Being on social media can be exhausting! It’s easy to get sucked into the idea that you need to be on All The Social Media to be successful in business.
Thankfully that’s not true!
In fact, there are a lot of reasons why you should DECREASE the number of social media platforms that you’re on. Yes, you heard me right! This is your permission to stop using the social media platforms you hate. The real question, though, is why? Why is it okay to be on fewer social media platforms? Let’s dive in and find out!
1 | You can stretch yourself too thin on social media
Hey, we’ve all been there. You try to do too much too fast or for too long and you burn out. Social media isn’t an exception to that. It’s easy to jump on the next up and coming social media platform in the hopes that it’ll be the answer to all your problems. By the time you realize it’s not, though, you’ve got some followers that you like and you feel like you’ll be abandoning them if you leave.
So you just. Keep. Going.
Even though you hate it and it feels like it sucks your time away. It’s time to get rid of that mindset!
You’re not best suited to every social media platform
I know it sounds harsh, but you’re just not right for every social media platform. That may sound backward too, but think about it: if you passionately hate being on camera, is YouTube really the right platform for you? Probably not. And if you like writing lengthy, thoughtful posts, Twitter is probably going to feel cramped.
If a social media platform just isn’t a good fit, it’s okay to ditch it!
Your audience isn’t on every social media platform
On top of you not being the right fit for every social media out there, your ideal audience isn’t even on every social media that exists. If your audience isn’t on a particular social media that you’re pouring time and effort into, it’s a waste of your time. Get rid of it and move on!
Focus on ROI (return on investment)
If your audience isn’t on a particular social media, you’re not going to get a great ROI. Even if they are on there, if you’re not enjoying yourself on there and it’s showing through in your posts, your ROI is going to drop too. Evaluate which social media is paying off in conversions and if you find one that isn’t, either ditch it or figure out why and fix it.
2 | You need flexibility on social media
Let’s be real: social media changes all the time. Algorithms can feel like they run your social media life and popular platforms die or completely change more often than we realize. (Remember MySpace? Or Periscope?) You need to be able to pivot at a moment’s notice and being on too many social media platforms can make that next to impossible!
Not all social media is created equal
Different social media platforms attract different audiences and serve different needs. Like we talked about earlier, your audience won’t be on every platform and your business isn’t best suited to every platform. You need to figure out which social media best serves YOU and your business so you can start getting the results you want.
Diversify but focus your social media efforts
This may sound like an oxymoron, but hear me out. You can be on a few different platforms, but you need to know your core competencies. Okay, but what does that mean?
Figure out your core values. That means for both you as a person and for your business. Find the overlaps between those core values. You should also figure out what medium you work best in. If you take amazing photos and can write great captions, Instagram’s your game. If you know how to do SEO like a pro, go for Pinterest. Maybe you can build a tight-knit community like nobody’s business – try Facebook Groups. Whatever your core competencies and values are, these can translate across social media. Repurpose your top posts so you can capitalize on those core competencies, too.
How to hone in on social media for business
Okay, so now you know WHY you shouldn’t be on All The Social Media, but how do you get down to focusing in on the right platforms?
Start with one main social media platform
Yep, just pick one. Go back to the last section and find your main core competency and figure out your best medium. Find the social media that matches it and make that your focus.
And I hear you saying, “Okay, but I still have six other social media accounts that people expect me to show up on!” It’s okay – we’re not completely abandoning them.
Automate the rest of your social media for now
It’s time to find some automation tools like Tailwind, SocialBee or SmarterQueue, or any of the other myriad social media schedulers out there. Put some good posts in your scheduler(s) of choice, but don’t put too much time into it. Let them loop so they stay evergreen, but then head back over to your new main social media.
Focus on engagement
The key to making the most of your new social media focus is engagement. You want to generate comments, shares, likes, etc. on both your posts and others’ posts. Go interact with your ideal audience’s accounts and other influencers in your niche. Make friends, share insights, and make yourself known.
Stay mostly organic on your main social media
You can still utilize schedulers for your main social media, but do your best to be as organic and authentic as possible. Social media algorithms have never much liked scheduling programs, so you almost always have a better chance of getting reach by posting manually to at least some extent. It also helps make you a real person in the eyes of your audience, which doesn’t hurt!
Compare and make adjustments
After a month or two, look at your results from focusing down vs. your previous efforts. Make note of what’s working and what’s not and adjust accordingly. You may find that certain types of posts do better than others, so you can create more of those and adapt them to fit other topics to expand your posts.
When you feel like you’ve got a handle on your main social media, you’re probably in a good place to start expanding again. Reduce the automation on one of your other social media platforms that complements your main social media. Start repurposing some of the better posts for your secondary social media and build it up from there. You can keep adding additional social media back into the mix as you master more and more platforms and this will help keep you from getting overwhelmed too quickly.
Don’t move too fast with adding new social media, though. You can always phase a social media account back out into automated posts if it gets to be too much, too. Overall, you just need to find the social media and the system that works best for you!
So if you’re struggling with keeping up with social media, remember that you really can stretch yourself too thin on social media. Reducing the number of platforms that you’re active on can also increase your flexibility when social media algorithms change. To achieve this, focus down onto a main social media platform and automate the rest for now. Add back in your other social media as you feel comfortable with it, but don’t push yourself too hard. Just make sure to keep social media FUN!
Leave a comment with your thoughts on how to stave off social media overwhelm! Here are some ideas:
If social media platforms had a gladiator fight and only one could come out alive, which would you be rooting for and why?
What’s your favorite social media scheduler?
Do you have any other tips for making social media less overwhelming?
