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Soleil: This is something that I've been desperately wanting to learn about since I started in marketing and I think it's really going to help you too.

Soleil: Welcome to Sweat Strategy and Success. This is the go to resource for entrepreneurs in the health and wellness industry to become the best versions of themselves, both personally and professionally. I'm Soleil Rain, a marketer and passionate storyteller. And my mission is to share the untapped stories of the brilliant mind shaping health and wellness.

Soleil: Here, you're going to discover inspiring stories and actionable strategies to continue to grow your business and cultivate a more healthier, fulfilling lifestyle.

Soleil: I like to start these episodes with a inspiring message. And I was scrolling through TikTok and I found a fan reel of the Chicago Bears quarterback, Jameis Winston, and I thought this was just so funny. He just has such like a bright and loving personality and just watching him and this fan reel of him like in all these other occasions, just having such a positive outlook on [00:01:00] life and football.

Soleil: It was just, it was very inspiring to me. 

As a kid, my passion was always football. I didn't realize that my passion was playing football. And we back again! Out here playing some football! On Thursday night! Yes! Yes! my gosh And we out here we outside My first snow game, E, let's get it. Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow. Touchdowns out here! Let it snow some touchdowns!

Soleil: Thank you, James Winston, for that very inspiring message and I feel very inspired and I hope if you're listening to this you feel inspired too.

Soleil: I am so sorry for my voice. I went on a Santa run yesterday And I think I got a little bit too excited and I ran a little bit too fast and too high of elevation And too cold and now my voice is Cracking [00:02:00] all over the place. Um, but I still wanted to make this episode today because I think it's really important

Soleil: And frankly, I don't know when i'm gonna have the time to Record this podcast again and have my voice sound better. So This is what we're going with today and I think it's gonna be a great episode because what we're talking about today is how to grow on social media without being consumed by it. As somebody who's always had a difficult relationship with social media, but also wanted to continue to grow on it and continue to grow the companies that I work for on it, I needed to figure out a way to balance everything.

Soleil: And so today I want to share with you what I have been doing and what I've learned in this process, because I'm going to tell you right now, I'm not an expert, but keep listening. I'm learning from the experts and I'm going to give this short version to you. That way you don't have to keep on going all over the internet to find what I'm about to tell you right now.

Soleil: You're going to find it [00:03:00] right here today in this podcast episode. And we're going to get to the solutions pretty quick actually. Um, but first we're going to go over some challenges.

Soleil: First and foremost, over 50 percent of entrepreneurs face some sort of anxiety or burnout during their career.

Soleil: And this is just like a high rate of anxiety and burnout as is. Includes social media and trying to manage social media into the mix. It just makes that, That challenge of being able to manage your time even more difficult and when you also Take into account the amount of time that you're actually just spending scrolling through social media And not actually using it in a productive way when there's things other things All entrepreneurs know this there's multiple things that you can be working on at any time of the day your work is never over And so when you're just scrolling through social media because you got caught into the trap of the never ending doom scroll that is tiktok and instagram now linkedin and even twitter, too, [00:04:00] it's Difficult to pull yourself away from that to focus on what you need to be focusing on

Soleil: Globally, the average daily time spent on social media is 2 hours and 23 minutes. That is a long time. In my head. I know some people will spend five, six hours on social media a day, which I just don't even know where you even find the time to do something like that. I get how it can become that way when you use it as a mechanism to ease anxiety or ease boredom.

Soleil: It can easily get to that point, but 2 hours and 23 minutes is a lot of time in the day.

Soleil: But what we can't forget here either is that social media is a critical business tool.

Soleil: 93 percent of marketers consider social media essential for business success.

Soleil: So I'm really excited for this episode today because while I was doing research in this, I found a lot of really helpful tools that I think will help you as well. So let's continue to go through some actionable strategies on how you can use social [00:05:00] media to continue to grow your business without being consumed by it. 

Soleil: so I want to start diving into this episode by talking about why social media is a game changer because if you're just coming into this new and you feel like you're already starting to get consumed by it and maybe you don't have that follower count yet and so you're pushing and you're trying to get these followers and you're starting to feel burnt out by the fact that you don't have the amount of shares or likes or the engagement that you're looking for in your social media, then this I want to talk about why social media is so important and why I think people should continue with growing their social media

Soleil: there are obviously clear benefits of being on social media if you are marketing your business in health and wellness.

Soleil: I think the first and the foremost when we're talking about the marketing funnel, building brand awareness is obviously very important towards your brand and being on social media is a great tool for that. If you can continue to make videos and get in front of people's eyes, they'll continue to learn about you.

