I’ve been marketing my business without social media for nearly five years—leaving just before it became cool to do so. I’ve written a lot about what caused me to leave and how I left.
In this post, I want to share answers to the most frequently asked questions I get about marketing without social media—and offer you some encouragement if you’d like to leave social media, wholly or partially.
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Can small businesses really leave social media?
Whenever a large company announces that they’re leaving social media, this often gets a lot of attention. And for small business owners like us, this might seem like an easy decision to make—a company like Lush is already so well known, they might not need to be on social media.
But what about us? What about those of us who are smaller, just starting out, and have been told over and over again that the only way to build and run a successful (online) business is to be on social media?
There are many businesses just like yours that are not on social media. And they are fine. Like mine.
When I left social media in October 2021, I didn’t have a huge following there (on Instagram).
I had a huge following nowhere.
My newsletter had fewer than 250 subscribers, I was sort of dabbling in Pinterest but was still in the early stages. I’d done a few podcast interviews.
I didn’t have an audience outside of social media to fall back on.
What I did have was a feeling of being completely fed up with social media. I’ve never thrived in a fast, always ‘on’ kind of situation. I’m a word person, not an image or video person. I needed out.
📚 Read more of my posts: How I quit social media for my business (and what happened next) and Myths about a business without social media
How am I even supposed to market without social media?
Marketing without social media is surprisingly simple really: you market like you always do, but without social media.
You choose the channels that you enjoy, that fit in with your values and strengths.
Even though I’m no longer on social media myself, I have many, many conversations with clients who are. Some of them are ready to leave, some want to decrease, some like what they’re doing.
What I hear from many of them is how unfocused being and marketing on social media feels. How it often feels like throwing spaghetti at a wall and seeing what sticks.
The thing is, the majority of people don’t spend time on social media because they’re looking for beautiful stationary to buy. They don’t open the Instagram-app on their phone because they’re looking for a coach.
They spend time on social media out of habit, out of boredom, to pass the time, to catch up with friends and acquaintances. And along the way, they might encounter your beautiful stationary—and maybe even click through and buy. But more often, they’re not that open to it.
When someone lands on your website, on the other hand, they do because they’ve entered “botanical stationary” into a search engine.
When someone opens your newsletter, they do so because they intentionally signed up for inspiration, advice, beautiful products.
Since leaving social media, my marketing feels so much more intentional. It feels so much calmer. It feels like I can breathe.
My marketing also feels delightfully minimal and spacious (and yet it works!):
- my 2x/month free newsletter, that you’re reading now (hi!);
- my paid newsletter, with the monthly Accountability Club, the quarterly workshops, office hours and behind-the-scenes posts;
- SEO: blog (updated 1x/month with two old newsletter posts) and website;
- Pinterest (around 6-8 pins a month for the new blog posts);
- occasional podcast episodes, including this very popular one from Art Juice about marketing without social media, and my own mini-series.
And that’s it. I currently outsource uploading the blog posts and creating the pins to Laura of A Bookish Season, saving me a couple of hours a month.
📚 Read more: 4 ways to grow your business without social media, 5 things I teach small business owners on how to market without social media, How new clients find me and Four benefits of marketing my online business without social media
Do I have to leave completely?
I’m really not against social media. It’s just a channel, a collection of platforms. It just doesn’t work for me.
While some of the work I do with clients and with participants in my gentle marketing programme Grow is on leaving social media and marketing without it, a lot of it is about creating a tailored strategy to social media.
If you’re not ready to leave, or just want to spend less time and energy on social media, there are other options:
- using social media as a shop window where you post infrequently—but where people can still see your work if they’re looking for it;
- using social media for announcements only, e.g. to announce your opening hours, launches of new collections;
- seeking a more collaborative approach: focusing less on people finding you through the algorithm and more on collaborations and shares with others.
📚 Read more: 4 marketing do’s that I swear by and Lessons from two years without social media
I’d love to know what resonates with you from this post.
Please feel free to share this post it with business friends, in your newsletter or elsewhere. 💛
I’d love to support you in all phases of your business. Providing clarity, focus and next steps is something that my clients tell me I’m really good at. If you’re curious about how we can work together through 1:1 mentoring, check out what I offer or send me an email–no strings attached. I have payment plans available, and flexible options for mentoring calls.
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