What do you do when you hate social media?
For many great entrepreneurs, we don't instinctually love social media because it's not how we would instinctually connect with an audience. We use our creator methods to connect if that's through art, visualization, or our intellect. But the truth is that jumping on social media and telling people all the nitty-gritty about who we just seem so unauthentic. Yet social media's a much-needed tool.
How can you maximize social media for your brand's benefit without feeling like you're selling your soul?
It's simple.
You have to remember that social media is a tool. As simple as that. It is a method. It is just one tool in your toolbox of how to get your business and your message out there. It isn't the be-all, die-all, end-all, and it isn't what you have to use all the time.
But just like with any tool, you have to choose how and when, and where you use it, meaning you don't have to follow the standards if you don't want to post two to three times a day. You don't have to do the seven to 14 suggested Instagram stories a day to grow your audience. You can do what works for you.
Now just like if you use a hammer to try to be a paintbrush, not going to the prettiest results. But you're instinctually choosing what to do, meaning that you're not having to follow the path of what everyone else says. Also, just like any other marketing method, it's a marketing method. And if your audience isn't engaging with you, then it may not be the right tool for the job.
We have to stop being so blind when it comes to social media. Social media can do a lot for certain businesses and brands. If you level the playing fields, it can allow you to get in front of your audience with little to no cost. But that doesn't mean that's where the audience is at. And that doesn't mean that that's the right thing for you and your audience.
Stop looking at social media as the holy grail of all marketing gods and realize that it is one simple tool in your entire marketing toolbox of what you can use and do. You can choose to take the hammer out and use it, or you can choose to keep social media in the box. It's completely up to you.
But begin to choose because just in that simple act alone of making a choice, you no longer have surrendered your free will to play the social media game. You can empower yourself, your brand, and your market and turn your audience to say yes to you in a way that you have chosen that works for you. And that is half the battle.