Tips for social media overwhelm
Interview with Charlie Garnham, Business Coach
Tell us about yourself
I’m Charlie and I’m a business and marketing coach for new coaches. I absolutely love talking about what you need to do after posting on social media to actually get clients or customers. I love working with spiritual entrepreneurs who want to build their business their own way without following cookie cutter business strategies; we’re all unique in this world so why not be unique in the way you do business too?
What do you love about marketing?
Too many things! But I think lead generation as they call it in the corporate world is my favourite part. For me and my clients, I call it client creation… the attracting of clients to you using aligned and un-sleazy methods of marketing.
What do you do to ensure you are using social media with intent?
I love this question! I have 3 things that I do to only make sure that I use social media with intent and purpose; scrolling mindlessly and being a slave to your notifications is something of the past for me for sure.
Firstly, I turn notifications off on my phone for all social media platforms; the only notifications I have are on WhatsApp. This means that my phone isn’t pinging every time someone messages me, but instead of missing those messages, I make sure that I head onto social media to reply to any DMs twice a day when I have set the intent to reply.
Being a slave to your notifications means that when you’re working, you can get distracted and it takes you longer to get back to the task at hand if you have picked up your phone to reply to someone.
Secondly, staying with that theme of being intentional; I also think to myself when I pick up my phone: “what do I need to go onto Instagram for right now?”. If it’s to reply to messages, find new accounts in my target audience, or create a story, then that’s what I go on to do, then I come out of the app again.
I don’t let myself get sucked into my newsfeed so that I’m scrolling mindlessly and suddenly 10 mins later I haven’t done anything productive.
I also use Instagram and Facebook on my desktop so that I’m cutting down my phone screen time.
Image by @tima_miroshnichenko on Pexels
Any tips for preventing overwhelm on social media as a creative?
Absolutely! Firstly, manage your newsfeed. What you see on social media can have an enormous effect on you; imposter syndrome strikes even when we’re working on our mindset!
Make sure that you’re following people who inspire you and that you align with what they are doing. If you go onto social media and see a post that triggers you, you can either mute or unfollow that person and they are none the wiser!
I have a wonderful Chrome app called News Feed Eradicator which does exactly what it says; instead of my Facebook newsfeed, I have an inspiring quote and nothing in my newsfeed instead. So when I go onto Facebook on my desktop, I have to be intentional with my time by answering DMs or going into groups that I use.
I actually have a friend who mutes all the accounts she follows so that when she goes onto Instagram, she can only see her own posts in her feed!
What are your top 3 tips to remember when marketing yourself?
Firstly, people buy from people, so make sure you are being visible for your audience. Getting our faces on social can be scary sometimes, but remember, it’s not what you look like that matters, it’s what you say and how you make people feel. If you can make people feel good with your unique magic, then who are you NOT to get out there and share it with the world?!
Next, ensure that you’re building relationships with your ideal clients and customers; the action of posting on social media alone doesn’t get you sales, but being your authentic self does because people will be attracted to your energy and want to buy from you.
Finally, don’t forget to show people the way. If you stick your products and services on a page on your website but you don’t tell people about them or show them where to go to buy from you, you may struggle to get your business off the ground. Whilst I don’t advocate for ALL of your social media marketing to be sales pitches, there are ways to talk about your offerings in between value pieces and storytelling content without being “in your face” sales.
Find out what aligns with you, don’t do something because you’ve seen someone else sell that way!
I call myself a multi-passionate entrepreneur! I started my career in marketing 12 years ago and have had experience in all kinds of industries and types of businesses, from corporates to start ups to SMEs. I first became an entrepreneur 6 years ago when I noticed there was a gap in the market for social media training so I used to teach business owners how to use social media to grow their tribes.
My values are simple: after being taught how to use bots to grow social media accounts, I now practice organic techniques only that don’t cheat the algorithms. I am ethical, sustainable and authentic in my marketing practices, and I work with those who agree with my ethos. Find out more about Charlie here.