I stopped marketing on Social Media

I’ve been using social media to market my business for the last two years. While it’s a great tool to connect with your target market and fellow entrepreneurs (aka competitors), I stopped using it for a lot of reasons.

Social media is favored by a lot of business owners, but it could not be the best fit for every business. I, for one, decided to focus on offering long-form content (blog articles and website copy) so it only makes sense to shy away a little from social media which is best only for short-form content and aesthetic imagery.

But aside from that, let me give you five reasons why you shouldn’t dedicate all your marketing efforts to social media.

1 – Social media is just soooo time-consuming.

When you decide to use social media as your main (or one of your) marketing strategies, you must be ready to spend ample time on your phone. Managing social media requires constant content creation, engagement, and monitoring. If you don’t have the time or resources, it can quickly become overwhelming, or worse, it won’t work at all.

Social media is made for socializing, and unless you engage with other content, you wouldn’t want to expect that your posts will be pushed by the algorithm as well.

And speaking of algorithms…

2 – Constant changes in social media algorithms can hurt your business.

First things first – every social media platform has its own algorithm. So it means that what you’re doing on one platform wouldn’t necessarily work on the other.

And that means your content should be tailored-fit to every single platform you’re on.

Secondly – the algorithm is a living, breathing thing. It constantly changes, more often than necessary, to be honest. One strategy that worked last week doesn’t mean it will work again the next. You have to constantly change your strategies, think of new ways to engage your followers and follow the trends to gain some more followers.

Don’t listen to them when they say that followers don’t matter – you will fall into the trap of wanting more and more followers anyway, it will feel like a trap. And you’ll do everything to gain more followers, even if in all honesty, followers don’t translate to paying clients.

3 – Social media is a tricky marketplace to be in.

50% of your followers are other online entrepreneurs who have nothing to do with your business, 20% are social media managers who are looking for clients, 20% are your competitors, and just 10% are your potential clients.

And at this point, you cannot really pinpoint which is which. Online entrepreneurs are all over social media who don’t even know who and what they are targeting anymore – clients or more followers? Social media platforms are crowded with millions of businesses competing for attention. Unless you have a unique strategy or a big budget, your content can easily get lost in the noise.

Not to mention the fact that people use social media for entertainment or to pass the time, not necessarily to buy. It may not translate into sales even if they engage with your content.

Do you know when they are ready to buy? When you find them on your sales page.

4 – You don’t own your social media account and your followers.

Ever experienced an Instagram/Facebook downtime? Or have you ever experienced Instagram taking down your account permanently, saying it violated their community policy and suspending your account? Because I did. Twice.

When I was an aspiring social media manager, I did everything in my power to grow my account. I engaged 20 hours a day, created and posted every single day. Sure, it grew my following in such a short amount of time. But Instagram, in its mysterious way, suddenly suspended my account saying that I violated their community policy. What policy? Over engaging? Overposting?

The first time, I wasn’t able to retrieve my account. 3,000 followers, all gone in an instant. No traces of them elsewhere. The second time, luckily, I don’t even know how, but I was able to recover my account. 

And these followers, they are not yours. They belong to the platform. If your account goes mysteriously missing, they won’t look for you and follow you again. Of course not. You’ll lose them. Forever. All those exchanges of likes and comments don’t really mean anything, sad to say. It’s all a lie.

And last, but definitely not least…

5 – I am not made for everyday marketing aka social media marketing.

What I want to do is write, not design graphics on Canva or Photoshop. What I want to do is to tell stories, not follow online trends. What I want to do is to sell, not beat the algorithm.

I’ve done it before, spending my entire day in front of my computer and my phone to create content, engage, and monitor my analytics – it’s not worth it. Instead of spending my time and energy on my business, I am wasting it on growing my social media which may or may not give me paying clients.

Whew! Just thinking all about these reasons makes me exhausted.

BUT I am not saying you should quit social media. I still have my Instagram account! What I am saying is there are other ways, more effective if I have to say, to market your business without the marketing fatigue!

Depending on your business, other marketing channels—like SEO blogs, email marketing, and website or sales pages —may provide a higher return on investment without the downsides of social media.