Social Media Is Optional: Build a Calmer Business Without Constant Posting

AI-GENERATED TRANSCRIPT - MAY CONTAIN ERRORS

Jules White: Hi.

Introduction - The Social Media Trap

I talk to so many business owners who are spending hours constantly posting to social media and still not getting the results that they want.

They, they're stuck in overwhelm and frustration, and they tell me time and time again. They hate doing it.

They hate social media. They don't wanna be using it.

They don't want that to be how they're marketing their business and, not only that, they're also not getting anything back from it. So it's not actually working.

They, they hate doing it, and it's not doing a lot for their business as well. And I want to talk in today's episode about something that I firmly believe in, which is that social media is optional.

So I'm gonna talk today about that and what to focus on instead, why it is a problem. And why we should be thinking about content that we own first and foremost.

So there are a few reasons why social media causes a problem and why we've been sold a bit of a lie about it as well really.

The Problem with Building on Borrowed Ground

So the main problem is that the content that's on social media isn't content that we own. So it can go away, the algorithms can change, and we can do something that angers the platform gods or it can be not even us doing things.

You know, something can happen, our account can get hacked. And then all of that content, all of that traction and all of that visibility that you feel like you've built up on your social media account can then go away straight away.

And if you are relying on that, if you're relying on that as the way to connect with your customers, if you're relying on that as the way to actually grow and market your business, then that's obviously a real problem. It's building on borrowed ground basically.

And that in itself, you know, that is a risk definitely. But I think for me, when I have these conversations with people, the big risk is that they're doing all of these things.

They're building everything on borrowed ground and it's still not delivering what they want it to. So, um, there is an alternative way, and I want to share that with you.

We get told time and time again by online coaches and by business coaches in general and just by the platforms themselves that build in this FOMO about not being on there and about you are failing if you're not using them. That then makes us feel like it isn't optional, like we have to be on social media.

How can you build a, build a business without social media? There's no way you can do that.

You are failing if you're, or you're missing out on so many opportunities if you're not on social media.

The Truth About Where Clients Come From

And it's just not true.

I have a lot of conversations about this with people and the majority of people, when we actually dive into it, they'll sort of say, oh yeah,

I'm using social media. I'm doing this, I'm doing that.

And I'll ask them where their clients are coming from. And generally, especially if it's service providers or if it's, um, local businesses as well, like local service providers in particular, they'll say, no, it comes from word of mouth.

My business comes from word of mouth or from Google as well, especially with, with local businesses, they'll say, oh yeah, I can see a lot of business is coming through my Google profile. Or people will say that they found them on Google and it does tend to be that way.

People I know with most of my clients that I've had has been through relationship building and through networking I've done and the, and the relationships and collaborations that I've done really so it's not come from social media. I was trying to think this morning whether I, whether I feel like I've had any clients come from social media.

Maybe a couple of people have bought my workshops on my online courses potentially. Um, but even that, it hasn't been from me posting, it's been from comments in Facebook groups and from the relationships that I've built in there.

And the majority of my clients, especially when I first started out and when I was building websites a lot more, most of those clients came from me being active in groups. So it was more of me using the platforms to build my network rather than posting.

And that's one of the things I would say about social media is it can be useful, it definitely can have some uses in your business. But I don't feel that posting is the right way to do that.

I feel like it's the relationship building. One of the big parts of social that can be helpful is the social part of it.

And if you can focus on that, if you feel like you want to use social media, then that's certainly gonna be much more likely to bring clients in. And I feel this pull myself as well.

I feel like I should be posting on socials as well. And I have to remind myself that actually, that's not where I get the traction.

That's not where things happen. That's not where I get sales coming through.

It's actually focusing on the other things, which I'm gonna sort of dive into, some of the other things that you can do, that's where people come from. So my podcast is a good example of how I've created it and promoted outside of social media, so I haven't promoted my podcast and social media at all.

Obviously it starts here in the Facebook group, the recording. But besides that, I don't actually promote the podcast on social media and

I am just about to hit 8,000 downloads.