Soleil: I was having a conversation with someone recently about the effect, [00:06:00] the effectiveness of radio ads and billboards and traditional media for marketing And they had a good point, where if you're getting in front of people's eyes And they're constantly hearing about you Then, in marketing psychology, more that someone hears about your The more likely that they're going to remember who you are when they're looking to purchase a good or service.

Soleil: However, billboards and radio ads cost money. Social media, organic social media, does not. And it's a great free way for you to continue to talk about your business and build brand awareness and get in front of people's eyes a cost effective manner.

Soleil: It's also easier to target your audience. If we're just even talking about organic and you're building a presence in your community per se, you can continue to reach out to folks who live in your community, focus on goods that are already in your community and people in your community. So that's a great way And not even to begin with paid social if that's something that you're getting [00:07:00] into. Obviously the tools that are available on these social media apps are very advanced that allows you to target certain cities, certain demographics, whatever it is, and allows you to target your audience still in a cost effective way, in a way that, And also in front of so many people considering that so many people use social media. and another very clear benefit that we can't forget here is building community. When you're thinking about the bottom of your funnel and you get to the loyalty part, Where somebody already purchased your good or your service and they're looking for a place to continue to learn about what you're going to offer, when you're going to offer it, what kind of sales or deals you're going to have on the products or the services that you do offer. And so building that community is really important on social media.

Soleil: I will say I was actually listening to a different marketing podcast this morning and there was a marketing psychologist who brought up a very good point. he was talking about how today's marketing world is really less about brand. Of course brand is important, [00:08:00] but people love ease of use. People love a product that was available to them at a click of a few buttons. People love products and services that they don't have to go through much trouble of buying.

Soleil: Like, think about it, we live in an Amazon world. And because we live in an Amazon world, people are one or two clicks away of getting what they want. You make that process more difficult for them, they're not going to come back. So when you are thinking about that funnel and you're thinking about loyalty outside of social media, you really want to make sure that that bottom of that funnel is very optimized to ensure that the people who are coming back want to come back because of ease of use, not just because of the brand that you're representing on social media or other platforms, if that's the case.

maybe you already knew about these benefits of social media, or you're starting to learn it, or maybe you already know it and you just haven't seen the results of this yet. however, there is a very obvious growing struggle with being able to manage your online presence. Without [00:09:00] being consumed by it

Think the pain points of being on social media is definitely not unique to any Anybody who uses it first and foremost you're experiencing time drain as I was talking about earlier Spending on average two hours and 23 minutes on social media per day Is draining the time away from other things that you could be focusing on Not to only mention that but mental health impact I mentioned earlier how i've had a difficult relationship with social media because of the mental health impact Constantly feeling like I'm being perceived and not wanting to be perceived in a certain way or wanting to make sure that I'm looking my Best because everybody else on Instagram are always looking their best There's a huge mental health impact to continuing to be on social media

another thing is having a difficult time setting boundaries. Like I was saying, if you're somebody who is using social media to ease your anxiety, to ease your boredom, it may be very difficult to set those boundaries, especially Especially with how addictive social media [00:10:00] is and lastly there's a fear of missing out I feel this all the time with social media, too I feel like if I'm not on social media, I can't continue to grow my business grow my personal brand I feel like I'm missing out on the jokes that my friends are talking about and what's happening in pop culture TikTok I just like I hate to talk so much, but I That's because I literally feel so left out when I'm not on it And I spent a lot of my time staying off tik tok because it felt like it was just such a mental drain on myself but Alas since I'm trying to grow my business trying to grow a personal brand.

And so when I'm just even thinking about myself, and I also know because I've been talking to other people who work in marketing in social media, people want a sustainable approach to continue to build their social media without sacrificing their mental health or their personal lives. Now, is it [00:11:00] possible?

I definitely think it's possible. If you're able to have the self control to do it. A lot of my podcasts where I'm bringing people on and talking to entrepreneurs, there is a mindset that you have to have to start a business, to start a personal brand, and I think that can also bleed into this subject of making sure that you're setting good boundaries on social media and managing your time correctly To make sure you're still growing on social media, but not becoming consumed by it.

Here are some very common pain points that I'm going to address directly in this next section. And if you relate to any of these at all, make sure you're staying and listening to this, because I think I found a way to make sure that we can address these issues, while also still maintaining and growing your business on social media.

