Why I Stopped Posting On Instagram And Started Marketing Where I Consume

If I Were Your Business Coach is a brand new series on the working for me podcast. Every week I am going to be giving my best advice as a business coach based on some of the problems that my real life clients actually face on a day to day basis. And today's problem that I am going to be solving is for the very beginners in business.

Sophie

A couple of weeks ago, I was sat around a table, actually in the middle of the jungle. I live on an island. We were eating ice cream just coming out of the waterfalls, and I was sat with three aspiring entrepreneurs. Now I know these aspiring entrepreneurs quite well. They are friends of friends. Every time I've spoken to them in the past six months, they've told me about a business idea that they've had.

Sophie

Even some of them have come to my free masterclasses at my Free Business Bootcamp, where I teach you how to bring your idea and turn it into a sellable offer. And yet they are still stuck. They've been speaking about this idea for the past six months, but they have taken absolutely no action. And when we were sat around the table in the middle of the jungle eating our ice cream, I asked them, why have you not started yet?

Sophie

What is holding you back? And they all said the exact same thing. Now, in case we haven't met yet. My name is Sophie. Big stuff. I'm an online business coach and I have been running online businesses for the past six years. I quit my job just before the pandemic started with the intention to go traveling, and I got stuck in London, so I was kind of forced into starting an online business.

Sophie

Now, what that has meant is that I've had the opportunity to start so many different models of online businesses, and I have tried and errored so that you don't have to. And I figured out what works for me and the lifestyle that I personally want to live. I'm here living in Thailand. I have the opportunity to go and hang out in the jungle or at the beach whenever I want, and of course I want to go and utilize them as much as I possibly can.

Sophie

So I really had to build my business with the lifestyle that I want to live in mind. And now that is exactly what I teach. I teach aspiring entrepreneurs how to build businesses with their lifestyle goals in mind, so that works for them, not as like a job that they work for. So back to the one thing that my friends in question were all struggling with.

Sophie

All of them had not started their online businesses because they were scared to show up on Instagram. They couldn't be bothered with the effort that it was going to take, and the amount of work involved in building a brand new social media channel, particularly in video, short form content format. Now, this is a common problem that I see with a lot of new aspiring entrepreneurs and entrepreneurs that have been running their businesses for a while because the content fatigue is real.

Sophie

I've definitely experienced it, and I can totally understand why it would put somebody off from starting an online business. But what these aspiring entrepreneurs don't realize, and what maybe you don't realize, is you do not have to be on Instagram to market your online business. There are so many other ways you can do this. And today in this episode, I'm going to break them down for you to give you some inspiration to see if you would maybe start an online business if you were marketing in a different way, going back to building a business that really, truly works for you.

Sophie

If you don't enjoy creating content and marketing your business, that is going to come across to your audience. Now, let me give you a little story. I didn't actually start Instagram in my online business until about six months in. I had so much resistance, so I literally fit into this conversation that we're going to have today. So I started marketing my business on LinkedIn.

Sophie

Now that went really well for me. I actually gained so many clients in the first six months that I was on LinkedIn and was completely ignoring the problem, which was Instagram. Now. I then started listening to all of the online gurus and they were obviously all using Instagram. TikTok was starting to become a bigger thing as well. Obviously we're in pandemic and I started feeling so much pressure that I needed to grow my business on Instagram.

Sophie

So I kind of sidelined LinkedIn, which up until that point had been giving me so much business. I went and put all of my eggs in the basket of Instagram, and I hate creating short form video content I don't even consume on Instagram. Instagram is not even in my world on a daily basis. So I was trying to create for a platform that I do not even show up, and I don't even use that on a personal level, let alone on my business level.

Sophie

So me trying to create content that was hard work, it literally felt like I was pouring nails down a chalkboard every single time I would sit and create content. So over the years, I was trying aggressively trying to grow this Instagram because I thought that that is what you had to do. If you had an online business. In that time, I was completely bypassing any other means of marketing because I was trying to really make this work, but I just couldn't.

Sophie

Sophie

On Instagram. The algorithm favors people that are going to jump on trends. They're going to like play up to the Instagram in some way. And I wasn't that person. So there were reasons why I couldn't really grow on Instagram. And I had so much resistance to creating content that I wasn't able to even stay consistent. And obviously, if you really want to grow on any social media platform, on any marketing channel, you have to find something that is going to be able to be consistent for you, whatever consistency looks like at your own pace.

Sophie

So for me, I had to take a really hard look at myself and say, is this the right channel for me to be marketing my online business on? And it took me a long time to come to the realization. But the answer to that question was no. This was absolutely not the right channel for me to be promoting my online business coaching through, because I don't know how to show up on Instagram, because I don't consume there.

