Hello curious person
How do you feel about social media? I thought I’d start this entry with a question because I’ve been asking myself this question a lot lately. I’ve been trying to figure out my thoughts on it because it is a complex topic.
Social media has the power to connect us all together and speak to people you wouldn’t even dream of connecting with otherwise. I love this side of it. The side of it where it is about people coming together and creating smaller communities of people with a common interest. If social media were simple as this, I would love it each and every day.
That’s not the reality from a small business owner perspective. My experience with social media through April and May has been shrouded in guilt. Guilt to share, post, connect, comment and like. I was spending hours on there trying to create that perfect reel and hit my social media post schedule. These platforms centred around community and connection dissolves into analytics, trends and the word viral.
I sat down and realised that the business side of social media isn’t really working for me right now. 2023 has been an incredibly busy year so far which has come with its highs and lows. It has meant though that I’ve had to be quite critical of how I am spending my time and I knew I had to create some change.
I was chatting to my close friend, Lauren, about this exact topic. Lauren is a virtual assistant who runs Matcha VA and spends a lot of time supporting people with this exact issue. As we were chatting, I quickly realised that teaching yoga was only about 10% of my allocated time to my business. Insanity! I had to return to the one constant (very similar to how I recommend you come back to the breath in class) that I am a yoga teacher and not a social media manager.
I think social media is great but I do feel, as a small business owner, that I am required to be on there the whole time. It’s so not the case though. I think what I am trying to say through this post is that I get you if you’re not sure how you’re feeling about it. It’s a vast and confusing topic. I’ve realised, through a very small time away from these platforms, that it is about finding balance. Don’t feel like a prisoner and if you do, hit the big fat pause button for a short minute, and return when you want to.
Thank you so much for taking the time to read about the inner workings of my mind.
Sam
Summed up perfectly Sam. As you know I’ve stepped away from Fb for a while and have the same feelings of guilt from the opposite side of the fence, the customer side. I have a few friends who have a small business on line I try to support them through comments, likes etc but found I was getting caught up in the other side of social media.I was getting more frustrated and less interested in what I was seeing, the ads, the random content that was pushed to me. I think the break has done me good, certainly it’s done me no harm. Thanks for asking the question mate. 🙏 Tim