Is social media necessary to succeed in creative entrepreneurship?

Is it a must as a small business owner to spend lots of time and effort on social media marketing? Is it still possible to succeed?

As I write this, I have landed back home after a few days as a dog grandmother to little Cleo. I have been there on and off for almost two weeks. As those of you who have dogs know, having a small puppy to take care of is no joke. It's a bit like having a baby who doesn't have a nappy and has to rest and who can't be pushed around in a pram. You are simply forced to be inside a lot, at home and focus on the little life 24/7.

I'd be lying if I said I wasn't tired after the first week of getting up 2-4 times a night. I am tired but also happy and amazed by this amazing little amstaff called Cleo who already listens to her name, can "sit", "spin" and "paw" at just over 10 weeks old. If you are curious about what Ella and Cleo are up to, you can follow them on Tiktok.

Not much work gets done because, just like with babies, it's about choosing to shower, eat, rest or something else basic while Cleo sleeps. In the small moments of peace and quiet, I draw new patterns and play with colors that I don't usually choose.

Discovery of the year

What also happened this past week is that I almost completely let go of social media. Sitting with a phone or computer has not been a priority at all - it just doesn't work - and it has been SO. WONDERFUL. I've barely been on my personal accounts and haven't posted on my business accounts either.

Normally, I spend a lot of time making posts according to all the rules of the art with nice pictures, text that is elaborate and hashtags that should hit the right target group. Since starting MWD, I have spent countless hours preparing and creating these posts because I have come to believe that you have to do it to have a chance to succeed in marketing today. Not only does it take a lot of time to create, it's constantly going on in my head as well. “I need to update more often”. "I need to find better hashtags". "I have to remember to take pictures when I do this or that". And so on. Over the course of a year and three months, I have through this increased the number of followers on Instagram from around 600 to around 800 and on the Facebook page from around 250 to just over 300. In the social media world, it is less than negligible. Almost non-existent.

However, I want to express my enormous gratitude to you who follow me, support and cheer me on. It means a lot!

Okay, so if you dig into this, it is said that the number of followers is not the key to success, it is the RIGHT followers that matter. In my case, those who are interested in buying my products. It's better to have a few followers who buy my products than tons who don't care. So then we go back to the analysis of just this: how many purchases (so-called conversions = people who clicked on to the webshop and made a purchase) have been made from Instagram or Facebook to the webshop? Answer: not a single one. Not. One. During a period of one year and three months.

The lovely people who buy from me fall into one of the following categories:

• friends and family

• friends and family of friends (word of mouth method)

• IRL - at an Open House, Pop-up shop, fair or exhibition

• through a simple google search

The users are the content

As everyone knows by now, the algorithms are constantly changing in these social platforms. It means, somewhat simplified, that the conditions change: how you reach out, what you reach out with, to whom, when, etc. For a while it's short videos that go up in the feed, a little later it's carousel posts (several pictures in a row). And of course there are a thousand other variables that come into play. It is difficult, if not impossible, to understand how to keep up. The only thing we know with 100 percent certainty is that the people who profit from all the time and creativity that we users put into making this happen, are the ones who own the platforms. The idea is ingenious and it is called User Generated Content, USG.

It means directly translated user-generated content and is exactly what it's called. It is us as users who create the content, completely free and sometimes we also pay for it in the form of ads where the platform (more or less) selects who will see your ads. USG is becoming more and more common and the only thing you can do is ask yourself if you want to continue creating content x number of hours a week without the slightest guarantee that it will generate income for your own company.

I'm starting to doubt it, really.

Not only because it doesn't bring anything in terms of sales but also because it occupies my mind. Despite the fact that I am 53 years old and thus do not belong to the generation that is glued to the phone, I realize that I often think in post form. Within the space of a second, in a given situation, I have formulated a text and visualized an image that describes the situation. This is automatic these days and it's scary. And then I'm still not one of those who update several times a day, only inside my brain.

