It’s time I make sure my business isn’t reliant on social media.
This gets said every season and then the trend grows and then disappears.
Why?
Because you need social media for your online business if you want to survive in the long-term.
I’m not saying that because I don’t know how to make it work without social media. Hell, I was one of the people that refused to use social media because I didn’t want to play any of the games.
It’s why I got so good at blogging and SEO. Then I got good at Pinterest and emails.
But guess what?
I would’ve done a lot better if I added social media to the equation.
You see, social media is electricity. Can you live without electricity? Yep.
Is it easy? Nope.
The problem isn’t you. It’s society.
Your Reality And Your Business’s Reality Can Differ
When you are your business, it can be easy to make decisions based on what you want. That’s kind of the premise of world-building, right? Doing what you love so you can build from a place of joy.
The problem is that when you decide you want to make money you need the help of other people.
That’s where things get sticky for this No Social Media plan that you want to execute.
- Because anyone can spin up a million articles and throw them up on their site, Google is taking a closer look at a brand’s social media to ensure they are a brand.
- When you’re looking to do collabs with others, they will look at your social media to see if you have the ability to promote them.
- Your audience is not going to leave social media because it is a part of their lives.
Are there ways around this? Yes. Are those ways efficient? No.
If something blows up on Reddit, then it’s usually because it was posted on social media. If something gets shared with you by a friend or family member, it’s rarely an article.
We discover through social media.
Podcasts? Clips are first posted on YouTube, Instagram, and TikTok.
The First Point of Contact
Kanye West had a problem (okay, he has a billion problems, but I’m being specific in this essay). His site, Yeezy, was ranked below Adidas for the same term.
So what he did was create an Instagram post asking his fans to search for Yeezy on Google and click the link to his site.
In 20 minutes, he moved above Adidas.
Without social media, what were his options? Hire an SEO agency and try to beat out Adidas. Send an email? Do his fans even subscribe to his emails? Wait, does he send emails?
For the majority of the world, social media is the first point of contact. It’s how we get introduced to new things.
When you remove social media from the equation for your business, what you’re hoping for is that someone else with social media can help you out.
But the problem is never social media. The problem is you.
How Do You Feel About the Tool?
At it’s most basic level, social media is a utility. A tool.
Like electricity.
When the electric bill comes in we don’t like electricity as much. When our kids keep all of the lights on we don’t like electricity as much.
When the electricity goes out it’s an annoyance.
But life is easier with electricity.
The question isn’t could you survive without electricity? You most certainly could.
The question is can you thrive without it?
Can you find ways to build a business without social media? Sure. Would your business thrive without social media? Doubtful.
So the question you should be asking yourself is what aspects of social media are you trying to escape?
- You don’t like the bad people? Understandable, but there are good people looking for you.
- You don’t like how much time you spend on it? Well, you know how to correct that.
- You don’t like the algorithm? Then don’t play algorithm games. Focus on creating the content that you want to see and then find ways to get people to it like commenting on similar posts.
There is no point in hating the tool. Figure out what causes your feelings about the tool and then address those.
But to completely remove the tool from your life means that if you want to thrive you’re going to need other tools that work just as well, if not better, than the tool you’re leaving behind.
And with how online business works today, I don’t see a tool that equally replaces social media.
The Entire System
Your business is a system. One part is dependent on another part.
When any part fails in the system, the system overall fails.
I often talk about the need to have 3 Distribution Channels for your business humming. A Full Stack Engine.
- Active: social media, paid ads
- Passive: SEO-based (blogging, Pinterest, YouTube)
- Nurture: email, podcasting
You have a much greater chance of thriving when you have all channels filled. That can seem exhausting but we will get to that in a second. When one of your channels is lacking, the other two channels can pick up the slack for a tiny bit of time.
But not forever.
I used to thrive with just passive and nurturing distribution channels. But at some point, I started to struggle because those with all 3 channels were garnering more attention from the people I was trying to reach.
Without all three channels, eventually, you’re going to fall behind. And I don’t mean to make this sound like an arms race, but in today’s world, you have to be growing to survive.
But again, I’m not telling you to push yourself just for numbers sake. I’m simply saying that if you aren’t around for people, then you disappear.
Your business isn’t dependent on one thing, but it is dependent on the system working and that’s the problem with leaving one channel unfilled.
You’re putting yourself at a huge disadvantage to try and play the game any other way.
And I’ll be honest, I used to hate this fact. I did everything in my power to fight tooth and nail so I didn’t have to be on social media.
Part of the reason why I like to think my content and thoughts are so good is because I figured if they were strong enough then I could avoid having to be active on social media.
But guess what? Even if they were the greatest ever, they’d still depend on someone using social media to spread them so I might as well be on there myself to plant the seed.
You Don’t Need to Conquer It
Here’s the thing when you have a system that incorporates all 3 Distibution Channels.
You don’t need to conquer one of them.
I’ll probably never have the largest following on social media, most subscribers to my mailing list, or greatest amount of pageviews to my site.
But when you combine all three, then it’s some solid attention. When all three are moving in sync then you have something really powerful working for you.
However, what you usually see on social media (irony) is how people want to put more focus on another channel.
I don’t like how much I’m dependent on Instagram so I’m going to focus on my newsletter.
In theory, this sounds great, but it’s also the wrong mindset. You shouldn’t focus on a specific distribution channel. You should focus on the system overall.
Focus on the world you’re building to see if it’s worthwhile for others to visit. Understand that one channel feeds into another.
The great thought that you had post it on social media to see how people react. The deeper thoughts you’ve been putting together over the past couple of weeks? Put those into an essay.
Social media allows you to send out signals to people to let them know what your world exists and if those signals resonate, then they’ll come visit.
Throwing it away means throwing away your best chance of someone coming across a signal.
But how can we make this feel more intutive and natural? How do we avoid making it feel like a chore?
If the purpose of world-building is to profit from your joy, and that means being selfish about what you want to do, how do you integrate social media in a way that doesn’t deplete that joy?
The Magnetic World Framework
The Magnetic World Framework is a system that we use for our brands and clients to ensure they are getting the content out there that contributes to their world.
It stops your business from being cobbled together with disconnected tactics and transforms it into a unified world that naturally attacts your perfect audience.
Instead of going deep into it, you can read more about it here.
But when you’re able to build your world from the physics that you establish, everything else that you do feels more natural.
- This essay? Natural.
- The email that I’ll create from it? Natural.
- The social media posts that expand upon it? Natural.
Instead of it ever feeling like I need to get content in different places, I’m excited to get the content out because I’m sharing a journey.
I don’t wait around to see if it takes off. I go back to creating more because my journey doesn’t stop.
Using the AI World Architect of course makes them a million times easier and if I’m being honest, without AI, I’d probably have a different mindset about this.
I’d go back to trying to figure out how to make it work without social media and only realize down the road what a foolish venture it was.
