Social Media for Humans

Taking breaks and coming back - the power of engagement

April 29, 2022 Alexis Bushnell Season 2 Episode 9
Social Media for Humans
Taking breaks and coming back - the power of engagement
Show Notes Transcript

Many small business owners are worried to take social media breaks or feel, if they do, the algorithm penalises them. In this episode I share my tips for returning to social media after a break successfully.

Spoilers, the answer is engagement. Always.

Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Alexis' links.
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Support the show

Alexis' links.
I hang out on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/alexisbushnell/​
Find me on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaForHumans
Join the club to learn more about ethical and effective social media marketing: https://socialmediaforhumans.club/

Voice over by Hawke Wood: https://www.spotlight.com/3490-9081-8844

Hawke:

Hello and welcome to Social Media for  Humans, the podcast that empowers you to do social   differently. Your host, Alexis Bushnell, and  her guests discuss their experience of social   media as business owners, users and, ultimately,  humans. With insights and advice to help you find   an effective and ethical strategy that works  for you. Grab yourself a drink and join the conversation.

Alexis:

Hi, hello, hello, how  are we? I'm Alexis, my pronouns are she her.   Welcome. This is a tip episode of  the Social Media for Humans podcast.   Today my tip is really just about like, if you  have not been posting a lot on social media,   if you've maybe been MIA for a little while, which  is understandable, there is rather a lot going on,   if you have been sort of feeling overwhelmed and  you've massively reduced how much you're posting,   if you're just feeling like "oooohhh urgh!" A You're not alone. And B here are some ideas  to help. So if you have been not very active on   social media, focus on engagement. This is always  my advice whether you're active on social media or   not but if you have not been posting for a while,  getting engagement focused content out there is   key. That's content that people want to comment on  preferably, it doesn't even have to be shareable,   it has to be stuff that is going to get people  commenting on your content. This is largely   gonna be kind of get to know you posts, asking  your audience questions, and they can be just   chill questions, they don't have to be about even  what you do, but they can be things like "are you   a tea or a coffee person?" Are you a night owl or  whatever the thing that gets up in the morning is.   I am not one of those, can you tell? A lark!  A lark! "Are you a night owl or a lark?" It can be stuff like that that is really just  aimed at you getting to know your audience, your   audience getting to know you, and just getting  them talking on your posts, because that is going   to massively help to get you back out there. Also  it tends to give people a little bit of a boost   when they put out content that is engagement  focused, especially when they've not been around   for a while and people do respond and they're like  "oh, I've not seen your posts. I've missed you,   how have you been? Oh this is a really interesting  idea that you've shared, this is great." Or "oh   yeah, I'm like this too, I didn't realise we were  so similar," because it reminds people that like,   it's social media. Like that they're humans out  there commenting on your posts, like that's who   you're sort of creating the content for is actual  real people who are then actually like "hey,   you're amazing, I appreciate your content."  And that can really help to give you a little   boost to be like "okay, yeah, okay, I'm in  the swing of things now, let's do this!"   The other thing is to allow yourself  to be realistic with whatever it is   that you are aiming to do. So if you  have not posted at all for months   it is probably unrealistic, I could be  wrong, but it is probably unrealistic   for you to say "I am going to post seven days a  week on all three of the networks that I'm on."   I mean that feels like a lot of content that  you have gotta sort of pull out of your ass.   And even if you are into repurposing, I'm sure  we'll cover that in a tip at some point, then   it's still a lot of content to tweak,  to schedule, to find, it's a huge huge   outlay of energy when you are, I assume, have  been struggling or have had stuff going on   and are just feeling like overwhelmed, so don't  do it to yourself. Have a think about "what can   I feasibly do?" You know. "What can I actually  commit to?" Can you commit to one post a week?   Because one post a week is amazing. If you can  do that every week, one post a week is fabulous.   You don't need seven posts a week, you don't need  multiple posts a day, you don't need that stuff,   you can ease back into it. Another thing that has  come up around this in the Social Media for Humans   Club especially lately has been people sort of  taking time off to take care of their mental   health because they've had life stuff happen,  because they're just generally overwhelmed,   and when they they want to come back to social  media they're like "this is really awkward." And   a lot of that I think comes from just having  been away from that community for a while,   because ultimately your sort of social media  followers are a community, they're your community,   they're your people and when you've been  away from any community for a little while   it can be really awkward to sort of walk back  in and be like "hi, yeah, so that's a thing!"   