And that's all through word of mouth and through it being searchable. So the majority of that has come from me making sure that my episodes are SEO optimised and searchable and people finding it through podcast player platforms and also through my YouTube channel as well.

I definitely have had some traffic coming in from that by people who have searched for things on Google. And then my YouTube channel has been the result that's come up in that really.

So that's how I know that this works from my own experience, that actually you don't need to be posting all the time to actually have a business that's, that's successful, really. And I think there's so much pressure to actually create more and more and more and more and more content.

And that's one of the big bugbears I have with being sold this myth about social media.

The Hidden Cost of Content Creation

Is that we didn't start our business to become content creators.

So actually feeling like you've gotta always be doing that every day, you've got to be there, or even every week you've got to be there creating, like creating this new content, feeding the algorithm, basically. You know, doing these things, trying to keep up with all these platforms and with all the changes and where you should be and then it just being soul destroying when you then don't get any traction from it as well.

I think it can end up just contributing to feelings of failure and self-doubt and all of those things that actually, in general, the platforms are designed and the, well, not in general. They are, they're designed to make us feel less; they're designed actually to keep us there.

Keep us feeling inadequate, and keep us scrolling so that they can sell more advertising space. And so I think that actually that, and as business owners, obviously it's different if you're using it as a consumer, that it still has the same effect on you.

The platforms are still damaging. But if you're using it as a business owner, and that is just contributing to that feeling of I should be doing more, I should be doing this, I should be doing that.

People are telling me I need to be on LinkedIn. I need to be on Instagram.

It's just exhausting. And you know that you don't have to, you absolutely don't have to do that to build a business that is successful.

So if you are sort of considering social media and considering whether it's something that is working for your business, it's worth thinking about how many hours you spend creating content for social media and the return on investment and how much your hourly rate would be in terms of how many clients you get back from that. And it's not always easy to measure.

And with marketing in general, you can't always exactly measure that correlation between you do something and you get a client from it.

Sometimes it's a lot easier to actually know that, but it's not, there's not always a direct thing.

It can be about building your brand and building your visibility, but if you actually think about it and think about the amount of time you spend on it. The amount of mental energy on it as well, and emotional energy that you put into that.

Then often it's a really terrible hourly rate and you might be better just going and getting a job because you would certainly earn a lot more than the amount of time that you're spending creating content really. So I see with this as well, one of the, one of the big things that I see often when I start conversations with people about their website is they've got beautiful social media feeds.

They're creating lots of content and they're really talking about their ideal clients, talking about their problems, talking about what they do there over on social media.

Your Website vs Social Media

But then you go to their website and it's completely neglected. And I kind of think of this as like placing an advert in a billboard or on a bus stop or something like that.

You know, the places where you can put, you could put an old-fashioned in-person advert, and then never actually tidying up the shop. So I kind of think of it like that.

I think of your website as if it was your actual shop in the real world. If you never spend any time and energy improving that and tidying it up, making sure that you've got a lovely user journey as they come into the store, making sure that people don't get confused where to go when they come in.

Making sure that it's easy for people to understand what you sell, and it's not cluttered, it's not confusing. You're not hiding the price list in the drawer.

Those kind of things are metaphors for what a lot of business owners tend to do with their website, neglect it, forget about it, and then spend a lot of time whether it's paid ads or these sort of advertising that you are doing when you're posting on social media, actually focusing on that rather than the thing that you own. And your website is an asset for your business.

So it's something that you can get better over time with it and you're actually building something that you own that nobody can take away.

No algorithm can take that away as well.

Social Media is Not Free

So the other lie I feel like we've been told about social media as well is that posting on social media is free, or it's a free way of advertising.

And actually it's not.

If we are not paying to use a platform, then we are the product. So the platforms are profiting from us being on there, from us scrolling, from us feeling like we have to stay on there and feeling that pull to keep checking and keep seeing what's happening, getting that dopamine hit from it.

It's harmful. The platforms aren't designed to make you a profit and for your growth.

We all know there's no guarantee of success on social media, but I think we often don't realise how harmful it can be that they're designed to be divisive and addictive and to keep us there. And they thrive on outrage.

And they thrive on, um, what's the word? Like, I wanna say, drama.

