Do you find yourself getting caught up in all the things you *should* be doing on social media? Social media can be confusing and overwhelming for anyone. 

Keep reading and you’ll walk away knowing:

• What the social media experts don’t want you to know

• Why social media isn’t growing your business the way you want

• How to use social media to your advantage

You’ll learn that you don’t have to rely on social media to grow your business. It’s a tool that can be useful when used properly.

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Do You Need to Use Social Media to Grow Your Business?

I’ll be honest with you friend, what I’m sharing in this post goes against a lot of popular teachings and what a lot of social media experts would completely disagree with. 

But I’m okay with that, ‘cause this is going to help you grow your business. 

Social media can be exhausting. It changes so rapidly that the moment you get comfortable with one method, there’s a new one that’s come in to replace it. I’ve had so many times where I’ve wanted to throw my hands up and just be done with the social media thing. 

When I started out, in 2001, there wasn’t social media. It didn’t really come into the scene for another 6 years. Even then, when Facebook came out in 2007, it wasn’t really being used for business. 

It wasn’t until I went self-employed in 2010 that I got a Facebook page for my business. Then in 2011, I got Instagram. I had seen other people using it and decided to play around with it.

There wasn’t this expectation or obligation to have to do it, it was just something that I did. 

And when I moved to Calgary, knowing no one, I used Instagram to make connections and grow my clientele. 

Building Clienteles on Several Continents

If you don’t know, I’m a shy, introverted, awkward gal who’s grown her clientele on multiple continents around the world. 

I’ve gone to London and grown my clientele there, moved to Australia and built a new clientele there, and then I came back home to Canada and rebuilt my clientele from scratch again. And I did that all without social media. 

And before you start making the excuse that “times are different now”, I want to recognize that that’s completely true. And that’s actually why I want you to quit social media because times are different. 

Conscious Consumer

You see, you’re getting sold a lie and being sucked into something that isn’t actually helping you, but instead is stressing you out and making you anxious. 

It’s causing so much overwhelm in your life that it’s making you feel like you’re not enough and you should just quit because you’ll never be enough. 

There’s no denying that social media can be a toxic cesspool. 

Let’s be honest, you’re getting sold that social media is essential because it’s a marketing tactic for people who sell things that teach you social media, right?

And I want to do the exact opposite. I’ve been on this really big kick to have you become a conscious consumer. I want you to realize that getting marketed to and selling things isn’t bad.

I want you to ditch the mentality that marketing and selling things is “bad” because it will only hold you back from becoming a good marketer of your own business and it will keep you from selling things in your own career. 

I want you to take a minute to think about the things that you’re buying every single day. Grocery store trips, gas fill-ups, buying new clothes – things that you need, but also just things that you want. 

Remember that marketing and selling aren’t bad, but you need to become a conscious consumer. 

The Social Media Tool

If social media stresses you out and makes you anxious, I’m giving you permission right now to quit. Social media is not essential to grow your business. 

Can social media help as a tool? Yes. But that doesn’t mean you have to use it. 

It’s okay if you’re feeling like you’re behind or that you’ll never be good enough. Social media will be everchanging and you’ll constantly feel like you’re 10 steps behind. Unless you become someone that does social media for a living. 

I’m here to tell you that social media is not essential for growing your business and you don’t have to use it. 

The Highlight Reel

Something that I’ve shared with my students is that when I ended up in the hospital with a stress-induced panic attack I took a major break from social media. 

I was having huge comparison problems and major imposter syndrome. I felt like I was trying so hard to look perfect. And if I didn’t look perfect, people would view me as a failure and never come to my salon ever again. 

It was eye-opening when I realized that the key to using social media in a healthy way was learning to be vulnerable and sharing openly and honestly. 

And what I see happening in our industry is people starting to follow the tips, tactics, hacks, and tricks for social media that the “experts” share to get better engagement and grow their following. 

I’m curious if you’re a service provider, why do you need to get more engagement or a bigger following outside of your local area?

