Let me be blunt: the way we talk about social media success is broken. And it’s making good business owners feel like failures when they’re actually doing just fine. Time for a perspective shift.
Prefer to listen? Hit play:
I recently came across an Instagram video where a creator was basically scolding his own self. You know those one-to-one interview formats? It was one of those.
The “regular creator” side was saying: “I’m doing so much and the algorithm is not rewarding me at all. I’m still stuck at 200 jail views.”
And his other self responded: “Here is the entitlement. You’re doing so much, so you think that you’re entitled to better results. The truth is that just like someone in sports, it’s not because they’re training every day that they’re entitled to play in high leagues. They have to play better.”
And I get that. I really do.
But I want to make a point in this whole article about the narrative that EVERYONE, not just content creators, is exposed to. And how that’s broken.
Let’s Start With Numbers
Let’s take Instagram as our main example, it has now 3 billion monthly active users. That’s massive.
Of these, 76.86% of Instagram influencer accounts have between 1,000 and 10,000 followers (Nano-influencers), only 18.23% have above 10k.
This means that only a minority ever make it past 10k.
So yes, there is a lot of people that are trying to become content creators and influencers. And the message from that video may apply to them.
But here I’ll be referring to how this is affecting everyday small business owners who try their best and have limited time and they only care about their business growth.
They don’t really care about becoming an influencer. They just want clients.
And I know that this article may raise some eyebrows, especially because I’m working in this field, but that’s fine. Because I don’t intend to work with people that are desperately trying to get visibility to feed their ego. I’m trying to talk to business owners who actually just want to grow their business.
Let Me De-influence Your Perspective
Of course I am on social media because it’s nice to get views for “free”. And social media has become such a big part of our lives that a lot of people are there, so our targets, our audiences, our clients are there eventually.
Therefore, again, of course we’re gonna use it. I will never say that you shouldn’t.
But I need you to re-dimension your expectations and think about it from a different perspective. That’s the whole goal here, to give you a different point of view.
Point One: Those “Small” Numbers Add Up
You think 1,000 views is nothing? If you add up all the small views that you do each week, each month, you get a lot of views.
These are 1000 people in a room for instance:
And it might seem little but you’re getting (I’m not gonna say for free, because it’s not for free since you’re investing your time and energy, but still) without investing money, thousands of people to see you and your brand.
So, that’s great. Even if you’re not scoring enormous numbers, you should still think about what you have.
And if you’re consistently getting 300 views, 1000 impressions, 30 likes, and you’re getting clients from that, know that you’re already outperforming tons of people on the app.
Point Two: Marketing Existed Before Social Media
Wild, right?
It’s easy to forget that social media is just one piece of the puzzle, and not even the most strategic one for many businesses.
Right now, everything seems as if marketing is just organic social media.
It is not.
Marketing is a big… huge thing! You have so many things that you can do. And you can be so creative with it.
And while, on one hand, I do understand that for the same reason of point one, it is very convenient, I also think that it depends a lot on how you use it.
Because if you break your head and ruin your (business) life in frustration because you are not getting followers, I mean, your perspective is wrong. So, it’s really important that you think about the fact that there is more out there.
For example, in my marketing strategy organic social media doesn’t even have a huge role at the moment, I only use it to gather data and some extra exposure. My most important activities are elsewhere. And I am very happy that I structure it like that, because creating content and posting daily is incredibly time-consuming and I don’t have the privilege of having all that time and energy.
Point Three: The Survivorship Bias
Gather your brain cells because this is the best one: survivorship bias is one of the most dangerous mind traps in business.
You’re comparing yourself only to those who “made it”, because those who didn’t, per definition, didn’t.
We tend to see the successful ones without talking about all the failures they’ve been overcoming. So it seems that everything is magically happening overnight and it’s not. And they don’t show you the 8 hours spent on filming, the 5 years of daily content that flopped before their big break. They don’t show you the burnouts, the pivots, the months of “why am I even doing this.”
They just show you the win. The big numbers. And your brain assumes that’s normal. But it’s not.
This is called survivorship bias, and it’s crucial that you know about it because that’s what some people lean on to sell you their shortcuts, hacks and quick solutions that inevitably won’t work for you.
For me, knowing how our brain works and biases literally changed the way I see the world. So if you’re interested in this, maybe reply to this email and let me know you are. I will write more about them (and recommend some readings about it).
My Message to You
This article is really meant for the people who are feeling very stressed and frustrated about their marketing, about their promotion, trying to push their business every day and feeling like they’re behind, feeling like they’re failing.
I just want you to remember that you really are not.
This is not a sales message, this is the human behind the coach you see, tired of seeing amazing professionals completely crushed by unrealistic expectations.
I want to tell you: don’t get affected by these messages.
Please think that even if you’re not there yet, you’re putting so much effort in it, you are eventually gonna do it.
And that having 10k followers doesn’t mean you’ve done it. Having good clients and being happy in your business means you’ve done it.
It’s really important that you remember that, whoever is reading out there.
This is my virtual hug to all the frustrated business owners who crush their head every day on marketing and feel like they can’t do it.
You can. You are. Keep going.
Love,
Chiara
