Social media can be great for small business owners, but it can also be a big waste of time!
When you started out, you set yourself up on multiple platforms because you wanted to give yourself the very best opportunity to succeed. The FOMO was real!! (Fear of missing out!).
However, you got busy ‘doing the doing’ and you’re now feeling stretched out and embarrassed about your attempts to stay on track.
So in effort to be more efficient, do you really need to be on every social media platform or would one or two suffice?
5 reasons why you don’t need to be on every social media platform.
#1 Time
In order to get results from social media, you need to be ‘living’ in it! You can’t just post your posts and expect the engagement just to fall in line automatically. That’s a one-sided conversation!
You need to allocate time not only to curating new content , but also for interacting with people on the social media platforms. Add to this that you shouldn’t just post the same content on all social media platforms as the audience is different . Clearly you can see that time is going to disappear very quickly!
As small business owners, time is the most precious resource. Like it or not we have to wear multiple hats including finance, human resources, operations in addition to sales and marketing. How much time do you realistically have to dedicate to social media?
#2 Energy
If you are going to stand out in the sea of social media posts distributed every day your content needs to be eye-catching and interesting. While you might find this easy for the first week, social media is only effective if you are consistent in the long-term – How much energy do you have to create unique content each and every day for lots of different platforms ?
Brainstorming ideas, set up of content, filming, photo taking, editing, captioning for every social media platform – remember this isn’t the only job that you are undertaking. How long will it be until you hit burnout? or social media fatigue?!
Just like an exercise health routine, it’s likely that you’ll fall off track now and again. We need the diligence and motivation to pick ourselves back up again and keep going, because the results are worth it. If you are spreading yourself too thin – are you going to have the energy to keep picking yourself up?
#3 Audience
Different social media platforms attract different demographics. For example TikTok is great for targeting the younger market of between 16-30 year olds however if your ideal customer is a 40 year old woman this platform is likely not the best use of your time. I’m not saying there are no 40 year old women on there, it’s just that there is a bigger % of them hanging out on Instagram or Facebook.
You might prefer posting on instagram and interacting on that platform, however if your audience isn’t there what is the point? Remember to put your customer right at the heart of your marketing strategy: what do they need from you and where do they want it?
To Do : Identify the platforms that best suit your ideal client.
#4 Content styles
Different social media platforms require different styles and formats of content to perform at their best. For example Tik tok is video reliant, where as on LinkedIn you’d get away with a good photo and nicely captioned accompanying text.
We can’t be good at everything. We might try, but it’s likely our personality and expertise might make us favour one content type over another . It’s important to be true to yourself in social media and be authentic. Yes, push yourself out of your comfort zone a little but if it’s not working – don’t force it. Your audience are unlikely to respond.
Be Yourself!
Bearing the different mediums in mind, it is very time consuming to create content optimised for the different platforms. Canva has been a great help for the small business owner, but it’s still a juggle!
#5 Keeping upto date with social media changes!
Social media platforms change their layout and algorithms all the time. What worked on the platform in 2017, is unlikely to still be working now, this means there is a constant need to be aware of upcoming platform changes and new trends for content.
Training and development is vital to the advancement of any business’s operations and social media is no different.
Learning about the changes is one thing, but putting them into practice is another! Sometimes it takes weeks or even months to finetune the use of a new social media feature
Look at how stories was first adopted onto Instagram, it took a bit of getting used to. First it was learning how the social media feature actually worked and then trying to use it in a way that benefited your business.
Do you have the time to keep up to speed with all the social media platforms?
Social media: Why it doesn’t help to have a presence on every platform
In this day and age there is a pressure to be omnipresent, ie, present everywhere!
However in trying to do so we often dilute our attention and messaging, meaning that our ideal clients often don’t even notice us.
Wouldn’t it be better if you focused on one or two platforms and went in deep rather than skimming the surface of 4+ and doing a mediocre job?
For the small business owner with tight resources, less is often more .
How many platforms does your business currently appear on?
Are struggling to keep up with demands whether that is time, energy, audience, content styles or training?
Perhaps now is the time to focus your attention and go strong by prioritising one route to your ideal client.
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