- Have you ever wondered if social media
could really work for your type of business?
Is it still relevant today
or was it a flash in the pan kind of trend?
Today I'm gonna share with you the advantages
and the disadvantages of social media marketing.
And be sure to stay until the end because I'm gonna share
where 71% of consumers shopped
for their holiday presents last year,
and it might surprise you.
My name is Elise Darma and I am an elder millennial
here to help you bridge the gap
between the pre-internet world, the corporate world,
and today's digital marketing world.
And today we are gonna dive into the good and the bad
of social media.
You're probably watching this wondering,
can social media really drive growth for my business?
I mean, followers and popularity are great,
but can social media actually drive sales?
I have worked with thousands of business owners
in nearly every niche under the sun.
Just to name a few, a Botox doctor,
a baby sleep specialist,
barre instructors, artists, vocal coaches,
even business owners who sell plants online, yes, really.
And before you think that these business owners
had huge followings or were internet famous
and that's the only way they could grow,
the fact is most of them
had under 1,000 followers on Instagram.
In fact, Sarah, from Petit Soleil Studio
made $11,000 back to her business with just 800 followers,
and her business wasn't even a year old yet.
So can social media really work for your business?
It's a resounding yes.
I have seen time and time again
that social media is an amazing free tool
to help you generate visibility to your business,
engage with potential customers,
create leads back to your business,
and even close sales,
all while establishing you as an authority in your space.
All of that said,
what are the disadvantages of social media?
Because I know I'm biased, but I'll be truthful with you.
There are some disadvantages
to using social media to grow your business.
- She gave me some bad news, man.
- Social media and Instagram specifically
can be a major disadvantage to your energy
if you're using it incorrectly.
By this I mean content creation.
I often see business owners burned out
because they're on the content hamster wheel,
because all platforms want more and more and more content,
and today that typically means video.
Video takes a ton of time to make,
and so if you're trying to please all the platforms
and just run, run, run like a little hamster on a wheel,
you're eventually gonna get tired.
I also see this with business owners
when they don't really know what works,
so they just throw spaghetti at the wall and hope it sticks.
This is another path to burnout
because that wall's gonna get dirty really fast (laughs).
- If you find it's better, stand up against the wall.
- All this to say, you need to be intentional
and strategic with your social media efforts
to actually see results and to not burnout.
I speak from personal experience here
as a business owner since 2013,
I've experienced burnout at least twice.
And during the summer of 2019,
that's when I was seriously considering
shutting my business down,
because I felt like I wasn't growing
and yet I was producing so much content,
and there were no results for it.
And in fact, I even had this conversation
with my boyfriend at the time and he said,
what would it look like if you quit it all
and went back to work?
- You don't want that, do you?
- Of course, I hated the idea of that,
but it forced me to get real.
It forced me to really look at what was wrong
in my business.
And there was one day when I was riding my bike
around Toronto where I was living at the time,
it was summer and the weather was beautiful
and I was just thinking, summers are so nice here,
they make the Canadian winters worth it.
And then I started thinking about business seasons,
maybe my business was just in a season of being static,
maybe that was true.
And then I thought, maybe my business needs something
really specific right now
and my content is just not serving that.
And that's when I realized the seasons method.
I realized that my business, just like the weather,
went through seasons.
And the seasons cycled, meaning visibility,
I needed followers to know about my business and my brand,
and then once I had followers, I needed engagement,
I needed to know what they wanted from me,
what they were looking for.
After I had that answer,
I could then generate leads,
I could turn those followers into leads.
And once I had leads, I can convert those leads into sales.
Those are the four seasons of business.
And the epiphany moment I had that day
was that my Instagram content creation efforts
were not matching to what my business needed the most.
That's why I burned out,
I was doing all the things on Instagram,
I was using all the features,
but they weren't ultimately serving
what my business needed the most in that moment.
So, yes, one major disadvantage of using social media
to grow your business is the time it can take
if you're not using it strategically.
- We just stayed up all night talking on the internet.
- Another disadvantage is one that I touched on
and it's the fact that all platforms
are moving more and more towards video.
And I know that video can take so much more time
to create, it takes a lot more effort
than just posting a stock photo,
but the results you get from video are so worth it.
So with all that said,
with all the advantages and the disadvantages
when it comes to social media,
what do you as the business owner focus on today?
We know statistically that videos
are gonna give you the most engagement,
the most reach, and the most bang for your buck.
So, if you're feeling burned out, this is your permission,
I'm giving it to you right now,
to not do all of the things on Instagram,
not use all the features,
just focus on the video based features.
And by that, I mean Instagram Reels and Instagram Stories.
Now, if you're with me and you wanna follow my advice
and you wanna make more videos,
the one thing I don't want you to do
is make one video at a time,
that is what's gonna take hours of your day
every single day, I don't want you to do that.
We gotta be efficient here,
and the best way to be efficient,
especially when it comes to your Instagram Reels
is to batch create.
Now, I have done an entire series
on how you can quickly and easily make up to 30 reels
in one film session
check out this video right here to watch the series.
Now, speaking from personal experience,
I know that one of the major disadvantages
of growing on Instagram specifically
is that the more you grow, the less people see your content.
And this was a mistake I made
back when I hit 10,000 followers, 20, 30,000,
I was obsessed with the vanity metrics,
I just wanted to be Instafamous
and I even tried being an influencer
for a little while there where I'd go to Bali
and spin around in the rice fields in dresses,
but the thing is, this was a mistake
because growth was great,
I was hitting 30, 40,000 followers,
but fewer people were seeing my posts as I grew.
And the mistake was that as I was growing,
I wasn't nurturing relationships
and I wasn't collecting emails.
- [Man] You have 81 new emails.
- Those email addresses would've been super valuable
to collect as I was growing,
because anyone who gives you their email address
is considered a lead, at least in my business today.
So even if you're starting small today,
even if you have 100 followers,
maybe a few hundred followers,
that is actually an advantage
because majority of your followers
will see your content as you're growing.
And don't make my mistake,
don't grow without nurturing relationships
and collecting leads,
that way when you hit 10,000 followers
and not so many people are seeing your content,
you're not gonna stress about it
because you've grown those relationships
and generated those leads along the way.
With all that said,
I wanna leave you with this last major advantage
of social media and I hope this is the point
that pushes you over the edge to invest in social media
for your business.
According to Fohr,
71% of consumers shopped for their holiday gifts,
not in stores, not online, but on Instagram.
Instagram was the number one place that consumers turned to
for holiday gift ideas.
Think about that.
If you're ready to invest in social media for your business
and specifically your Instagram marketing strategy,
I've got another video ready to go for you right here.
I'll see you there.