So many business owners struggle with social media.
It’s a universal commonality.
I don’t know what to post. I don’t know how to position myself.
I just don’t like it.
But why?
Why do people struggle with it so much?
It’s simple.
Social media makes us vulnerable.
Gone are the days of marketing and never really knowing the results. Manual tracking and waiting months for feedback.
Social media is instant, and by default, so is the feedback from social media.
There is nowhere to hide.
If the world doesn’t like your content you know instantly.
You get an instant and potentially damning response to something you’ve worked really hard on.
What if no one likes it? Both in the literal and button pushing sense.
What if no one follows me?
What if I get no website traffic?
On some instinctual level this makes us nervous and frankly scared.
But when we add in the additional factors of social media’s addictive nature, playing with our endorphins and dopamine, it’s so easy for us to get trapped in a loop, pushing content live and constantly looking for results.
We become a slave to our own marketing and, I believe, it is a key reason why so many small business owners, especially new business owners, struggle with social.
There is something deep in our subconscious that feels wrong to us. When we are fearful of something we want to avoid it, it’s simple human nature, it’s how we’ve survived so long.
But we now find this internal conflict.
So how can we manage this?
I have no idea if I have the right answers but, in my mind, boundaries are the first clear step.
Be strict on yourself and limit your online time. Only check results within these time limits.
The second step is being kind to yourself.
Build your knowledge. When we start to understand that we are primeval creatures and we aren’t meant to be exposed to this many people. We aren’t meant to be liked by so many people. It’s only understanding that speaking to potentially the entire world makes some people nervous.
Be brave.
Use technology to help. Embrace scheduling software. It will help set a clear boundary between you and the thing you fear, while allowing you to step away from the platforms directly.
And finally, remember, it’s only social media.