Social media self care guide for businesses

This is a guest post

Let’s face it, every year the internet becomes more seamlessly ingrained into our daily lives. It’s how we connect, play games, pay our bills, check healthcare records, make appointments, read the news, and run our businesses. It’s difficult in this day in age to find folks who function 100% entirely without any use of the internet as the evolution of our lives have mainstreamed the internet to service quite literally every aspect imaginable. Too much social media can be detrimental to our psyche. However, it’s not easy or even possible for many people to entirely avoid using the services.

Most businesses or freelancers require some level of social media for marketing, connecting, advertising, etc. to survive. I for one, never had social media before I started my LLC. I was teased incessantly by others for being a “hermit”, but my mental health was fantastic, and I was very present in my daily life. I felt unbothered by the chains of internet overuse that so many of my peers expressed feeling. However, now that I have a business I MUST rely on social media to grow my audience.  There are tips and methods I have learned along the way to avoid the strain of over-connectedness online. If you, like me, require social media to pay the bills consider this your Social media self care guide.

Set boundaries with consumers

Social media is THE place to connect with your audience! Whether you’re posting polls, new blogs, videos, doing giveaways etc, this is really the Ground Zero for your pipeline to your consumers. However, sometimes the informal access of social media can make clients feel as though they can expect full access to you any time of day or night. While you want to network and provide great customer service, you also want to remember you are a business and do not wish for your time to be taken advantage of. First, if you do not operate a domain, consider purchasing one for free or low cost. If you do not operate on a website, at least consider preparing literature such as google docs to have links to on your social media. Here’s why this has so many benefits:

• Offer a popular Q &A section on the site to avoid repeated asking of the same questions
•  Explains what your business objective or mission is on these platforms
• Disclaimers are your best friend
• IF you provide direct contact information such as an e-mail or business number provide information on the contact forms that lists your regular hours OR give a time frame when the customer can expect to get a response I.e. 48-72 Business Hours
• CLEARLY spell out your refund policies if you sell services

Be mindful of how much you share of your personal life

Personalizing your business can help create a rapport and connection with your intended audience! Many customers like to know who they are consuming material from or where their money is going if you sell services. You can choose how much or how little you wish to share about your personal life on your business media. However, there’s two questions I ask myself before I make any online posts.

1. How does the information I’m posting affect my target audience?

As previously stated, it’s your right to choose what you write and share to your business social media.  Remember to keep in mind, that if this information can be offensive or hurtful to certain folks, you understand that you risk the consequence of backlash to your entire business reputation. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t use your platform to speak out about important issues. I’m simply reminding you that when you choose to use your business for this reason, you also choose to face the possible consequences that may come after that. In this digital age everything you say and post online will exist forever in some capacity. Even if you have good intentions, how would you handle your words being misconstrued? What if this affects your business? Moral of the story- think twice before clicking “post”.

2. How Much of My Personal Life do I Wish to be Exposed?

Personally, I have felt a push to share more of my personal life on my business accounts multiple times. I felt if I shared more about myself maybe folks will connect with me and my work more intimately! As with any action there are consequences. You never want to overshare simply for the sake of hoping to gain “clout”, money, etc. The emotional drainage you feel at the end of the day can be exhausting. I am personally, a very private individual. My online business does not contain photos of my family, locations, names, etc. Not only for safety reasons, but I find having a business persona from my personal identity allows me to breathe and be present when I “clock out” for the day. I am still genuine with my words. The personality of my persona is truly me, just with boundaries and limitations to my daily life. Trust me, if your work or services are valuable and genuine you will still find an audience to connect with despite the level of detail you share about your personal life.

Schedule posts

Many online articles suggest multiple applications that you can purchase to schedule social posts for you. While these are great options for some, I personally can’t justify paying for this type of service at the moment. I enjoy organically posting them myself, and seem to get more engagement that way! However, I also balance out my time and use the scheduling ability of Twitter and Pinterest to give myself a break. I can easily end up staring at the screen all day long if I’m not careful.

Avoid comparing yourself to other accounts

It’s difficult to log onto social media every day to advertise, connect, create content, and network without seeing the stats of others. I’m guilty of this myself! It’s easy to look at other accounts followings, likes, retweets, pins, engagements and feel like you’re in a never ending rat race. While it’s important to be observant of the market, you want to remember to keep your eyes on your own prize. Every business has highs and lows in activity that are caused by external factors outside of our control. Not every tweet or pin is going to be a viral sensation. Growing a social media following is a constant learning process. More people every day are becoming freelancers, social media algorithms change, and expectations of the public evolve.

I need to also constantly remind myself that the size of social media following does not always equal their engagement levels. If you’re a baby business like myself, growing an audience takes time. Every business owner is working with different budgets, initial savings, resources, employees or solo, and hours dedicated. We do not all start from the same place. Some folks get lucky, some folks have more money and resources, and some have simply put in many years of refusing to fail.

When you see a successful business on their social accounts, ask yourself these important questions before feeling envious or disappointed in yourself.

• How long and hard has that account owner had to work to build a following?
• Am I doing everything I possibly can with what I have available?
•  Can I learn and grow from what other accounts are doing?
• What’s more important to me? Audience engagement or following stats?

Scheduling hours to be on social media

As I stated earlier in the post, I do not use social media outside of my business. Therefore, I am sometimes tempted to simply doom scroll through my feed for hours at a time. Don’t make the same mistake I did. Schedule your time online just like any other business activity. There are plenty of applications out there to help you stay organized, but being the old-fashioned type I am I simply utilize pen and paper to write out my week and what posts, blogs, videos, pins, and tweets I want to achieve in a 7 day period. It can be tempting to sit online all day just waiting for potential engagements to interact with etc. Remind yourself that solid engagement takes times, and also has natural ebbs and flows. Giving yourself a day off apps, or limiting your time online is not going to destroy the foundation of your following. If you still find you can’t put down your phone, consider a productivity application to hold you accountable for your time.

(Not sponsored by or affiliated with Forest App or Trees for the Future Foundation at this time)

My favorite choice is the Forest App, available for ioS, Android, and Google, and as a browser extension for Chrome and Firefox. It was created in 2016 by ShaoKan Pi.  In this application you set a timer whereas you are unable to use your phone for that time period until the clock runs out. During the timer running, you will be rewarded with a virtual tree that grows while you are waiting!  Growing the trees also helps you collect virtual coins, which you can in turn donate to Trees for the Future Foundation. It’s a win win.

Sources

https://trees.org/ Trees for the Future Foundation
https://www.forestapp.cc/ The Forest App.

This Guest Post was Created by Gigi Lee of Guidancebygigi LLC. If you enjoy this post or want to read more on lifestyle, spirituality, and holistic concepts head to www.guidancebygigi.com/blog