So first and foremost, spending hours creating content that doesn't perform. feeling pressure to post daily and stay relevant

[00:12:00] And three, constantly comparing your progress and your success to other people in your field I know I personally experience all of these. So if you're also experiencing these, let's get into the clear solutions of how we can clearly address these pain points and how you can continue to live a healthier, more fulfilling lifestyle while also still growing your business. 

Soleil: so you're spending hours creating content that isn't performing well. Let's talk about the key issue here. The key issue is you're probably not making content that is relatable to your audience.

Soleil: When you're creating content, you want to make sure that the people who are in your audience want to share it, feel related to it,

Soleil: And possibly, if this is your goal, to take actionable steps towards fixing that issue or completing some sort of goal that they have.

Soleil: if you're spending hours creating content that doesn't perform, I would definitely recommend going back and reconsidering what your content looks like and how you can start trying out new forms of content that will actually perform well with your audience. [00:13:00] Step into the shoes of your audience.

Soleil: What is it that they want to see? What is, what are the goals that they have? What are the troubles that they're having and how can you continue to fix that?

Soleil: Next, what you're going to do is you're still going to continue to post, because at the end of the day, that algorithm loves for you to continue posting. even if you're not performing that well. I was doing a deep dive into some TikTokers the other day As I'm continuing to try to grow my own personal brand on TikTok, and I was scrolling through and I was, when I would see these videos, I'd see these videos of these people with thousands and thousands of likes, thousands and thousands of views, thousands of shares, and I was like, oh my gosh, how are they maintaining this?

Soleil: If you go into someone's personal TikTok page, You'll see not every video is like that. Not every video is gonna have thousands and millions of views. There's a very few amount of people who have been able to successfully replicate exactly what their viewers [00:14:00] want to see over and over and over again without making it boring.

Soleil: And so continue to make content and continue to push out stuff, even if it doesn't feel well, and remind yourself that it's okay. Okay, that your content isn't feeling well, you're putting the effort and you're trying to grow your business and that's what's most important. And in terms of spending hours on creating this content, I found the best way to continue to create content is to do a batch content creation. So what does this look like? Dedicate one day, maybe two depending on how much content you want, to brainstorm, create, and schedule your posts. Get it over with. And then spend the rest of your time, when you are scrolling through social media, responding to comments throughout the week. And honestly, commenting is one of the best ways to continue to grow your business.

Soleil: Not in a boring superficial way, but actually relating to the post that you're commenting on and getting your page in the view of other people who are commenting and possibly the the person [00:15:00] who filmed the video in the first place. I would highly recommend that you You try to post a few comments on people who are smaller accounts, but focus on the big accounts too.

Soleil: You want people to continue to look at your page and go into your page and see what you're posting. So spend one day creating all your content and then spend the rest of your week commenting and engaging and actually having fun with social media. I think that commenting and getting to know people on social media is actually probably the most fun piece of it.

Soleil: I think we've lost the social end of social media. And so being able to actually like get to know your community and the people who you're trying to offer your services and products to as a really great way to grow your business and also still have fun on it.

Soleil: Another really great way to do this is to create long form content, cut it up into a bunch of little pieces, and then repurpose that for multiple different things. So like, today I'm creating this [00:16:00] podcast, and what I'm going to do is I'm going to split it up into a bunch of little videos, post it on TikTok and Instagram.

Soleil: Um, so take a look. And LinkedIn, and LinkedIn. Um, and so I can continue to grow my brand without feeling like I need to create a very different, new piece of content for everything that I'm creating.

Soleil: And what's also really great about this topic is that modern power is held with the people who are able to hold the most amount of attention, holding attention for. 10, 15, 30 seconds a minute on TikTok or Instagram, even Twitter is great. But if you can maintain people's attention for a longer period of time with books, podcasts, newsletters, etc.

Soleil: You're gonna hold more power over your business And ultimately over your brand because people want to spend more time with you, with your brand and understanding who you are and what you can offer to them. So I highly recommend making sure you're creating some form of long form [00:17:00] content and breaking it up into pieces.

Soleil: Spend a day, get all of that out of the way, schedule it, just get it done, and then enjoy the rest of your week. Just do it. Being a person on social media and not a robot that constantly needs to be creating content 

Soleil: Okay, so the second thing that we talked about here is feeling pressured to post daily in order to stay relevant The thing with social media is it's constantly constantly changing

Soleil: And the brands that are constantly trying to jump onto the next trend on social media is not an innovative brand People want to see innovative brands as I was talking about for people love ease of use they love innovation And so if you're constantly creating content that is already popular on social media It could be great.