Sophie

So when I look at how I do consume content, I love podcasts. I actually do read LinkedIn articles, and I also browse on Pinterest. And I also look at things that come through through Facebook ads. So for me, I don't consume my Instagram, but I have all of these other means that I really understand because I'm a consumer of them.

Sophie

So I decided to make the very difficult decision, and I kind of made a lot of permission from my own business coach to do this, to boycott Instagram and say no more like no more wasting time, energy and effort to really make this platform work for me because it wasn't working for me, put my energy and attention and focus on Instagram and put that into something that is going to work for me.

Sophie

And I don't just mean work for me in terms of like results. Get in the views, get in the likes, get in the clients. I also mean in terms of my own energy, the energy that I want to put into building a marketing channel and building the content for myself, is that going to be enjoyable? Because going back to building a business that works for you, why on earth are we building businesses that we hate running every single day?

Sophie

It makes no sense. So for me, I channeled all of my energy attention into LinkedIn. Going back to the original thing now, I always say in business that generally when you have the first thing that you're going to do, that will always be the thing that you come back to. But you'll go on this like flipping journey along all of the roads to come back to that where you started.

Sophie

Now, I ended up going back to LinkedIn, and if I look at how I've been like really consistent at LinkedIn for the past year, I have grown almost 10,000 followers in that past year, and my post get a lot of views there. I get a lot of engagement, I get clients coming in through those posts, and I get people really resonating with my content.

Sophie

And I've built a really great community there. So thinking about why that platform is so good for me, I don't particularly enjoy scrolling through short form media videos. That is not something that hooks me in very easily. However, if I do think about what I do like consuming it is writing is writing content. So naturally I should lean into my strengths of writing and being able to create written content over on LinkedIn, because that is how I consume that is how I'm able to express myself in the best, most authentic way.

Sophie

That platform has truly worked for me because I've leaned into that. So if you are not so great at like visual content creation that you are a really great writer, I would highly encourage you to look at what other platforms are going to be relevant for you, being able to write what you want to express, rather than sit down and record what you want to express.

Sophie

So the first platform, I suggest you go and look into, if you don't want to go down the route of Instagram and you do enjoy writing would be linked at LinkedIn. Right now is having a moment. People are really loving LinkedIn. Big creators from all of the other platforms are actually coming over to LinkedIn now. I'm building their personal brands.

Sophie

That is an amazing way to build your personal brand. If that is the kind of online business that you are building, I highly, highly recommend coming over there seeing if it's a good fit for you, because there is so much opportunity to grow on that platform and get yourself seen by the right people. Now, especially if you are a B2B business while you are serving other businesses.

Sophie

Of course, that is where those business owners are hanging out, so you're going to find where your audience are over on that platform. Now, of course, written content is an amazing way to get myself across to my audience. However, I also wanted my audience to be able to see me, to fail me, to hear me. Because just seeing it on a one dimensional page is really difficult to actually understand what I'm all about and what my personality is.

Sophie

Sophie

Because you can feel me through the screen, you can feel my energy. If you like what I'm sharing, obviously, then you could inquire to work with me so I personally have found it really beneficial to have my written content over on LinkedIn. But I also have this podcast where someone can hear me, feel me, listen to me. That has been really beneficial to have those two means.

Sophie

And for me, I'm a big listener of podcasts. Actually, that is how I get most of my information. I literally listen to a podcast every single day when I go for a beach walk while I'm at the gym, and that is how I personally learned. So it made sense again for me, because I'm a consumer of podcasts, I understand podcasts, I have my favorite podcast I listen to all the time.

Sophie

It makes sense for me to have a podcast. So again, if you like speaking but you don't like that short form because you don't feel like you can get your true message across, maybe YouTube is a great solution for you. Maybe podcasting is a great solution for you, particularly if you articulate yourself better by talking. So that would be my second suggestion.

Sophie

If you don't want to use Instacart TikTok to market your business, think about creating yourself a YouTube channel or a podcast. Now, my third suggestion you're probably going to be like what? But it's Pinterest. Pinterest is an amazing platform because it is not a social media platform. So many people get very confused by what Pinterest actually is. And Pinterest is a search engine.

Sophie

People use Pinterest in the way that they would use Google or I know, and they will literally type in what it is that they are looking for, and they're normally looking for some kind of inspiration, some kind of training, some kind of like visual identity to put to the thing that they are looking for. And then of course, when you're on Pinterest and you find a pin that you like, you say that when you click through to that pin, it usually takes you out to an external link, which could be your blog post, it could be this podcast, it could be your trainings, it could be your website, whatever you want that link to be.

