Episode 36
Dear Solo - Do I Have to Use Social Media to Grow my Business?
This is the companion audio for this week's Dear Solo.
I answer one question each week in the letter. If you'd like to receive the letters, you can subscribe at: theeleveatedmind.com/letters
If you read one, hit reply and ask me a question, I keep these anonymous, and will answer your question in a future letter.
If you'd like to talk with me about building your "second brain" and more AI automation, start by sending me an email at michelle@michellesera.com and I'll reply.
Transcript
So this week's question.
Speaker:This is the Dear Solo Audio Companion to the Dear Solo Letters that I put out every
Speaker:week, where I answer one question that someone growing a business solo has asked.
Speaker:This week's question is: Do I have to use social media to grow my business?
Speaker:And it comes from Antisocial in California.
Speaker:This week's question is a very,
Speaker:very big one. Like this, you know,
Speaker:I hear so many people.
Speaker:in this same place of frustration.
Speaker:In particular, Antisocial in California said to me that she'd been posting
Speaker:and trying specific strategies for,
Speaker:you know, s um specific channels themselves,
Speaker:like leaning all in on one and just not experiencing any any real growth from
Speaker:it and that she's just over it.
Speaker:And you know, I I stayed off of social media
Speaker:for years. Like personally I have no interest in terms of my personal life with
Speaker:social media. Although I have certainly changed my perspective a bit over
Speaker:the years just because of some really,
Speaker:really wonderful stories that people have shared with me in in finding loved ones
Speaker:and and things of that nature.
Speaker:So I'm not as anti social as I used to be,
Speaker:but certainly don't have any interest in it for my personal life.
Speaker:And even with business, I stayed off of it for years.
Speaker:And when I did decide to go back on social media,
Speaker:you know, it was to experience and build to to,
Speaker:I should say, experiment and build some visibility.
Speaker:So my short answer to the question of do you have to use social media to grow your
Speaker:business is no, not at all. You do not have to use social media to grow your
Speaker:business. The longer answer is
Speaker:that it can be useful for visibility if you have or if you can change your
Speaker:expectations of it and make it super simple,
Speaker:almost automatic to keep that visibility going.
Speaker:However, there are plenty of people building a business solo
Speaker:who don't use social media at all.
Speaker:And so whether you know you're coaching,
Speaker:uh, advising or guiding people through uh something that they want
Speaker:to be able to achieve or overcome,
Speaker:you you can do this as well. You can grow this kind of business without social
Speaker:media.
Speaker:And it just means shifting your priorities a bit.
Speaker:And as I say in the letter, truthfully,
Speaker:these things that I'm about to share are really more important than social,
Speaker:anyways. Especially as we see the social landscape really changing.
Speaker:So you want to start focusing on SEO blog articles.
Speaker:And yes, SEO has definitely changed.
Speaker:It has it is not, you know, you I hear this from many people too,
Speaker:that it's not what it used to be.
Speaker:It just means that it is changed.
Speaker:It doesn't mean that it doesn't
Speaker:function anymore or that it doesn't function well.
Speaker:So you really want to focus on SEO blog articles.
Speaker:And in particular, I'm gonna add to this that I want it to be formatted
Speaker:for AI as well, meaning that it can be easily uh uh found
Speaker:and cited from you know answer engine type things
Speaker:so whether it's chat GPT or
Speaker:or perplexity, whatever it is,
Speaker:uh being referenceable by these platforms is a really good thing.
Speaker:And that just means setting up the structure in a certain way.
Speaker:So having the the answer,
Speaker:you know, right at the very top,
Speaker:the what you're saying in the article,
Speaker:anytime you're using something that is uniquely yours,
Speaker:whether it's a framework, a phrase,
Speaker:a definition of some sort, that needs to be exactly the same every time.
Speaker:And you can do that through uh you know,
Speaker:a couple of things. I mean, you can certainly have like a canonical
Speaker:terminology document that is that you reference every time you write,
Speaker:or you can set up this external knowledge base or,
Speaker:you know, second brain that is on your computer.