Soleil: You could be get it getting a lot of views I don't say don't do it all the time, but that shouldn't be your main focus when you're creating content You When you are scheduling your content like we've talked before, I would highly recommend that you continue to post at least once a day, [00:18:00] just because of how the algorithm works.

Soleil: If you miss a day, it's literally not the end of the world. I think quality content is 100 percent better than quantity, quantity of content. But the only reason why you want to continue to post every day is because you're learning about what content does well, and what your audience likes. So if you're only posting two or three times a week, then you're not going to be able to learn about what your audience likes, because that's just a less amount of content that you're putting out.

Soleil: If you're posting every day, then you're learning more about what your audience actually enjoys to see, and then you can continue to replicate that and change it around so people continue to come back to you. And as I mentioned before, the best creators on social media are people who found exactly what their audience wants to see and are able to replicate that in new and innovative ways.

Soleil: So, stay innovated. Try to get your post out, but really don't try to remember to stay relevant. You are innovative [00:19:00] You are bringing a service and a product that your company needs and so continue to do that and show that on social media

Soleil: So the last pain point that we talked about is constantly comparing your progress to others that you see on social media sites. As I was mentioning, I was going through people's TikToks the other day and a lot of the times your TikToks just aren't going to perform well. Your Instagram posts just aren't going to perform well unless you have a very loyal brand and unless you have a very loyal community and that goes back to the innovation of your marketing funnel and how well you're doing that and providing innovation and ease of access to your customers.

Soleil: so much. But if you're constantly, like, if you're posting to get brand awareness, not every post is gonna do well, and that's okay. And comparing to what you just see on your feed, I feel like I've been focusing a lot on TikTok, so let's also just talk about, like, Twitter. If you're just constantly taught seeing the best performing content on your Twitter feed, of course that you, of [00:20:00] course you're going to feel like you're not performing your best and constantly comparing your progress to others in the field is more of a mental challenge that setting a calendar might not fix.

Soleil: But if there was one actionable step that I could provide to you on this topic specifically is to set boundaries with your social media usage. Allocate specific engagement times. I find that when I'm on LinkedIn and I've allocated 15, 20 to 30 minutes to just commenting across other people's posts, that I was actually able to get more done than feeling like I needed to engage all the time.

Soleil: Also, turn off your notifications. Turn them off. That little red notification button and getting that like is so addictive and it brings such like an adrenaline rush and the serotonin is just insane. Get rid of your notifications. Turn them off. Turn them off. You don't need them. Turn them off.

Soleil: And I think this is the most difficult one, but if you're [00:21:00] setting a boundary for yourself to spend only a certain amount of time on your social media, actually only spend that certain amount of time on social media. If you're 15, minutes is up, get off. Just get off. You don't need to continue being on social media.

Soleil: I know, I know it's so difficult because I have such a hard time with it too, and we're learning this together. Get off of social media. And go do something else.

Soleil: What you can do is book your 15, 20, 30 minutes of social media time right before a meeting. And make sure you have a timer because you don't want to miss that meeting. But if you have something to do immediately after, you're getting off that, you're getting off Instagram, you're getting off TikTok, you're getting off Twitter to make sure you get to that meeting.

Soleil: So that would be a really positive way to make sure that you're actually getting off TikTok when you need to. And over time, you'll get used to it and you'll continue to remove yourself from those apps when your time is up. It just takes time and it takes discipline and it takes boundaries. 

Soleil: So I went over like [00:22:00] the three most common pain points that I found, but I still do want to talk about how you can continue to grow your business and stay on social media. Okay, here's some additional tools that you can continue to use to grow your social media, but not be consumed by it.

Soleil: If you've taken any sort of marketing course, or you've read through some marketing blogs, then you know that you should only be on the platforms where your audience is. And I think this is super important, especially if you're a one person show like I am, or if you have even a very small team.

Soleil: Or even if you're a huge company that has a very specific focus even if you're thinking about like B2B companies business to business companies and they only really want to be on a few platforms because they're not a consumer facing company So really when you look at the grand scheme of what your goal is What your product or service is who your audience is and where the audience lays you want to make sure that you're only staying in One two, maybe three social media sites at most in my opinion

Soleil: [00:23:00] To do this, what you're going to do is you're going to look at your audience. If you've already had people who've bought goods or services from them, go to them, ask them, Who are you? You know, why did you want my product? How did it help you? Identify who your users are, who your customers are, and then find out where those customers are at on social media.

Soleil: You can even ask your customers that too. Go to them and say, Hey, when you're using social media, What social media are you using? What content do you like to see? And I think that would be very helpful in determining on where you can best sit If you don't have customers yet A good place to sit is why you made the product or service. You understood the gap in the market And if you know where this gap is, then you know who your customers are.