It can feel quite weird and squiffy, is squiffy a  word? I use a lot anyway! So it can feel like that   and I think again this comes back to engagement  posts. And if you are not up to creating posts and   putting posts out there, yeah, if you're like "no,  I feel really weird to create content and put it   out there. I've not posted at all, I've not really  been on social media for like three months and it   just feels really horrible to show up and suddenly  be like, hey here's my content again," you can   get back into social media just by engaging  yourself on other people's content. By gradually   dipping your toe back in and commenting  on people whose content you really enjoy,   by finding some new hashtags, by  getting back involved with the the   Facebook groups that you are in, the Twitter  chats that you were previously took part in,   and stuff like that. Just spending a little bit of  time actually talking to people, just checking in   with how they are on their own posts, supporting  what they're doing on their own content.   And if you feel able to, if this  is sort of not a boundary for you,   making your first post back be "this is why  I've been away." And again, this is going to   come down to where your boundaries are about what  you share, and you don't have to share everything   about why you're away, but it can really really  help both you and your audience to connect to you   to put out a post that's like "hey, so I have been  MIA for three months and actually it's because   I moved house and moved countries and,  you know, setting everything up is kind   of stressful," this is both my story  and the story of someone in the club, definitely not a unique experience! "and it's been a lot." You can put a post up like  that, you can put a post up that says "I have been   away, I haven't been posting" and if you've had  people messaging you to see how you are you can   put up a post that says like "thank you so much to  people who are messaging me, I really appreciated   you checking in and now I feel like I'm ready to  come back but it might be slow, and I'm feeling   this kind of way, how are you doing at the moment?  How has life been for you? Tell me what's happened   with you." And if you don't feel like you want  to share that, if that is not something that you   want to put out there, that's something that you  have decided no, I don't talk about this stuff   on my work social media, that's fine, you can  also just do a post that's like "hey, I'm back,   what's been going on for you? Tell me your biggest  win in the past three months, in the past week,   in the past however long you've been away."  And open it up to your audience for them to   tell you what's been going on with them so you  can celebrate with them, you can cheer them on,   you can support them. Or you can say like just  "how are you? How are you holding up out there?"   and allow them to open up to you because then  that also gives you the space in the comments to   reply to them and build that that connection and  have that that community come around you again.   So that was I feel like that was a super quick  tip! But yes, that's something that has been   coming up quite a lot in the Social Media for  Humans Club lately, is people taking time off   and feeling weird and not knowing how to get back  into social media. So I hope that's given you a   few ideas if you have been off social media for a  while. I also want to take this opportunity to say   if you need to take time off social media, or you  just want to take time off social media, please do   it. Please don't feel like you absolutely have to  be on social media all the time in order to please   the quote algorithm. I don't know why I put.. the  algorithm is a thing but it's not... that's going   to be a whole other tip! Oh it'll be a very long  tip! So yeah, please don't feel like you can't   take time off because the algorithm will punish  you, because your business will suffer or whatever   whatever. Actually I have a whole guest episode  from season one with Eleanor Snare where they talk   about how they are not really on social media.  They are on LinkedIn but they're mostly not on   any other social media at all, and how that's been  for their business. So it is definitely possible,   and you don't have to go completely cold turkey,  you can stick around on social media but just   give yourself breaks, that's fine. If you want  some support more sort of in a group setting   with some other business owners who are just like  "wow social media can be really really stressful,   help!" The Social Media for Humans Club is there  for you. It is £30 a month, you can either have   that rolling every month so you are always  a member, or you can buy one month at a time   so you don't get any accidental fees when you  forgot to cancel, we are not here for those!   So yeah, come and join us, I would absolutely love  to see you there. Have a lovely weekend slash week   slash whatever whenever wherever you are watching  this and take care of yourselves.  

Hawke:

If you want more regular reminders to find your own way to use social media, follow Alexis on your social platform of choice, all the links will be  in the show notes. Until next time, be a human.