Speaker:It is just your business stuff and it's something that any AI can access.
Speaker:And that way it's easy to use to set up automations and you're not recreating
Speaker:everything in every conversation or chat thread.
Speaker:So focusing on SEO blog blog articles,
Speaker:this comes down to traffic.
Speaker:And so no matter what you do, what direction you take in your business
Speaker:in terms of the strategy to grow it,
Speaker:you know, it all comes down to traffic,
Speaker:traffic that enables you to build a list.
Speaker:And then emailing that list every single week,
Speaker:promoting offers, creating visibility consistently through whether it's that
Speaker:you're on you're being interviewed on a podcast or you're partnering with people
Speaker:to cross promote, uh, doesn't matter.
Speaker:Like that it's all whether that comes from social media or it comes from blog
Speaker:articles and visibility on other people's platforms,
Speaker:doesn't matter. It all boils down to the same.
Speaker:Key foundational elements that a business needs to grow.
Speaker:So that could be paid ads. Again,
Speaker:doesn't matter. It's all the same thing.
Speaker:Just as the it's just a matter of what's the source,
Speaker:and therefore, and the source will determine the volume.
Speaker:So focusing on something like SEO and blog articles,
Speaker:emailing your list every single week.
Speaker:uh participating in partnerships,
Speaker:cross promotions, or bundle giveaways,
Speaker:and or as I said, maybe even being interviewed on podcast,
Speaker:podcast guesting, and having a solid client journey in place.
Speaker:And what I mean by that is you have a lead magnet,
Speaker:you have a low-tier offer. This might be something like a mini course
Speaker:Or a product of some sort, a short-term coaching offer,
Speaker:and then your core offer, your main offer.
Speaker:And that automation needs to be able to run without you.
Speaker:I'm not saying that the delivery of the offers needs to be able to run without
Speaker:you, that it's just the promotion of that,
Speaker:getting people into that journey needs to be able to run without you.
Speaker:And as I said, you know, if you have that uh external knowledge base or
Speaker:quote, you know, second brain uh created and it's constantly being updated.
Speaker:There's a you can automate that as well so that it's the the content that you need
Speaker:generated in that is being updated on autopilot,
Speaker:then creating this uh this automating this client journey can be done
Speaker:as well. So just getting some key pieces in place and some key automation in place
Speaker:enables you as one person to run your business and uh grow
Speaker:it consistently.
Speaker:So, you know, I do believe like going forward,
Speaker:and especially if you if it's just you in your business and whether you intend
Speaker:to keep it that way or whether you,
Speaker:you know, want to get to a point where you have a team of people helping you,
Speaker:doesn't doesn't matter. That's your personal preference.
Speaker:Uh, but either way, I do believe that's that small business and specifically
Speaker:businesses that
Speaker:It's essentially one person going forward,
Speaker:uh, are going to heavily rely on AI and automation,
Speaker:but in a way that is super smart and not away not super time consuming.
Speaker:Because trust me, you already know this,
Speaker:but I'll say it anyways, that AI can be your number one time waster.
Speaker:Super easy to do. You've experienced this.
Speaker:I've experienced this. So
Speaker:it's a matter of really leveraging it in the way that it's most useful to your
Speaker:business, i.e. this second brain I talked about and putting it building a system
Speaker:around that. And um, you know,
Speaker:that's what I that's what I think going forward that we're gonna all need
Speaker:to be able to do to some degree.
Speaker:And uh, you know, keep the hum I'm not saying that we need
Speaker:to I'm not saying that we should eliminate the human aspect quite from that.
Speaker:I don't
Speaker:And let me be clear that I am not suggesting or recommending that we remove
Speaker:the human aspect. Actually, quite the opposite.
Speaker:What I want to do and what I want to be able to convey is if we leverage
Speaker:AI really smartly, we free up our time so that we can show up 100% within
Speaker:our business as the human aspect,
Speaker:which I think is what people desperately need.
Speaker:So
Speaker:you know, training AI to know you uh will so that it can make
Speaker:decisions as you wi within this content generation and this client journey
Speaker:automation, uh I think is key.
