I Quit Social Media and My Income Tripled

For the first couple of years after I started my online business, I was so frustrated. I was trying to grow, but it didn’t seem like anything I was doing was working.

I thought that maybe I was just being impatient. After all, there’s no such thing as “overnight success” (or at least, it’s very rare), so maybe I just needed to relax, stay consistent, and keep myself motivated for a long journey.

And while that is still true, something else I believe is that it’s important to recognize when what you’re doing simply isn’t working.

I was following all the conventional advice of how to grow my business: I was consistently creating good quality content, I was posting regularly on a number of social media platforms, and I was trying to engage with my audience.

But my business was growing SLOWLY and I was hearing only crickets.

Well, a few months ago I did an audit of my business to find out exactly what WAS working and what wasn’t. What was driving the most traffic to my website? What was driving the most sales? What was I enjoying the most? And, what was simply a massive waste of time.

Well, I learned a lot from looking at my different business activities from a more objective standpoint, but a few that stood out were:

• Twitter is driving less than 5% of my traffic + I don’t enjoy it at all.
• Instagram is kind of fun, but it doesn’t seem to be driving almost any traffic or sales.
• 90% of my traffic comes from Facebook ads, Youtube, and Pinterest.

I also realized a whole lot of other things about exactly where my time was going vs. where it should be going for better results.

But my biggest takeaway was really that social media wasn't helping my business all that much — but it was consuming an enormous amount of time.

Now, hold up, you might be thinking — didn’t you just say that your traffic was coming from Facebook, Youtube, and Pinterest?

Well, yes, but that’s because I’m using these platforms differently than we typically use social media.

I’m not just posting every day, spamming my links, or chatting with friends.

• On Facebook, I’m paying for advertising.
• On Youtube, I’m creating long-form, high-quality content that’s helping & attracting tons of new customers.
• And Pinterest is really more of a search engine than it is social media.

All these findings led me to one, (perhaps shocking) decision: to “quit” social media.

Now, I’m not saying that I’m deleting my Instagram or Facebook account, because I’ll still be using them from time to time, but what I have quit is the “posting every day” routine that was sucking up sooo much of my time and energy.

Instead, I’m only focusing on those few specific uses of each of the platforms that has actually been producing tangible results.

Aside from that, I’m also still posting (occasional, sporadic) behind-the-scenes pictures, thoughts, and updates on Facebook and Instagram. But I’m losing the guilt about not being consistent. I’m only posting when and if I feel like it. Because really, the whole reason I work for myself is so I can do what I want, how I want, right?

Think about any major celebrity or big business: did they get to where they are today because they had a spot-on Instagram strategy?

Nope.

In fact, if you look at the accounts of Taylor Swift, Marie Forleo, J.K. Rowling, or Amy Porterfield (now there’s a list for you, lol) you’ll see that even though they have massive followings, they post randomly — both in terms of content and frequency.

That’s because they’re famous for what they do — not for just having a pretty feed.

So, aside from the fact that I simply wasn’t finding social media all that fulfilling, extremely time-consuming, and inadequate when it came to meeting my goals, I also realized that I wanted to be known for more than simply curating an impressive collection of posts.

I want to create and sell products that help people achieve their dreams. I want to build a business that changes lives for the better.

And posting links to Facebook every day just wasn’t cutting it.

Anyhow, all that is kind of my why for this big shift in my business. If you’d like to understand my reasoning even further + hear a little about the results I’ve already started to see from the changes I made, then you can check out my most recent Youtube video.

But, just because this was the decision I made for my business certainly doesn’t mean that it’s what’s best for every business. Some businesses totally thrive on social media. For example, my friend Marie is a talented knitter, and Instagram is gold for her business, because it allows her to show off her latest creations to a passionate audience of other creators.

So the takeaway from what I’ve shared today shouldn’t be “social media isn’t a good way to grow a business,” but, rather, that it’s important you look at what’s working and what isn’t with your own ventures.

Where are your clients coming from? What’s driving traffic to your site? What are you finding joy in? What is taking up way more energy than it is creating results?

We always hear about the 80/20 principle, but sometimes I think we forget how to actually apply it. Take some time this week to look at where you’re spending your time on your business, and you may realize that some changes are merited.