4 Ways to Use Social Media Marketing in Your Business Without it Hurting Your Mental Health
It’s probably one of the first things people say to me when we get on a sales call: “I hate social media.” Usually followed by this next line, “But I know I need to do it.”
Perhaps it’s not the greatest sales pitch for the owner of a social media marketing agency, but I almost always respond with, “That’s OK. I hate social media too.” Followed by: “But it’s the most cost-effective marketing strategy for small businesses.”
We’ve all heard it by now. Social media is not the best for our mental health. And, ironically, since the 2020 pandemic, profiles have increased on social media, to over 70% of the American population using social media - all part of our human need to confirm our depressed feeling with more depressing news. (Facts, by the Cleveland Clinic). So how can we “do” social media marketing in our business without harming our own - or anyone else’s - mental health? Here’s what we recommend:
Educate or inform: Social media doesn’t have to be all FOMO or feeling less than because your feet keep hitting the space heater under your desk while your sister’s old roommate is tanning with bottle service in Aruba. Chances are, there are a lot of people on social media who need your services. Scrolling through your feed and actually learning something that will help you be better at adult-ing would be a welcomed break for all of us. Whether you sell cyber insurance or provide estate planning needs, these services touch all of us - whether we realize it or not. So we might as well learn something about it before we start spending our money. People like listening to people who nerd out on what they love (I can show you my old student eval forms if you don’t believe me).
Post once - maybe twice - a week: Unless you are tweeting during a high-volume event (like a news conference or live event with a lot of attendees), more posts do not get you more views. In fact, it’s often the very opposite. Facebook and Instagram, both owned by Meta, demote posts by businesses if they are pushing content out too often. It’s their way of disincentivizing any businesses that are trying to “spam” people with content. Not feeling the pressure to post every day helps keep you sane and is a better social media marketing strategy.
Be yourself! Nobody expects you to be all business all the time. Especially on social media. Posting on these platforms actually gives you an “out” from needing to be polished or professional every single time. In fact, the posts that almost always (I’ll say 99% of the time) do the best, are posts that include a client with the family pet, cheering on their favorite sports team or an impromptu selfie before a presentation. Humans want to work with humans and that is more true now than ever before. Being yourself and sharing glimpses into what makes you you goes a long way in building trust with your audience.
Keep scrolling limited: If you didn’t know it by now, you should, the algorithms on any social media platform are built to keep you scrolling. I’ll be done in “just one more minute…” is an addiction in our brain that existed before smartphones. Think about slot machines in a casino. They are relatively the same concept: bright, flashy machines where “the player starts to lose awareness of their surroundings and they become more immersed in the machine itself.” So when we tell our clients it’s important they also interact with their followers by liking, sharing, commenting as well, we don’t mean that they make it their full-time job. Even if you hate social media, you can participate in a meaningful, limited way. For example, I will only scroll through my LinkedIn or business Instagram pages during the time it takes for me to drink a cup of coffee at my desk (usually even shorter). Or, if I’m waiting in a particularly long line at a coffee shop or I’ve arrived early to a meeting. Use time periods that have a clear ending: which does not include lying awake in bed at 2am.
Is social media bad for us? In large quantities, like anything else, yes. Do we still use it? We sure do. And although you can’t expect to “fix” all the problems with social media, you can approach your business profiles with the same humanity and authenticity as everything else in your life. Educate once a week, be yourself and limit your own use. People will notice you’re doing things differently. It will lead to more likes. Maybe some new followers. And possibly even a client down the road.
And that’s a pretty good start.