Speaker:All right. So last words here.
Speaker:I wanted to keep this short for you today on this question of do I have
Speaker:to use social media? Again, no,
Speaker:not at all. Plenty of people don't.
Speaker:There's all kinds of business models out there.
Speaker:And
Speaker:you just know that you you come back to traffic,
Speaker:list growth, email marketing, and sales.
Speaker:What are those going to come from?
Speaker:How are those going to happen?
Speaker:You know, traffic, it's SEO ads,
Speaker:social is certainly can certainly be a source of that,
Speaker:although we do see a decline in that.
Speaker:We have seen a decline in that recently,
Speaker:at least compared to what it used to be.
Speaker:And um partnerships, you know,
Speaker:cross promoting, getting in front of other people's communities and lists.
Speaker:So whether that's like podcast guesting,
Speaker:um, you know, it can even be traffic can even come from YouTube and and ideally
Speaker:your traffic is coming from a few of these.
Speaker:But no matter what, that traffic has to happen,
Speaker:right? That you you cannot um build an audience to
Speaker:Put your offers in front of without it.
Speaker:So whatever that's coming from.
Speaker:And then building that list. So not just,
Speaker:you know, dri if you're if you are driving a ton of traffic to say articles
Speaker:or uh your website, but yet there's no action to take,
Speaker:there's no way to join your list,
Speaker:then that's a huge loss. And I should hope that that's not happening.
Speaker:So again
Speaker:There needs to be a way for people to join your list.
Speaker:So whether that is a lead magnet,
Speaker:there's many different things you can put in place to get people on your list.
Speaker:Then, of course, email marketing,
Speaker:that's your communicating to your list every week because you're cre you're
Speaker:creating all this traffic in order to build a list.
Speaker:You have this list or community of people.
Speaker:This is your audience. This is your this is your asset.
Speaker:in your business and if you are not communicating to them and putting your
Speaker:offers in front of them so for those who are like that's exactly what I need
Speaker:can raise their hand then again there's a big hole in your system and it you're just
Speaker:not going to be able to grow without that.
Speaker:And then of course the sales aspect you know that's a no brainer.
Speaker:But I think where people get really h hung up on the sales side and I and I'm gonna
Speaker:set s quote selling in terms of like getting
Speaker:having conversations, discovery calls and that.
Speaker:I'm gonna set that aside for a moment.
Speaker:I'm not gonna talk to that right now.
Speaker:But what I do wanna say is it's not uncommon to get kind of stuck in like,
Speaker:well, what should my my c offer stack be?
Speaker:Like the lead magnet, the low tier offer,
Speaker:the main offer. I can't I haven't figured that out yet.
Speaker:Or I I keep changing it.
Speaker:And you may have many low-tier offers,
Speaker:you know, many courses, things of that nature.
Speaker:Your even your main offer may be it may be coaching with you or advising
Speaker:or consulting of some sort. It may be a a bigger course,
Speaker:so it's not really you involved in a live way,
Speaker:it could be a membership. All of that,
Speaker:uh all of that can can be done,
Speaker:all of the above, but it's that clarity of what your offer stack is.
Speaker:And then consistently promoting it.
Speaker:And you do have to test and experiment and validate,
Speaker:which takes time and can be frustrating and can feel like you're not really
Speaker:m uh creating any traction, but you are.
Speaker:So again, traffic,
Speaker:list growth, email marketing, I think I have in there visibility,
Speaker:continuing visibility, which is that.
Speaker:partner promotions, maybe podcast guesting,
Speaker:things of that nature. It just means you're you're staying in front of people,
Speaker:new people, so they can find you.
Speaker:And then of course sales, all of that,
Speaker:that's just that's like the super,
Speaker:super basic pared down, like that's how a business grows.
Speaker:All right. Before I continue rambling more,
Speaker:much, much love. I hope that you have an absolutely beautiful week.
Speaker:And
Speaker:By the way, anti social in California,
Speaker:you've got this. Much love.