FONMO - Fear Of Not Missing Out

What happens to me here is that I constantly feel chased and stressed. Not that I'm missing out - there's even a term for that condition: FOMO, Fear Of Missing Out - it doesn't worry me in the least because I personally don't live that kind of life. Rather that I know FONMO - Fear Of Not Missing Out. I feel hunted because I somehow (with the help of social media) planted so deep in my brain that the only way to succeed in a creative business is to constantly show off EVERYTHING you do on social media. And that this should also take place according to one or another strategy that you can take a course to learn. I love learning new things so I'm happy to jump on anything that comes my way but now I feel just as deep inside that it's all actually a little crazy. I don't want to spend my time creating all this content to no avail. The bizarre thing is that it disappears as quickly as I posted it. Poof, two hours of work is gone in cyberspace.

Back to the feeling of calm that came after a week as a dog grandmother and zero updates on facebook or instagram. Admittedly, it is very demanding to have a 10-week-old puppy around you 24/7, with a lack of sleep like with a newborn, but heaven, how wonderful it is to be so present all the time. This fact of not being able to zoom out or even look away for a second means that you are in the present, whether you want to or not. I've felt that the stressed "update behavior" fades away more and more each day. The phone stays lying down for long periods of time and I currently only use it to message a few people and listen to audiobooks, something I haven't done before but now really enjoy.

But then the question arises, what should I do instead? Should I quit social media altogether or tackle it in some other way?

Is there an alternative?

As I have already said, I like to learn new things and I am a true course addict. Completely in line with that, some time ago I participated in an online course which, among other things, was about growing your business without social media (the course also deals with running a business in a generally more feminine and careful way). If you consider that people have been selling stuff and services throughout the ages and that social media has been around for about a second, you realize that you can do just fine without it.

It becomes more difficult if you think that you have to manage completely without the internet and it may be the day I get completely tired of the noise and move out to a cabin in the woods. I'm not quite there yet anyway.

There are channels to market yourself through that are more personal and sustainable than social media. Podcasts, youtube, blogs, pop-up shops, e-mail, events and many more. Of course it requires a lot of work, but that content remains even after 2 hours, 2 days or 2 years.

 

 

I think like this: since I enjoy writing and have a blog that works and at least has some loyal readers, that's where I'm going to put the powder. A blog lives a long time and a post can be read long after it was published. In the blog, I can develop reasoning and share big and small in a way that suits me and my readers/followers/customers/target group.

I attach a newsletter to the blog that I send out regularly and where I also have offers and little surprises. Those who sign up as subscribers to the blog and newsletter are genuinely interested in my design and life around it and will hopefully want to support MWD and me in the future as well.

To that I add Pinterest , which is a great platform/search engine where I can promote posts, tips and more knowing it will be around forever. Amen.

I will also invest in pop-up stores and open studios as I have done before. It's also so much fun to meet people and exchange sewing tips and decorating ideas!

I'm not going to delete my social media, not right now anyway. But I think they should function more as a showcase and complement to the website and the shop and I don't intend to spend time on either strategies or creating the perfect content in the way I've tried to do so far. I think that I share things that can create value for those who already follow me, in the form of offers and news in the shop.

What I create must mean something

I want what I create to mean something, to my customers, to me and to those close to me. For a long period of my life, creativity and the feel for who I am had to take a backseat to other things. Nowadays, I feel like a whole person, and it depends a lot on the fact that I enjoy living in creation, awareness and commitment. I don't want to compromise that by once again working for others, such as Meta, which today owns Facebook and Instagram, among other things.

Now gods know I've never been accused of being consistent so there's a risk I'll change tactics again in a while when I realize I want to try something new. It's allowed to change your mind! At the moment, in any case, it feels right to focus more on creativity and development.

So to sum it all up and answer the initial question: can you succeed in your business without social media? Yes, I really think so. Just by analyzing the traffic on your social media, paid ads, etc., you can see that you have to reach out to many thousands of accounts to get a few single clicks to your webshop.

Having said that, I know that there are those who succeed well with social media and I don't mean that it is useless to use it, but for my own part, I feel better not trying to outsmart the algorithms that change at an ever faster pace. I want to create contact and communication and I do it best this way. My hope and warm wish is that you will want to follow my blog and subscribe to it and the newsletter and thus be a part of my world.

Much love,

Madeleine

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