Can I quit social media?

A question I’ve been seeing a lot of people ask lately is whether they can quit social media and still market their business effectively.

This is an interesting question and raises some interesting points.

The simple answer is yes, of course you can, but you need to understand one REALLY important thing.

If you decide to "quit social" It doesn't mean "quit marketing".

it just means you'll need to commit to other ways to get in front of the right people regularly.

And the reality is "most" of those ways take longer – BUT the upside of this is they are way more sustainable over the long term.

Social media is kinda like crack for brands tbh.

Think about it, you can get your message in front of hundreds if not thousands (or more) people each week for relatively little effort and investment. 

So with the right message and strategy and nurture infrastructure, along with a boatload of consistency, you can grow your exposure pretty fast if you use it well, simply because it enables you to get your brand in front of a lot of people fast.

But you need to keep feeding it.

And can be tiring.

To do it ultra consistently takes more mental energy than most of us have these days.

And by and large outsourcing doesn't really "work" too well anymore, ESPECIALLY if you are a personal brand.

And even many professional services businesses that were historically corporate-focused face similar challenges.

People want to hear from the leaders.

The founders, the action-takers in the business.

The "actual" opinion-holders.

Many of whom are just way too stretched to add more social media into their weekly time equation.  

Which is why I am seeing this question pop up more and more over the last few months. 

Social media has been a powerful short-cut and a marketing gold mine for many, many people over the last decade.

Like the wild wild west of marketing.

And even sales. 

But as you can see all around you things are changing fast.

Both because of the amount of information on it, it's getting harder to stand out AND people are just mentally fatigued and "over" social media.

The data shows very clearly people are reducing their usage, and some are opt-ing out entirely.

So while I'm definitely not "against" social media - and I do use it myself - I strongly recommend building in other channels to market your business, your services, and even yourself.

There are plenty of other ways to get in front of people but the key things to remember are that you need to be getting in front of:

 The RIGHT people
 ENOUGH people

In a systematic way that preserves your mental health.

Because YOU are your business' most precious asset!

This is why I teach and mentor people in ways to leverage social media sustainably PLUS other ways to grow (vital if you would rather avoid social media).

Personally, I love that we are going back to marketing fundamentals. 

For context, I've been a professional marketer for nearly 30 years and ran a full-service marketing agency for 20+ years of that.

Building global brands long before social.

I also co-founded a dot com startup that I grew to a renowned international brand long before social was a thing - and then sold to a venture capitalist.

So how the heck did we build brands then? In the 90's and early 2000s.

The same way we need to do it now if we prefer not to use (or be reliant on) social.

Here are some alternatives to social media.

 Search (paid and organic)

 Events (hosting your own, speaking at others', or sponsoring)

 Advertising (online and offline)

 Partnerships (with suppliers, distributors, vendors)

 JVs & Collaborations (leveraging other people's audiences and their endorsement)

 Publicity & PR

 Sponsorships

 Private Communities

 Direct Mail (believe it or not, this is totally ready for an overhauled creativity-fueled comeback - as your inboxes are swamped and your letterboxes are empty)

There is no “magic pill”, and key to success with any of these things is the same as it has been for decades - whether you are a business brand or a personal brand:

1. Strategy - You need to have a solid strategy before you do anything, before you jump to tactics, knowing why you're doing it and what you're expecting.
   
   
2. Creativity - Be unique and innovative and fresh in your approach. Explore new things. Don't do the same as everyone else. 
   
   
3. Critical Thinking - Track, measure, assess and optimise what you do, look at outcomes and the factors that influenced it, embrace the lessons and the data.

And if you want expert guidance and support as you build your brand, you should definitely consider my Marketing Me™️ Accelerator for 2023.

The program is being overhauled and upgraded for 2023 and will be a 6 week Intensive that will get you confident and clear on your message and marketing, AND 12-months of strategic implementation support & mentorship.

That hasn't officially opened yet and I don't have a fancy page ready to share yet, but I'm taking enquiries now (with a very compelling offer for anyone ready to book, that will see you prepped and clear on your brand and marketing approach before the year starts!)

Together we'll get your foundations right so you feel really proud of your brand, you know what to say and how to say it, and you'll have a couple of robust, simple "uniquely-you" systems to power your marketing. 

We are already in a completely new era of marketing, unlike anything we've seen before. 

The days of "one size fits all" are over.

(Well in all fairness, they never really were here)

But for a while there were some things that could be easily replicated that did get some results in the short term. 

(think cookie-cutter webinar funnels, cool email templates, DM outreach, outsourcing social media for volume)

But those days are mostly behind us now.

Anyone doing things the same way as they were in 2020 or even 2021 is having a rude shock right now. 

People's attention is at a premium  - and the bar for both content and engagement has lifted.

But this is good news for people who are serious and committed to building their business and who are creating positive impact in the world. 

It's your time to shine. 

And there are a heck of a lot of places for you to shine in!

So by all means reduce your input into social if that suits your lifestyle better – but make sure you’re doing other things instead if you want to build a sustainable business.

💛

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ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Nina Christian is a Marketing Futurist & Global Marketing Mentor who helps people do their marketing in a more human way. 

She is a Certified Practicing Marketer (CPM), Life Member and Fellow of the Australian Marketing Institute & AMI State Chair (Vic) and for 20 years was director of Braveda (Winner, Best Marketing Agency, Australian Marketing Excellence Awards).

Several years ago Nina saw the world of marketing shifting – this time as people became their own brands.  With this, she created a new business as a thought leader, combining her expertise in brand building with personal positioning, resulting in a breakthrough praxis known as Marketing Me™.

She has a knack for simplifying the complex which comes from being a hands-on mum to five children, and uses this to turn time-sucking activities into easy-to-follow systems and processes that make a lot of sense and get outcomes fast.

There are different ways to work with Nina based on your situation and organisation size - with all of them you'll see rapid transformation and tangible outcomes fast. Book a chat with Nina here.