Do I Need to Enjoy Social Media as a Digital Marketer?

It's come up multiple times recently, people have asked me-

Do you have to enjoy social media to be a successful digital marketer?

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So I'm going to give you my thoughts about this topic in today's video.

Hey guys, Rich Ux here from richandniche.com. The number one place to learn the skill of digital marketing, full stack, digital marketing, and even more.

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And that brings up a great question that we have to analyze and think about today and that's do I need to learn or enjoy social media to be a great digital marketer, a freelance marketer, maybe even a consultant.

I think the best place to start on this topic is to maybe think about social media over the last 20 years. It's 2022 at the time of making this video.

I believe Instagram, Twitter, these sort of arrived in 2007 ish, Facebook, maybe more, 2005. So we're about 16, 14 years into the process of social media. And I'm not going to lie.

I think the luster of the social media content creation world has fallen off. I don't think it's quite what it once used to be.

I think that it was really great when we had different platforms for different reasons. And a lot of the platforms have converged into.

Each other, being very similar to one another because of the way algorithms work because of the way the human behavior works.

The way video typically attracts more engagement, longer watch time. Most platforms are trending towards video and most people are more interested in video than say text.

And I think when Instagram was a photography. It was a little bit more interesting, I think they've really gotten away from their initial sort of nature.

I think Twitter is relatively similar to what it once was. Of course they remove the, what was it? 140 character limit.

You can now add videos and Facebook, of course, very multi, medium. We've got TIG talk now very fast. Swipe heavy algorithmic, heavy video, there's a couple of different options out there.

And I think it's it's challenging to find your way as a social media content creator, more so than perhaps a previous era.

I think that more and more people are hacking the algorithm more and more people are trying to use growth.

And maybe not as much committed to the craft of creation or creativity but don't want to be overly biased or judgmental.

How does it look like, if you want to be a digital marketer this year?

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I think there's a lot of wonderful creators popping up every single day, every single year.

But the question of whether you have to enjoy social media or partake in social media as a digital marketer is a very good point.

I think that you'd have to look at this on different times. Yes. I think that if you want to be a digital marketer this year, if you want to be a freelance or this year, there's absolutely pathways you could take, which do not require you to very much partake in social media.

You could be a landing page designer. You could be a conversion rate optimizer. You can be a website. It could be a funnel builder.

None of these require the act of social media. So you can absolutely avoid it if you wanted to. And I think that many of you should do so I don't think you should get overly distracted with social media.

I don't think you need to be on social media to get clients. I think what typically is going to get your clients. Is proof that what you do is viable for other businesses that what you've done can be replicated.

So I think when someone's thinking about hiring you, they'd rather see some great testimonials reviews and case studies more so than you giving this short form content that may or may not be relevant to that client's results.

But if we're going to think about this in the long-term and I think more and more people need to think long-term on a 10 year horizon.

Why wouldn't you want to start building your brand outwards into the world and take advantage of the free distribution and attention you can get with social media.

What an Instagram post represents for you as a business owner is an opportunity to gain awareness, to grow your brand and to impress upon people, your brand values your mission, your benefits, your ideas, your successes, and as well, sharing those.

Customer reviews and testimonials and letting people know about that.

You can't deny the cost benefit analysis that comes with social media. Even if organic reach has dwindled over the years, we can still get a lot from social media.

Do you have to be obsessed about it? No. Do you have to post every single day? But to not use it to be completely adverse from it on a ten-year timeline horizon certainly may be the wrong attitude or idea.

Now, I think what most of you really should do is not make it personal, not get emotional about it, not make it about you, but about your company, about your business, and really create a separate entity for yourself.

And not overly be concerned about sharing anything personal. You don't have to share anything about yourself.

You don't have to take selfies. You don't have to talk about your family. You don't have to talk about your life.

But you should certainly be talking about what your business's capable of, both capable of what your business offers to people and the brand sort of aesthetic and the brand values and the brand story that goes along with that.

And then I definitely think that you can separate the. And at that point, I would say, social media is a tool to grow your business.

It's going to help. Maybe it's not the ultimate method. Maybe it's not the number one way that you're going to grow, but it's definitely not going to reverse the growth of your business unless you make some tragic error.

With respect to how you position your brand or the way you express yourself on social media. I think if you just take a very simple approach, it's going to be beneficial.

And I think that, if you want to be a digital marketing consultant or some sort of strategist, or you even just want to talk with clients about these various platforms, you'd want to have some sense of what works on social media and what doesn't, and there's no other way to do this, but to be a part of it, you can only read so many strategy guides or blog posts, or watch YouTube videos to truly understand what works better and what gets more region and why people do this versus that you have to be out there.

And that's why I would get your business going on social media to something. Honestly, I would probably just pick one plastic.

Try to pick the platform that's most likely to be connecting with your target audience or your ideal clients, maybe it's LinkedIn in 2022, right?

Maybe it is tech talk. If you're going a little bit younger and certain products that might work well there, but if you're going into B2B services, freelancing consulting, I think LinkedIn is a great spot to be in.

And I think alternatively, if you want to be a bit more creative than Instagram is still going to be a go-to place.

Summarizing this idea, it really depends on what you're thinking. If you have a one-year goal to get three clients and to be freelancing and working remotely within the next 12 months, maybe forget social media altogether, just completely focused on client acquisition.

Can you generate revenue without social media?

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And don't make social media, a part of your offerings and a part of your brand building strategy.

Right now you can use cold email, you can use direct outreach. You don't need to bother with social media to get clients. It's silly to think that every business requires social media to get revenue.

They just don't. But if you want to look on the long-term, if you want to think in the 10. Every single eyeball that you can attract to your business is going to help in the long run. It's going to grow your network.

It's going to get you referrals. It's going to help you build stature. More followers can impress people.

Perhaps you come up with some sort of content form that becomes very popular, and maybe you're known for that. And. Self is going to generate you clientele.

Many people end up becoming podcasts, creators, video creators, and that turns into its own revenue stream with advertisers sponsors. Why would you want to say no to that in the long-term?

Why would you want to say no to brand building in the long-term? And I think because it's free to post. So many of you would be benefited by doing so, if it costs thousands of dollars to post on social media. Okay. It's a different question. Maybe it's not for you. Maybe it's not for everyone.

That's fine, but it costs you just a little bit of time to get out there today on LinkedIn, Instagram, tick talk, Facebook, Twitter, and start sharing with the world.

What your brand, what your business, or what you as a service provider has to offer. So in the end, it's going to depend on your timeframe on that horizon.

How far in advance are you thinking? How important are your near term results? How much do you want to build for the future? Social media is a long game.

You don't have to rush it. Just being consistent a little bit at a time week after week showing up, you're going to have better results than the average person or company.

That's all I have to say today about social media and being a digital marketer. If you guys liked this video, give it a light.

Don't forget to leave a comment, give your say, what do you think? What are you doing? I'd love to hear from you guys in the comments. And if this is the first time you've stopped by do subscribe.

We talk about digital marketing and freelancing every week, new videos all the time. We've been around here for quite a while. So see you guys in the next video.

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