ON that channel. Trying to shoehorn yourself into a channel which just isn’t a great fit for you is never going to work. You’ll feel awkward – and you’ll certainly come across as awkward. (Bitter and painful self-experience speaking ?).
To leverage that channel with strategy, you must first decide what you ACTUAL STRATEGY is! Sounds obvious right? But if you’re spending 4 hours a day playing “catch-up” by posting everywhere in an attempt to be omnipotent – chances are you’re NOT building with strategy.
Your posts should form part of your funnel… even if the END of that funnel isn’t fully-built yet.
Does that sound backwards? OK, let me give you an example.
You have decided for example that you’re going to launch a course mid-January… but you haven’t quite thrashed out the idea – say you know it’s going to be something about nutrition and self-love. You don’t need to have everything in place to be working on that launch strategy. Right now, today you can start creating and posting content which is building up to this – i.e., talking about the importance of nutrition on one’s ability to simply “feel better from within”.
The world doesn’t need more kitten memes, it needs your MESSAGE with INTENT, PURPOSE and CLARITY!
