The Gentle Social Media Business Strategy

This image was shot by me, for my online shop, Sultry

How many Social Media platforms is your business / personal brand on? At some point, I wanted mine to be on all of them. But that was until I started feeling spent from trying to create a lot of content to cater for my different audiences. And so I ended up creating nothing and feeling like a lost cause. But it doesn’t have to be like that. Your business is a living, breathing thing, whether or not it is on social. Here’s how you can allow you can allow your business to grow gently online:

1. Have a Primary, SEO rich platform

   Have a bigger platform like a website, a YouTube channel or a Podcast. These platforms not only host evergreen content but have SEO on them. This means that, if you consistently publish content that people want to read, listen to, watch, then you’ll be able to build on something substantial. On social, content comes in hot and then burns up very quickly. If you’re into video, create one long form video and repurpose it into short form and spread theses over your calendar.

2. Pick the right platform for your business

   • LinkedIn: perfect for B2B sales. Content has a longer shelf life. However, do not expect instant results, invest in it and slowly it will reward you. LinkedIn’s best quality is that you’re not competing with entertainment, as is the case with all other social media platforms.

   • Instagram: don’t let the pressure get to you. There’s a lot of advice on Instagram on how to increase visibility. Everyone has an opinion on the best strategies and it can be exhausting. For my own peace of mind, I follow the CEO, Adam Mosseri. From him I learn the newest Instagram trends. One of the things I’ve learnt recently is that carousels can do better than reels because if the first impression was on the first slide, the second and third and fourth might be on the following slides.

   • Whatsapp: the most underrated platform for business. Here’s the thing, your WhatsApp audience is your contacts. People you already have some kind of a relationship with. Take advantage of it but please, for the love of God, don’t show all 50 photos from your gallery as your status.

3. Understand your metrics

   One word, Metricool. If you really want to know how your business or personal brand is doing online, this is something you might want to invest in. Metricool allows you to compare your business to that of your competitors. It will show you which one of your posts performed better and why. You will be educated on what social media metrics actually are.

Nobody knows your business and your customer more than you. Social Media’s a world gone mad and it is imperative that we use it in a way that doesn’t overwhelm us. Aim for quality over quantity. There is absolutely no point in having 20k followers who won’t buy what you’re selling. I wish you good luck in your business.