Um, they thrive on those kind of things. And especially if you are a business that's purpose-led or you want to be helping people.

And I feel like so many people who are in my audience, are businesses that are just generally trying to do good in the world. Then contributing to those platforms with, sorry if you can hear the dog barking, she's just going out.

Um, so yeah, contributing to those platforms where, if they are actually causing harm, they're causing mental and physical harm to people as well, then that's not where your best work should be. That's not where you should be.

Should, should, should. That is up to you what you do, but it's, I think being aware of that, being aware of the effects of social media and effects of the platforms, and then choosing that as an option.

I'm not saying that you can't use social media, but it is optional and that should be part of what you think about when you're thinking about whether you use those platforms or not, is the fact that the platforms themselves aren't these benevolent beings that are, are there to help everybody and to make the world a better place really.

There is also the bias that women face as well.

Gender Bias in Social Media

Generally, these platforms tend to silence women's voices more. The algorithms favour male content, women's voices tend to be flagged or silenced or get more trolls and actually building assets outside of them can just help to level that playing field a bit and just help you to build something that has more sustainability and is gonna be more helpful for women's voices as well, really.

So thinking about this and actually how this has helped with me and my business, I would think about my podcast episodes. And my podcast episodes are something that is outside of social media.

They are content that I own and they're evergreen content, so they stay there. And those are bringing clients into my world long after I hit publish.

I've got podcasts that I've guested on two years ago and they're actually bringing clients in still from the first podcast I ever went on two years ago. So if you compare that to a social media post, which tends to disappear within 24 hours, you know, it tends to just be forgotten if people even see it in the first place, really.

Whereas your website, your podcast, you own that. You don't own your, obviously your Instagram feed, as I've said, really.

So social media can be helpful and can be useful, but it shouldn't be the foundation of what you do.

Focus on What You Own

So start with the things that you own. Make sure they're working for you, and then use that as the place to then share from and share back to.

If you're posting something on social thinking about, have I got content on my website that already talks about this? And if you don't do that first, then actually use that if you then do want to take that option, as I say, the option of using social media really.

Your website should be the hub of all of this stuff. So if you've got a blog, if you've got a podcast, if you've got an email list, it should all come back to your website 'cause that's where the sales take place or the bookings or, you know, whatever it is that you're wanting people to take action on.

That happens through your website. So once you've got content on your website that can be crawled by Google.

If you're using the right words throughout, in the right places, throughout your website, that can then help you to show up in search for years to come. And that can be with blogs.

It doesn't have to be, not all businesses need to blog. And if you are blogging, then this can become another way.

You can end up just creating content for the sake of it. I don't believe in that.

I believe in more of like a pinpoint strategy for blogging where you actually create cornerstone content. You create, create some great articles that are gonna massively help your business.

And then once you've done that, you just, you come back and you re-look at those articles again. So you actually are reusing that content, updating it.

Looking at what's changed, looking at how you can improve it and going from there. And then you can create content, like guest blogs for other people.

If you're feeling like you still want to keep blogging, then actually creating articles for other people, and other websites that then links back to your own website can be a great way to build links. So starting with your website, your podcast as well.

If you've got a podcast, then having a dedicated podcast page on your own website is really useful. That can help make sure that you are actually making the most of your podcasting and you're not just then sending people to your podcast player platforms.

That you actually are bringing more traffic into your own website, wherever you're sharing your podcast as well. And your email list.

Your email list is one of your most valuable assets to your business besides your website, because it's the way that you can directly connect with people. People have opted in on your email list and even if your social media goes away tomorrow, you can then email them and let them know what's going on.

Let them know how to keep in touch with you. Let them know what's happening in your business.

Promote, sell, nurture them through your email list, and we can often neglect email a little bit, I think, because we feel like we get a lot of emails maybe, and that we don't want, don't feel like we wanna contribute towards that for other people and contribute towards that overwhelm.

But I think we can forget that people have actually opted into our email list, and if they don't want to stay on the list, then they'll unsubscribe and that's fine.

But the people who have joined us on our email list, they want to hear from us. So that's definitely a more sustainable way of marketing your business definitely.

