A few years ago I began to think about social media differently. The COVID lockdowns gave me a lot of time to reflect on the things that I was doing, after all we weren’t going anywhere. I was still working on my online business and just trying to figure things out. I kept asking myself, where should I spend my energy and time?
Because social media, and the way that I was approaching it, took up a lot of time. I starting asking myself “What is worth my time and what actually made a difference to my business?” Fast forward to 2023 and I’ve figured out the answers to the question “Is social media an important area to focus on for an online brand?” The answer is a little more nuanced than I would like and I thought it would be good to share what I’m doing now as it relates to social media.
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You’re Building a Brand
Not just a following and that’s something that I think about a lot. I have a brand mission and focus that influences the work that I’m doing. Books such as I Am a Brand: How to Build Your Brand Without Apology and Building a Story Brand may help you tighten up your brand messaging because social media without fail will make your brand messaging confusing. Your politics, interests and activities will eventually make their way onto your social media feeds.
Why I’m No Longer Focused on Social Media
Recently, I hit 10,000 followers on Twitter. In fact, it happened on my birthday-July 24, 2023. Ironically, I was trying to reach that number so that I could take a screen shot of the number and move on. For the past year my enthusiasm for the platform had begun to dwindle. It should be no surprise to you that I’m not a fan of the changes being made on the platform-how many stranger peens can I see in one Twitter session?
Interestingly enough, I have made money off of social media.
I’ve connected with:
- Opportunities that I wouldn’t have heard about if I hadn’t been on a social media platform
- Brand partnerships from brands who followed or became aware of my feeds.
- Freelance writing projects that paid well.
- Cool events that didn’t get a lot of marketing in my part of the United States.
- Local events hosted by local creators.
- Newsletter and email subscribers.
Social media has, in fact, paid off for me. But, I also noticed some things such as…
- Social media can become a HUGE time suck that distracts from your primary goals.
- Social media is in fact, NOT SOCIAL, until you meet people in person at industry events such as conferences, local activities such as the tubbing meetup that I had to miss last week here in my town or even Zoom meetups where you get to see people’s actual faces.
- Most people don’t know how to monetize their social media so they get distracted by the follower numbers versus focusing on what actually converts. We’ve heard of the stories where a massive influencer is unable to sell products to hundreds of thousands of followers on their social media profiles.
When Hootsuite raised their rates basically without notice a few years ago, I stopped focusing on a hardcore social media strategy. Instead, I focused on what was working.
Vibes.
Yep, I said it. I focus on vibes on social media. I pay attention to the following:
- Designing evergreen content that stays relevant for a long-time.
- Real connections with people who organically share my work.
- Paying attention to what people are talking about.
- Growing my lists. I have email lists and newsletters. I focus on growing those resources.
Social Media Will Eventually Break Your Heart
And hurt your business if you’re not prepared. I won’t lie, I loved using Twitter. The rapid fire responses, Black Twitter, the time when Irish Twitter and Black Twitter joined together, the jokes and more. But, if there’s one thing I’m clear about it’s that social media will break your heart.
Let’s go through the list.
- Facebook breaking the algorithm within groups hosted on the platform making it hard for group admins to know if people saw what they were posting.
- Pinterest breaking their algorithm so effectively that I basically no longer trust the platform and don’t really use it anymore.
- Instagram rolling out numerous innovations that weren’t innovations and landing back to what it was before-beautiful images.
- Periscope-That was great until the bots flooded the feed.
- Clubhouse-I discovered recently it was still around. But, why would I use Clubhouse if Twitter has Twitter spaces.
- Twitter-I don’t even know where to begin with Twitter. How many peens do we need to see on one platform?
- TikTok-Once we figured out that the team heavily influences who goes viral and the rampant anti-Blackness on the platform that goes unchecked that I didn’t want to deal with….I lost interest.
- Spoutible-A Black owned platform that is heavily influenced by political content (it’s a little bit lefty and I’m not mad about it.
- Spill-That is also a Black owned platform that I can’t use until it rolls out the Android option.
- Threads-It’s basically Twitter without the Fascism so far and no spaces.
But, to be fair, as businesses social media platforms should be doing the following:
- Trying to keep users on their platforms
- Innovate to make the platforms work better FOR THEM not necessarily the users.
- Make more money with the platforms.
Their goals might not mesh with your brand building needs and focus.
Here’s What You Should Focus On Instead
Are you confused by what you should focus on instead of social media? You should focus on what you can control. So here’s what to do instead.
- Create clarity around your brand identity-Make it easy for people to understand who you are, who you serve and what your brand mission is. This clarity will attract social media followers and collaborations.
- Build a list-an email list or newsletter (or, both)-You need to capture the emails of the people that you’re serving with the content that you’re creating. Remember that social media platforms die, change or pivot.
- Focus on Content design-Are you thoughtfully designing content in your space that has people coming back for more? Content shouldn’t be about vibes.
- SEO-Search Engine Optimization. This goes hand and hand with content design. Are people looking for the content you’re creating? And are you optimizing your content with search in mind?
- Titles
- Topics
- H2 Headers
- In person connections-People that I’ve really connected with and seen their faces (via Zoom or at in-person events) are the people who have helped me the most. They have connected me with encouragement, opportunities and even financial support.
Your Social Media Will Grow
I’ve found that my social media continues to grow as I focus on content strategy, connections and consistency as I define it for my brand. I’ve recently reached 10,000 followers with the slow and steady approach and I’m not mad at it.
Why Am I Talking About Social Media?
Because I’ve basically dropped it as an area of focus for awhile now and my business continues to grow. And as each new social media platform is introduced I’m finding myself a lot less interested in learning a new platform and growing my audience there.
I don’t want to and I don’t have the time for it.
While I will claim my profile, I just won’t be that active on any of platform new or old. Instead, I will focus on what I know is working. I recommend that you do too.