Why you shouldn’t rely on social media to market your business

Want to know why you shouldn’t rely on social media to market your business? Social media has changed the world forever, and there is no denying the opportunity it offers to small business owners. Without any financial investment, you can open a profile and post content that has the potential to be seen worldwide. Social media marketing is popular for good reasons, but relying on social media is not a smart business move. Keep on reading to find out why you shouldn’t rely on social media to market your business.

 

 

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WHY YOU SHOULD NOT RELY ON SOCIAL MEDIA TO MARKET YOUR BUSINESS

 

 

You are building on borrowed land

Let’s start with an obvious one. Social media is borrowed land. You don’t own it. If you are marketing on Facebook or Instagram, Meta owns it. If you are marketing on LinkedIn, Microsoft owns it. This means that ultimate you don’t have control over everything to do with your social media profile, which is why relying on social media to market your business is wild.

 

Gone are the days when people are warning people that a social media platform like Facebook, Instagram or LinkedIn could disappear in the future. But there are still other threats.

 

Your account could be hacked

I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve seen small business owners sharing on another social media platform about losing access to their account due to a hacker. It happened to one of my business coaches, a business bestie and I have no doubt I’ll see another post this week. Accounts are hacked so often nowadays that you can’t assume you’ll have access to your account forever.

 

Your account could be restricted

I’ve also seen where businesses have had their accounts restricted (temporarily or indefinitely). At the end of the day, the social media platform is in control if they deem you to have done something that is against their rules they can restrict your account and there is little you can do about it.

 

The platform could go down temporarily

Even though social media platforms are run by big businesses there are still times when things go wrong. There are multiple times when a certain platform has gone down, and people panic and will use another social media platform to check it isn’t just happening to them. Now yes they are usually back up and running in a short timeframe, but if that happens on a vital pay in your marketing activity – like a launch day – then that can your business is a very difficult situation.

 

Social media algorithms change frequently

Social media platforms want to keep users on the platform for as long as possible. That is key to their success and as a result, they create algorithms to maximise the user experience. Every social media platform has its own algorithm which will impact how far your content is distributed. And because social media platforms are businesses they are constantly making changes.

 

As a small business owner trying to keep up with the constant changes in the algorithm can be time-consuming and difficult. But if you don’t then you can end up with the reach of your content drastically declining.

 

READY TO STOP RELYING ON SOCIAL MEDIA AND DIVERSIFY YOUR MARKETING?  Very shortly I’m be launching a new programme to help small business owners who are confident selling on social media to diversify their marketing so they can build solid foundations that will support their business over the long-term future. Join my mailing list and be notified first when the doors open.

The lifespan of social media content is short

One of the major downsides of social media content is how long a post lasts. Depending on which social media platform you use to market your business a post will have a lifespan of anywhere between minutes to a week. So you can spend your precious time, energy and creativity to create something that basically dies in days.

 

If you are relying on social media to market your business and you want to have a consistent presence then this can mean you find yourself posting daily, or even multiple times per day. This results in many business owners getting caught on a content creation hamster wheel where they are constantly creating new content to try and keep their business in people’s feeds.

 

You can find out more about how to get off the content creation hamster wheel by clicking here.

 

Limited organic reach

Gone are the days when you could post something organically on your social media platform and expect it to be shown to the majority of your followers. Social media platforms are businesses and as social media platforms have grown advertising has become increasingly important. And that means organic reach has been continually declining.

 

According to Social Insider at the beginning of 2024 Instagram’s average reach rate was 7.6% and Facebook’s was 5.9%. That means not even 10% of followers are seeing a post. This is saddening given how much time, energy and sometimes money has gone into gaining those followers.

 

No ability for targeting

Organic social media marketing is a form of mass marketing. You create posts knowing that it has the potential to be seen by everyone. Now there is nothing wrong with mass marketing, but it definitely isn’t the smartest way to market your business, especially if you aren’t a big brand with mass appeal. It’s well known that targeted marketing, with appropriate messaging, gets better results. This is why all those media platforms will enable you to run adverts via their platform and give you a range of targeting options. However, there are others ways  to market your business in a targeted way without giving money to a social media platform.

 

That’s it! You now know why you shouldn’t rely on social media to market your business.

 

As I said at the beginning, there is no doubt that social media offers so many opportunities for small business owners. But relying on social media only is not a sensible business decision. Instead you should use social media alongside other forms of marketing, such as email, long-form content, or search marketing. By diversifying your marketing you can make the most of social media marketing, whilst ensuring you are protecting your business from the downsides of social media marketing.

 

I hope you’ve found this blog post useful. Let me know in the comments what your biggest aha moment has been. 

 

WANT TO RUN A THRIVING ONLINE BUSINESS? Learning how to successfully market your business is just one thing you have to master in order to run a thriving online business. As a Marketing Strategist and Online Business Mentor I help online, service-based, businesses to grow and scale thriving businesses that they love running and generate the money of the dreams. I do this through helping clients to think and act strategically from everything from offers, pricing and marketing. To find out, and apply for my 1:1 business and marketing mentoring click here.