The Power of Relationship Building

Relationship building is one of the things that I would say is one of the keys really to actively marketing your business and to doing something that no algorithm can take away at all.

So Google's algorithm changes as well, and you can find that you get peaks and peaks and troughs in your amount of traffic you get through Google. But the relationships you build, those business friendships, collaborators, connections.

The people that would actually send clients your way, all that needs to happen for you to create that and to sustain that is just to keep in touch with those people, to be helpful, to be friendly, to be the kind of person that people want to refer. And I always say to my clients, actually, to focus on that first.

So focus on your own network. Focus on growing relationships with people, focus on getting in front of other people's audiences as well, and just being helpful.

That is the best way to grow your business. And I think we can often be scared of that.

If all of our, if all of our business comes from referrals, it can feel a little bit precarious. Like, well, what if those referrals dry up?

But actually that's much less likely to happen if you are maintaining those relationships and if you are being active with the people that you would consider your network. That's much less likely to happen than an algorithm change or your account gets hacked or you do something wrong and your account gets shut down.

Nobody can take those relationships away that you've built with people because that's you, and that's human connection that is just down to you basically to keep that going. So, you know, those are sort of the few ways that you can grow your business outside of social media.

I think that that's one of the hesitations that people have of, well, if

I'm not using social media, how do I get my leads? And actually, I think from a, from a short-term point of view, focusing on the relationships, focusing on getting yourself in front of other people's audiences and from a long-term point of view.

Focusing on your SEO. And that doesn't mean to say that SEO can't be quick wins.

You can definitely get quick wins from things like your Google business profile and from fixing a few foundational things that could be wrong with your website. Um, but the benefit and the real value in SEO is that it keeps continuing to bring clients, bring customers, bring people into your world for years to come.

That's the same with podcasting as well, that that content lives there, lives on as evergreen content. You're not getting that dopamine hit as well, which is one of the reasons I love it.

I love the fact that it is more of a slow marketing tactic, so it's something that you can be more thoughtful about. You can really make sure that it is connecting with people as you want to.

You're not just churning out content quickly for the sake of it. You're not just churning out AI written content.

You're actually thinking about how you help people, thinking about what they need to hear, thinking about how you can get that across in an ethical way where you are not then making them have fomo. You are not then making them make snap decisions about whether they want to invest with you or not.

People are having the time to get to know you and to understand whether they want to buy from you, and that doesn't necessarily mean that that's gotta take months to happen. Somebody can get to know you through a short welcome sequence on emails or from reading a few of your blogs or from listening to your podcast.

That's definitely something I've found. People come onto Discovery calls with me and they say, "Oh, I feel like I know you" because they've been listening to me.

They've heard me talk, they've realised that I can help them and that they want me to help them. So I feel like there's that part of it that, that actually, it's just about being more thoughtful with your marketing and just not feeling that, that pull that you have got to do it.

You've got to do the social media. And if you're not doing that, that you're really massively failing in your business really.

Conclusion - Making Social Media Optional

So this isn't anti-social media. This isn't about saying you can't use it and that you shouldn't be using it.

It's about making it optional, not essential, and it's about making it not your primary way of marketing your business. There have been businesses around for millennia.

People have done business with each other for millennia, way before the internet, before electricity, certainly before social media, and actually thinking about those ways that have always worked, the things that have always sort of worked for businesses and worked for people wanting to buy from other people, and it's always is that relationship part of it.

People want to buy from businesses and some people that they like and they trust.

And that's all part of what you would try and get across on your website as well. So take a look at your website this week.

Is it ready to work for you or are you still pouring all of your energy into feeds that you don't control? And if you'd like step-by-step guidance with this, come and join us in The Website Growth Club.

Or if you want a more sort of focused shift into content that you own, then book a one-to-one intensive with me, both links you'll find in the show notes for this. So remember, social media is optional.

You can grow a business without feeding the algorithm. You've already got everything you need.

You've got your voice, you've got your expertise, you've got your website. So start there.

Start with the thing that you own and develop a calmer, more sustainable business beyond the scroll.

So I hope that's been helpful and I'll see you soon.

Bye.