Sophie

But you are essentially able to meet your ideal audience where they are at by using SEO rich keywords on your Pinterest pins, in the titles, in the captions, and then put the link out to direct your audience to where you want them to go. So rather than you putting content out and not really understanding if that's the wording that the audience is actually searching for, you can do the keyword research and create your pins to truly target those people who are actually searching for what it is that you have to offer, or the information that you want to share.

Sophie

So my third suggestion, particularly if you don't want to show up in a visual way, would be Pinterest. Pinterest is an amazing way. Funnel people to where you want them to see your content in, whichever means you've created it. And the last suggestion I've got, which is having a little bit of a moment at the moment, is Substack.

Sophie

Sophie

As I mentioned, I personally love writing, and writing is the way that I can express myself the best. So for me, Substack has been amazing and I've only been on Substack literally a couple of weeks and I've already had really fast growth on there. I started looking at other publications and seeing what other people were doing, and for me on there on my Substack, I actually write more about the personal side of my business, how I manage my online business whilst I navigate living abroad, whilst I navigate chronic health issues, whilst on navigate just general life because I really want my business to work for me, not feel like a job that I work for.

Sophie

That is a place for me to express that really openly, really authentically, really honestly. And I think that people that join Substack are really looking for that quality. They are looking for authentic writers. They don't want to read any I crap any longer. They truly want to see people and be seen. So I've noticed that the community of people that show up on that platform are so, so authentic, so grounded, really loving, kind people rather than what you see sometimes on other platforms.

Sophie

Again, if you are a writer like myself, I really recommend going up and checking out Substack because you don't again have to be on video on camera all the time, and there's opportunity for really fast growth apps that you can jump on it really soon because people are actively moving over that, because I think people are starting to wake up and realize that Instagram and TikTok are not the be all and end all.

Sophie

And ultimately, when you build your business just on one platform, just on Instagram, for example, Instagram owns your business. You do not have control over what Instagram does with your page. So if you are literally just focusing on building a following on Instagram, I would highly recommend that you choose another channel that actually allows you to take your audience away from Instagram and bring it over to yourself as well.

Sophie

I'll do another episode on how you can do that for today. I just wanted to share with you some alternative ways on how to market your online business. If you don't want to show up on Instagram or TikTok and create short form video content, those are the marketing channels that I would personally suggest that you check out and use, depending on where your skill sets lie, especially if starting an online business has been stopped, has been a block for you because you thought you had to do it all on Instagram.

Sophie

So just a recap of what those top funds are. Personally, I would suggest looking at LinkedIn if you'd like written content and building relationships with business owners. I would have a look at a podcast or YouTube. If you prefer to talk to the camera in a bit more authentic way and create more long form content in a video or audio format, I would look at Pinterest.

Sophie

If you are a visual person with like strong graphic design skills, because that is a really great way to build volume clicks to your content externally to Pinterest using search engine optimized keywords. And then I would also look at Substack. If you do enjoy writing and you want to for a bit more of a community around your online business, I personally use all four of these platforms.

Sophie

I can honestly say it has made my business work so much better, not only in terms of results, but also in the way that I feel like I enjoy showing up for all of those platforms. I have no resistance to create content. I've created a really solid system again, I'll share that in another episode. Going forward, so make sure you subscribe to listen to that.

Sophie

But I really, truly can stay consistent on these platforms because I enjoy creating for them. When I was creative Instagram, when I was trying to create for TikTok, I hate creating for those platforms, so I can't be consistent. I can't create a concept because my energy, my heart isn't in it. So I highly recommend that if this is what is stopping you from starting an online business, or if this is what is stopping you from getting results in your existing online business, find a channel that genuinely works for you, not one that you feel like you have to battle to show up for.

Sophie

I hope you've enjoyed today's episode of the working for me podcast. If you are building a business right now and you want to build it into something that truly does work for you, I can teach you how to do that. The first resource that I would go and suggest that you go and check out is my Freedom Business Bootcamp.

Sophie

That is a 75 minute long session where I'm going to teach you, which all my business is going to be right for you based on the lifestyle that you want to live and the goals that you have. And then we're going to build that idea out into a sellable offer. Look at who you're going to target with that.

Sophie

In terms of a customer profile, and then you're going to actually start bringing the idea to life. The link to that bootcamp is in the show notes, and if you love this episode, please make sure you like and subscribe on your favorite podcast platform and I'll see you in the next one.