You see, you can do all of the things, and you can stress yourself out. Or you can learn to understand what kind of client you want to come book in. 

Your Ideal Client

What are the things your ideal client struggles with? What are they looking for? What’s something another service provider offering the same thing hasn’t been able to give them?

All of these things will help you better market to your ideal client. Likes and comments shouldn’t be what’s important. I care about helping people change their lives and businesses. 

And I know you got into this industry, not just to do the service you do, but to care for amazing people. 

Let’s ditch the mentality that you need more engagement or that the amount of likes you get correlates to your value. Instead, I want you to start focusing on the people you want to affect. The people that you wanna help have a better day. 

Because focusing on the vanity will stress you out and it’ll pull you away from why you got into what you do in the first place. 

I’ve got a suggestion to change up the way we market ourselves on Instagram. Because people still use social media to search for other people and businesses! 

What if you made one of those banner posts that go along the top 3 on your grid and it said something like “now accepting new clients, click the link in my bio for more info”?

That way when people land on your page after finding you, they would immediately see that and it would be a big call to action for them. 

That’s huge, right?! Because let’s be honest, not everyone will read your bio, but they will scroll through your profile. And if you have that call to action right at the top you don’t have to worry about posting a ton of stuff all the time. It becomes a sort of landing page for you. 

When you start utilizing social media that way you can become more strategic and lazy with it. 

Remember, social media is a great tool to market your business, but it’s not essential.

Make It Work For You

And I’m telling you this because I’ve built my clientele multiple times without using social media. And I truly believe I could do it again. 

You can use social media to your benefit without all the anxiety of having to post or stressing over a long list of things you think you need to do.

 If this long list of to-dos is keeping you on a computer all day, then you’re not using your time and energy wisely. 

You go and do all these things thinking it should get you the results you’re looking for, without actually having to get vulnerable or put yourself out there. Stop worrying about the number of engagements you’re getting and instead go for building relationships and connections. 

You’re in control of who you connect with and who you start chatting with. 

One of my students started looking up local businesses and who was following them. They went to their profiles and just started connecting with them. They ended up connecting with someone who was looking for a new stylist! And it didn’t require them to create a single post.

Social media is a tool that you can use to market your business. You don’t have to listen to all the tips and tricks that everyone’s telling you to do to grow your account and get more followers. 

Because more followers don’t necessarily turn into more clients. Especially if you don’t know how to market yourself. 

That’s where I do things differently and that’s why I’ve got The Client Building Bundle to show you how to attract people in a relational way. 

You can do all the things and then be like “this doesn’t work for me” but you haven’t put yourself out there, you haven’t made yourself vulnerable. And I’ll be honest, that scares the sh*t out of me. I do NOT like putting myself out there and opening myself up to rejection. 

But I want you to know that if you can just start connecting with people and stop overthinking it, just start trying to build relationships and friendships – whether that’s through social media, looking at other local places, walking down the street, or at the grocery store – just start the conversation.

So often we get in our heads and we overthink the process when all you really need to do is start connecting and building relationships and you have to be in it for the long game. 

If you want to grow your platform, for whatever reason, do it. But be aware that if you don’t know how to connect to people, invite them in, or know what they’re struggling with so that you can offer them a solution, it won’t matter. 

You don’t need social media and you don’t need the long list of things that aren’t working. 

How often are you connecting and building relationships with people when you’re on social media? Or are you just scrolling or making a post?

We play it really safe and we want to be efficient, but sometimes the most efficient isn’t the best way. 

While making a post or a story is more efficient because it has the possibility of being in front of more people; but what’s more effective is actually going and finding people in your local area that you’d like to have in and start connecting with them. Yes, it’s more tedious but it’ll have a better effect on your business. 

I hope this has encouraged you. I’m giving you permission to ditch social media if it’s causing you more stress and anxiety than anything else. 

If you want to learn how to grow your business WITHOUT the stress and get rid of that long list of to-dos, go check out my website, I’ve got free resources and paid programs to help you create the business, life, and bank account of your dreams. 

Until next time, friend. 

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