The Problem With Social Media
Social media is a good place to get the attention of your ideal audience, but if you want to build meaningful relationships, you need to hold their attention.
I'm old enough to remember the days before the internet was commonplace in every household. And I remember when Facebook was new. I was working as a holiday rep at the time, and suddenly everyone was talking about it. I finally gave in and set up an account. And it was brilliant. I could keep in touch with friends from home, friends I'd met repping, and friends I hadn't met yet.
But Facebook is a completely different platform now.
I don't use it to keep in touch with family or friends. I don't think many people do these days. Most of us have private WhatsApp groups (or similar) for chatting with people closest to us. And there are plenty of private groups and communities for work, business, hobbies and anything else you might need to chat about.
And when I first started my business, Twitter was my go-to social media platform. I spent every Friday afternoon scheduling posts for the following week, and I'd join Twitter chats. I even went on a Twitter course. And I got business out of it. But I gradually stopped using it as I moved towards other platforms. A few years ago, I deleted it completely. It's definitely changed in recent years (especially since it became X).
Then there's LinkedIn. I joined LinkedIn in 2012, but didn't really use it with any consistency until the end of 2019. From 2020 until 2024, it was my biggest source of new leads.
But LinkedIn changed too. Personally, I think it was at its best during the lockdowns and just afterwards. People were stuck at home, so they were using it more, and it was one big giant networking site. It was a fun place to be, and you could actually get to know people and make good connections.
But over the last couple of years, it's gotten a bit stale. And you can tell people are getting tired of it. People aren't networking as much - they are simply going through the motions of sharing a post and liking a couple of posts. Some people have moved onto other platforms completely.
And that's one of the biggest problems with social media. They start out as one thing, but they change.
They usually start out as social platforms - places where people can connect, learn, or be entertained. They are good, and people like them. More people start using them, and they grow in popularity.
Then businesses start to find ways to use them, and some of them see decent results. So more businesses move towards them.
And courses start popping up, and pods start popping up, and people start looking for ways to cheat the system or game the algorithm. And the feeds become full of people sharing tips for how to use the platform. And the platforms start offering more and more paid ad opportunities (and why wouldn't they - they have to make money somehow).
Gradually, the platforms become full of ads and shit content, which has been made even worse by the amount of AI slop we're seeing. In fact, by Meta's own admission, only 17% of content people engage with on Facebook is from family and friends. And when our feeds are full of stuff we don't want, we lose interest and move on.
And as people move on, the feeds just become echo chambers. Businesses showing ads to each other. AI comments left on AI-generated content. Genuine conversation dries up, and they just become full of people trying to sell.
The problem with that is people are rarely ever on social media to buy.
Most of us will go to a shop (physical or online), or we'll head straight to the website of the company we want to buy from, or we'll search for the product or service we want using a search engine, marketplace site or even AI.
Now, that's not to say people don't buy stuff after seeing it on social media. I have. I've bought from ads or after seeing something in my feed a few times. But buying is not my primary reason for being on social media. And it's probably not yours either. And it probably isn't your ideal customers' reason for being there either.
Most of us use social media because we want to be educated or entertained.
So how can you use social media to generate business? How do you get the attention of people who aren't there to buy what you're selling?
Social media is a good place to get the attention of your ideal audience, but if you want to build meaningful relationships, you need to hold their attention.
Start conversations on social media, but take people elsewhere to continue them. Start a newsletter, a community, a subscriber list, a membership, a blog, a podcast, a channel, a group, or host workshops, webinars or events. Build places where you can communicate with your ideal audience directly.
And if you need help doing that, book 90 minutes with me.
Lisa Slater
Lisa Slater
