Setting social media boundaries while getting your marketing done

Working towards finding a balance

My friend Tanya asked me to create a TikTok workshop as she keeps getting told she needs to be on TikTok but doesn’t know where to start! So I’ve created Tanya’s TikTok Workshop. It’s for everyone, from total newbies, to anyone that’s trying TikTok and looking to grow. And even if you aren’t sure about TikTok, I’ll also be covering how to make 3 types of short video - vlog style, face to camera and trending sounds - that you can use on TikTok, Instagram Reels or YouTue Shorts.

If you’re local to me in Leighton Buzzard, join me on Wednesday 18th June at 6pm. Find out more and book tickets here.

If you aren’t local to me, but are TikTok curious, I’ll be running this session again online on Tuesday 24th June at 1pm UK time. Same session, same great TikTok info! Find out more and book a ticket to join me.

So if you’re marketing your business, across multiple channels including social media, what boundaries do you have in place to make sure it’s not too much?

For those of you that are new, or have been here a while and just tune out everything that isn’t entirely marketing related (no judgement!), you might have picked up on the fact that I’m a runner.

I’ve been running consistently pretty much my entire adult life, and because it turns out that I’ve been around on this lovely earth for a while, that also means that I was a runner before it was cool.

By which I mean that nowadays there are a lot more people who take up running, and I find that it’s especially popular as something marketed (because now it’s cool it’s also a marketing opportunity to sell us stuff we didn’t need to do the thing that we want to do) to women of my age.

I love that more people are finding their happy place in running, it’s done my mental and physical health so much good over the years. But it’s not for everyone. We all need to get out and about and move our bodies for our health and there are so many ways to do that, running is just one of them.

I now have conversations with people all the time who say to me ‘I wish I liked running’ ‘I wish I could run’ and I always tell them the same thing, if you like it, do it, if you don’t, find the thing you like!

And the reason that I’m telling you another story about running in my weekly post is that I feel exactly the same way about using social media - and I think it’s a good place to start if you’d like to make some changes.

I think using social media to promote your business can feel like a double-whammy of not great. You feel like you ‘should’ be online, but then because you’ve turned up feeling not great, being online just makes you feel even more not great. And then you do it all over again the next day because you want to be marketing your business and think this is just how you’ll always feel about social meda.

Well if you do feel like that, then everything that I’ve just described can just get in the bin as far as I’m concerned. Social media platforms can be amazing, and they can also be the worst place ever created, and often within the same 10 minute period.

We know they are actively created to be addictive, and yet we still use them everyday, personally and professionally. So how do you protect yourself when you want to use social media, but also want to feel better about doing it?

Here are a few things that I’ve tried and currently use to do just that. Do I love being on socials every day that I check in? No. Do I feel better now about how I use social media for marketing and how much I use it using some of these tips? Definitely yes.

As with everything, especially my take on marketing, nothing happens overnight. You’re going to need to think about this and try a few things and work on it consistently until it starts to go the way you want it to. But trust me, it’s totally worth it.

Set a timer

If endless scrolling is your downfall, put on a 10 minute timer on your phone and then go onto social media. When the timer goes off ask yourself - Am I enjoying this? What am I doing now? Do I need to be here?

If the answer is no, or you’ve no idea why you’re still scrolling then jump off and do something else. If you’re still happy with that you’re up to, reset the timer and go again.

No evenings and weekends

I don’t currently use any social media platforms for personal accounts, all my accounts are for aspects of my business. So I don’t check them after 6pm, before 9am or at the weekends.

Did this miraculously happen overnight? Oh hell no. I spent a long time failing at this before I got it right. And sometimes I do check outside of these hours, because nobody is perfect. But I’m better at catching myself when I do.

As a minimum I’ve trained myself to take a moment and tell myself why I want to check, is there a reason (even a silly one) or is it just a reflex? That moment to ask myself often means I just put down my phone and don’t check.

Curate your feed

One of the best tips that I can give you is to be ruthless with who you follow on socials. I regularly follow and unfollow accounts depending on how I feel about their content. It’s never a reflection on them, but sometimes things just touch a nerve (or usually spark some comparisonitis!) and I just need a break.

[Sidenote - this is why you should never read anything into it when people unfollow you. It’s always going to be about them and not you. Another tip that I use, I literally smile and wish my unfollowers well when I see my follower count go down, often out loud, as I know they are doing the same as I do and that they will feel better about social media because of it.]

When you are scrolling your feed, be aware of how some posts make you feel. Three posts that don’t feel great from the same person? A good indication you might need a break from their account for a bit.

Get a bare minimum in place for bad days

If you run a small business by yourself and do your own marketing then I’m going to guarantee you that whatever you consider to be the ‘bare minimum’ effort you make in any category of your business is going to be of high quality and more than good enough to be out in the world.

Wanting to be great at something is probably one of the reasons you’ve set up your business, but trying to consistently hit a very high target can be exhausting and is a lot of pressure some days.

Have a super basic, barest of bare minimum, plan for days when you just can’t face any social media at all and try to stick to it.

Mine is one that I write into my planner every week and I stick to it because I know that most weeks I’m going to easily exceed it. But if I need to take a small step back, if socials aren’t where my head is at, then that’s OK, I’ve got a bare minimum plan and my marketing is still covered.

Lead with your content

I often think about my content like this - I want to lead the conversation, not follow what others are talking about when it comes to promoting what I do.

I try and make sure that when I do turn up on socials, I’m there to say something that meets my business goals, speaks to my audience and reflects how I want to run my business.

Of course I engage, look at other people’s content, and interact with others online. But I try to start from a place where I’ve got something to say that I’m pleased to be sharing when I show up online.

This has helped me most when I’m comparing what I do, or my content, to other people, and usually feeling like I’m not doing as well as others. A reset in how I think about this, reminding myself of what I do, what I want to share and why, is a good way to come to a social platform, excited and pumped for what you want to share and discuss, rather than with a sigh as you start to scroll your endless timeline.

Take your time and give yourself a break

If you don’t always feel great about the time you spend on social media, then just remember, that’s how every single social media app is supposed to work. They are highly addictive, and designed to have us all hooked. And they do.

It’s not your fault. And if you want to do things differently it’s unlikely to be something you can change overnight.

I’m not saying this to imply that you can’t do it, I’m saying this so you remember to give yourself a break while you’re trying new things to change it. It’s OK to not get it right first time, to try something that doesn’t work, to have one good week and then a bad one. All of that is normal.

Just take it at your pace, see where the improvements are happening, double down on those and keep going.

I don’t have it all figured out, but I’m doing a lot better than I was at it. It’s taken time but I’m glad I’ve taken the time to do it. So I hope that this might have helped you start to think about things differently too, where you want to.

It’s a crazy world out there on socials, take care of yourself while marketing your lovely business.

Chat soon

Laura