#89: Do I really need to do social media in 2022?

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Things You’ll Learn in this Episode of Doing it Online:

• The answer to the big Q: do I really need social media in 2022
• Questions to help you navigate content creation in a way that works for you and your audience
• What we’re going to be doing with social media moving forward…

I’ve got a Q+A style episode for you today! We’re chatting through some questions around social media. This has actually come from a discussion I had with our own amazing content producer, Keeley where we were talking through how we want Hello Funnels to show up online.. 

And it’s a question I’ve had a number of clients ask…

Do I actually need social media for my business right now?

Years ago my answer would have been YES. 

But now…things feel a bit different, I’m not sure it’s as black and white as that. 

And if we look at what’s happening on social media right now, it’s heavily reliant on having a video presence: TikTok and Instagram Reels are encouraged as the way to grow and gain traction and potentially even go viral…

Plus, thanks to the ‘trends’ being favoured by the algorithm, it’s just starting to feel a bit same-same, matchy-matchy. We’re just copying what everyone else is doing and we’re seeing a lot of the same content on repeat.

All of this is great if you love being on camera or you enjoy video… because it’s fun for you AND you’ve already got the content made and planned out for you, you just need to reenact it.

…But what if you hate it?

What if pointing at the air or dancing around makes you feel like some sort of demented Wiggle? 

And what if your life isn’t perfectly manicured and you just don’t have the opportunity to show up on video on a regular basis?

This isn’t everyone, sure. Some people love it and we love watching them, they make us laugh, or inspire us with their brilliance, thank you!

But…what if that’s not you? Is there still a place for you on social media? If the algorithm doesn’t favour your content without the dancing/pointing/videos…is there even a POINT in posting? (Pun intended.)

Social Media = The Bad Boyfriend

Feeling like you give and give and give…and get nothing back? This episode is for you.

The official recommendation from Instagram on how much to be posting each week is COMPLETELY unsustainable. Unless you have a whole marketing team (not just 1-2 people) working on your behalf. I’m not even going to share their ‘recommended schedule’ because I’m not interested in giving you a panic attack. 

But basically, for some of us, at the moment social media feels like a bad boyfriend…

When you’re giving them everything, you’re trying constantly not to annoy them or do the wrong thing just to keep them happy…

…And you get nothing back. 

And it’s a super unstable bad boyfriend at that. Who knows what it’s going to ask us for or expect from us next! 

I mean, as soon as you adjust to a new feature and become BFF’s with the algorithm…they bring in a shiny new feature. And now THAT’S the algorithm’s new BFF. 

So until you learn how to party with that new feature, you’re just a wallflower again. And your posts never get to dance in the feed and be seen anyway.

Awesome. We’re getting riled up just thinking about it. 

And by the way, this is all without going into how time consuming video-based content creation is…

Or all the political, moral or social considerations…

Ugh. 

Am I allowed to break up with social media in 2022? 

(Please say yes…) 

Ok, here it goes, the answer you’ve been waiting for… Yes. You are allowed to break up with social media in 2022. (BUT! Keep reading, don’t rush off to delete your accounts just yet!)

I actually know plenty of people who do the bare minimum on social media and are still successful… But! They have a different plan in place. 

I’ve always stressed the importance of building your business the way that you want to. And that includes the way you market it and interact with your audience. 

But if you’re not going to go all in (or at all) in social media, then you do need something else in its place.

So, I’ve got a series of questions for you so you can work out what’s going to make sense for you moving forward…

And the first one being…

Q1: What are you going to do in its place?

Yeah that’s right, you still need to be creating and sharing valuable content. 

Which means you’re going to need to come up with other ways to do that, on top of your email list. Because, no, before you ask, that’s not enough. We don’t want to have all our eggs in one basket. 

Removing social media from your strategy will leave a hole, so you need to find something to fill that hole that will serve your audience and sit right for you. 

Keep in mind that if you ever want to do paid ads, you are going to need to keep an active account for that, so that’s worth considering before you remove your profiles. 

I go through a couple of ideas in the episode, so give that a listen.

Q2: How will you create social proof? 

Social media does help with giving businesses some trust for new potential clients. If they go looking for you, to check that you’re not a scammer, and you’re a real human. (Let’s face it, we’ve all done it.) Having a profile online can prove to them that you’re real and people are following you and interacting with you. 

This is why I wouldn’t recommend you delete yourself entirely from social media.

However, this doesn’t mean that you need to be creating and sharing content regularly. You could even have a post that says, “Hey, I’m no longer updating this platform, but you can find me over here…”

It just becomes another touch point for them. 

Q3: Where will you have your community for programs?

Facebook groups used to be the go-to for free challenges or even program communities. But they’re no longer the best option. People are using Facebook less and also group posts are no longer pushed into the feed as much like they used to be. So the engagement is far, far less.

So you need to ask yourself how are you going to be able to offer a similar experience? How will you deliver videos and provide a space where people can be in community and ask questions? 

There are other options out there. It’s just going to need a bit of digging and working out what suits you and your audience best. Again, I run through a few ideas and options in the episode which you’ll get when you have a listen. 

What this looks like for us…

Obviously, we’re still asking questions and working this out, it’s not black and white. But for us, we’ve decided we’re absolutely going to keep running paid ads, because we can see a tangible return on investment from those (yay, funnels!).

And while some of us might have been hoping we could break up with social media, we’re not leaving just yet. 

Personally, I couldn’t get past the fact that when new members join us, so many of them say how much they love our content (even if it doesn’t feel like it’s reflected in the vanity metrics sometimes). 

So, even though our numbers aren’t amazing, people are obviously still seeing and loving what we’re creating and putting out there. 

Our social media is compounding with our other touch points like email, and our podcast and people seem to really love how human we make it. It helps to build our trust with them. 

And if it’s reaching our kind of people, and they’re getting something from it?

That’s enough. We don’t have to be BFF’s with the algorithm. Just our right people. 

So, we’re sticking around. 

But! We’re going to forget about what everyone else is doing and have a play with the way that we like to create content. We want to experiment with it, but without giving it too much time. So, we’re going to pair it right back and get even more efficient with it. 

And we’ve almost completely moved off Facebook already, looking to make the final cut next launch.

For you, it might make sense to leave social media completely, and that’s ok. Just work out how you’re going to fill in the gaps instead. 

Speaking of instagram: we’re over here if you haven’t followed us already. #irony