Soleil: And they're most likely customers who are like you because you're the one that found this gap. So think about yourself and where you would be on social media and maybe [00:24:00] continue to ask some questions, go onto Reddit, go onto Instagram, go onto the social media sites where you think that your customers might be at.

Soleil: And start asking questions, start engaging, make some accounts, figure out what people like to see already, and then from there you can kind of narrow down where your target audience is.

Soleil: Another thing that I think you can do is making sure that you're engaging authentically and not excessively.

Soleil: Continue to respond thoughtfully to comments and DMs without over engagement. And really prioritize connection over vanity metrics. So, for example, in my last episode with Erika Manilla, who is a gold medalist racquetball player, she was talking about her social media presence.

Soleil: Now, racquetball is a small sport, and there isn't a lot of people who follow it, But the people who do are very loyal and very active followers for her. She may not have a large follower list. She may not have a whole lot of likes or shares on her posts, but out of the people who do follow her, she has a large [00:25:00] percentage of people who continue to engage with her social media content.

Soleil: So when you're thinking about building your social media, really focus on connection. Connect with the people who haven't bought your products and who have bought your products. So you can continue to build that community around your brand.

Soleil: And lastly, if you're at that point where you can start hiring people and you just hate being on social media, you hate it. It's not for you. Get me off. I don't want to be here. I hate every person I see on Tik TOK. Hire someone else. Hire a virtual assistant. Hire a social media manager on Upwork or Fiverr.

Soleil: There's so many people out there who are willing to make money from you and continue to grow your business.

Soleil: In another episode with Linda Malone, who is a conversion copywriter, she talked about how she recently hired someone. So if you're looking to get some advice on hiring someone to help with your social media, I would highly recommend going back and listening to that episode because she had some great pieces of advice on that.

Soleil: But continuing to [00:26:00] outsource the things that you don't like to do in order to focus on the things that you do enjoy doing for your business can be very beneficial for your mental health and ultimately for the health of your company.

Soleil: So what is the big benefit here at the end of the day? If you're listening to this, I want you to visualize yourself running your perfect business. Think about what you would be doing, what work items really light you up when you're thinking about your business. And if you're listening to this, most likely it's not social media and that's okay.

Soleil: There are so many other things that can light you up. So I want you to envision what that looks like.

Soleil: Got it?

Soleil: Okay, now for 80 percent of your time, you're focusing on these things that light you up.

Soleil: And you know that your social media is working for you in the background. You're reclaiming your time for high value activities like client [00:27:00] work or product development. You're reducing your stress and avoiding social media burnout.

Soleil: And lastly, you're building a consistent online presence without constant effort.

Soleil: Now, here's the deal and something that these social media companies don't want to tell you, but I'm going to tell you instead. Quality content and intentional engagement will always outperform Mindless hustle on social media.

Soleil: Focus on building a good product, a good service that your customers will enjoy and use social media to be mindful, to think about your user, what they want to see and focus on your own time. Social media should not be your master. It should be your assistant.

Soleil: Use it strategically to amplify your brand and don't allow it to dictate your days.

Soleil: Now we're coming towards the end of this episode and I really hope that these steps can help you to continue to grow your business without letting social media consume you.

Soleil: What I want you to do is I want you to take one of these hacks. Whatever stood out the most to [00:28:00] you and implement it into your week.

Soleil: Start small. Progress is better than perfection.

Soleil: And continue to grow your business and kick ass at growing your business. I believe that we can continue to authentically engage with social media if we really put in the effort.

Soleil: And we continue to not just put in the effort into our business, but into our lives and what our lives deserve to look like.

Soleil: If you enjoyed one of these tips, here's what I want you to do. I want you to go on to social media. I want you to tell me. Which tip was your favorite and tag me And what I will do is I will repost it to my own followers What we love to do here at sweat strategy and success is help other people And ultimately, I'd love to see how you're continuing to take control of your online presence and grow your business.

Soleil: And if you liked this episode, please make sure to like save and subscribe and maybe share with a friend who is also struggling with some of these things and wants to be more mindful of their social media presence. I really enjoyed creating this episode today and. Again, I'm sorry for my voice. I think it got better [00:29:00] the more that I was talking, but honestly, we just don't know.

Soleil: We just don't know, do we, until we put it all together. If you have some more tips, also, feel free to comment and let us know what those tips are on how you stay more mindful.

Soleil: And thank you for listening to another episode of Sweat Strategy and Success.