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Social Media Marketing Strategies

for People Who Hate Social Media

Katie Wight | March 4, 2023

It’s easy to see why people hate social media. No rose-colored glasses here.

Constantly paying to play? Feeling like you’re forever indebted to a computer-generated strategy that never gives you anything in return, despite giving it all you got? Creating “viral” content only to worry about how you’ll pull it off again?

It’s neverending.

And yet… here you are. Tasked with building a social media strategy that grows your brand — while blatantly disregarding its effects on your mental health, resources, and bottom line.

You’re stuck between a rock and a hard place:

The rock: Knowing social media could work, if you found the right strategy (works for other people, right?)
The hard place: Feeling drained and disgruntled whenever you browse for trending audio or ponder which hashtag to use.

I can help, so stick with me for a sec. There are social media marketing strategies for people who hate social media (for their own reasons).

Let’s look at what you CAN do, even if you despise what Zuck and all his cronies have done to the online space.

Find the platform you hate the least

If social media feels overwhelming or you start stomping around your office just thinking about posting… how would adding more of that help? And yet, this is often what most strategists tell us to do: Double down. Go all in. Post the shit out of your content.

But you and I both know… That won’t solve the problem. Even if you get some traction from those forced posts, it’s not going to be sustainable because you’re going to hate every minute of it.

Instead of focusing on the platforms you think might work (or you’re told to use), lean into the platform you or your team hate the least. Prefer to chat on Stories? Instagram might be the place you focus. Love a good comment section? YouTube or LinkedIn might be where you need to focus for a bit.

You don’t HAVE to be on TikTok, YouTube, Instagram, and every other platform under the sun if you don’t want to. You just need to show up somewhere you can be consistent — and where you don’t want to rip out your hair.

It’s a lie that there’s some perfect platform for your brand, one that’s made just for your audience. But that also means that you can make almost any platform work for you, if you want to.

Let’s look at TikTok. TikTok is for teens, right? Not necessarily.

In 2022, Statista found that U.S. TikTok users actually trend older that most would expect. Yes, 67% of teens and young adults ages 18 to 19 use TikTok, but so do:

⚫ 56% of 20 to 29-year-olds
⚫ 45% of 30 to 39-year-olds
⚫ 38% of 40 to 49-year-olds
⚫ And so on

Statista Distribution of TikTok users in the United States in 2022, by age group

TikTok’s demographic is older than most brands might assume, but you know what they say about assuming. It makes an ass out of u + me. On that note…

Go where your people are

Sure, you could find a platform that matches your demographic and that has people ready and willing to consume your content. That doesn’t mean you can’t just show up and hope people find you, though.

You need to show up where your audience already “lives.” Part of the reason you’re frustrated with the lack of results is that your people aren’t there to give you the results you need.

No audience, no return. You have to be able to meet in the middle by going where you like showing up and where they’ll be too.

Not sure where your people hang out? Ask. Past clients or customers are happy to answer. Have an ideal customer you’d love to attract? See where they’re most active.

A little internet stalking never hurt nobody.

You can also test out which platform features your audience uses. Just because they use one part doesn’t mean they use the other.

For example, a LinkedIn post with an image gets 2x the engagement rate, and LinkedIn Live streams generate seven times more reactions and 24 times more comments for businesses than regular videos.

Also, LinkedIn takes the cake for long-form content: LinkedIn Posts with 1900-2000 words have the best performance and engagement rate.

These offer you THREE different ways to reach more people: Images, live video, and long-form writing. You can decide what works for you while also honoring how people consume on that platform.

There are stats like these for every platform out there, so don’t be afraid to dig a little deeper.

Cut the Shit

The “shit” being elements of social platforms or features you don’t enjoy.

Prefer Instagram but hate Reels? Cut them out.
Love YouTube but hate Shorts? Don’t use them.
Enjoy LinkedIn for the connections but hate the feed? Don’t browse or post.
Crave connection in your DMs but hate feeling like you need to post daily? You don’t.

You don’t have to use every feature on the platforms you don’t despise using. The core features can still be optimized enough to get results (I’m about to get into that, so hold on).

Use resources wisely

No founder or strategist has endless time, money, or energy. While yes, some strategies are longer game than others, you don’t need to be pouring endless resources into something that’s not working for you.

I can’t tell you what “not working for you” means — because it all just depends on what you want to get out of the social media experience. But in general, you’ll know if your strategy is working for your goals within three months.

At the end of that time frame, if you’re not seeing an increase in followers, engagements, eyeballs on your offers, etc… it’s time to move on and try something new. You might also want to revisit your pillars.

Focus on your pillars

I’ve been in this industry for 13 years, and I’ve learned that there are only three types of content:

1. Content that generates demand (awareness)
2. Content that converts that demand (sales)
3. And content that creates lifelong loyalty (profit)

It doesn’t matter what kind of business you have, what industry you’re in, or if it’s B2C or B2B. It doesn’t matter what you’re selling.

We’ve worked with thousands of brands in dozens of industries and this is a common thread we see in them all — and it’s these three pillars

Social media strategy pillars with yellow triangle funnel

You want to share the lifestyle — or the aspirational lifestyle you’re supporting.

You’ll want to showcase your offers — who they’re for, what they include, how they help, and so on.

And you want to nurture relationships — provide value, highlight your brand’s values, show how you’re constantly improving.

While you can do ANY of the above on any platform, it again comes down to what we’ve already covered:

⚫ Finding the right platform for you — Where can you best share these pillars?
⚫ Finding your audience — Where do they want to consume these pillars?
⚫ Knowing which platform features will help you share these pillars? Spoiler alert: These don’t require you to point and dance on TikTok.
⚫ Knowing your metrics and resources — so you see exactly which pillars are converting and which pillars need to be revisited.

The key to not hating social media so much

Let’s cut to the chase. Social media sucks because we feel like we’re just feeding an algorithm instead of feeling connection or building community.

We’re about community > algorithm, all day, every day.

If you want to stop rage-posting because you “have to,” and want to focus more on building a community than appeasing the algorithm, you’re in the right place.

Tools and best practices are great and can definitely help, but what really matters is making connections with your people (sharing the right content in the right places) — and opening points of connection so they can find you (finding the places your people hang out).

That’s what people want anyways. They want to feel seen, heard, and understood.

As the good humans over at Buffer put it: “People love seeing (and sharing) positive interactions between brands and real people.” It’s a self-fulfilling prophecy.

The more you or your team enjoy sharing content on a certain platform, the more that opens up points of connection between you and your audience.

While social media may never be something you love doing for your brand, it can be something you don’t hate — and that you see real results from.

If you want to see how Strong Brand Social supports clients through the platforms, pillars, and people element of social strategy that doesn’t suck the life out of you… take a look at some of our case studies below.

You can see numbers that back up everything I told you today.

CASE STUDIES THIS WAY

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