Why Social Media Isn't Enough for Your Online Business

PinterestSEO

Aug 28

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Social media is key to online business. But it isn’t the only option!

I will not argue with you that social media is the quickest way to get your name and business out there. You can connect with people on the other side of the world in ways that weren’t even possible not that long ago. Social media is magical.

But it’s not the only way. It it can’t be your only way to reach people.

If the only way you’re getting new eyes on what you do is through social media (any kind, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter…), imagine this…

Facebook disappears.

Why? Who knows. But it’s just gone. And with it all of your friends, conversations, ads, and connections.

But that’s not all.

Instagram is gone too. Because (incase you didn’t know but you probably do) Facebook owns Instagram.

So now that person who was one more message away from signing a huge contract is dust in the wind because you have no other way to contact her.

All of the work you’ve done liking pictures, commenting on posts, writing thoughtful posts, and sharing live videos is gone.

If you managed to save some of it (save your live videos, ya’ll!) then that’s great! But my guess is most of it lives only in Facebook land. And now it’s probably never going to be seen again.

I don’t want that to happen to you.

And yes, it’s very unlikely that this drastic of a scenario will ever happen. But it could. Facebook and IG have both been known to have their glitchy days. Don’t let those days catch you off guard!

So what do you do to keep this from happening?

If you ask anyone, the first thing they will tell you is “You’ve got to have an email list!” And they’re not wrong. You do need an email list. You OWN your email list. So if everything else breaks down, you can still email your people.

But that’s not the only thing you can do.

Let’s chat about my two favorite ways to get new eyes on your business without using social.

Google Search

Oh yeah. People search Google All. The. Time. All the time. I lost track of how many times I Googled stuff today. How to do things on Squarespace. Wasn’t that guy in The Mighty Ducks movies? Where are the Districts of Panem? (I watched The Hunger Games today, ha!)

But you get my point. We search everything nowadays. So just think about this for a second. Someone somewhere out there (American Tail anyone?) is searching for YOU.

Are they finding you?

Maybe. But they have a much better chance of finding you if you set your website up to be found.

I’m talking SEO or Search Engine Optimization. There’s a lot that goes with it, but it sounds way more complicated than it is.

There are a few key things you want to make sure you have placed on your site. A Site Title and Site Description. Make sure your images have captions or alt text. Only use one H1 header per page. And give your pages, especially your main navigation pages, SEO titles and descriptions.

You want all of these descriptions and titles to use the language your customers or clients are searching for.

And Squarespace being the amazing website platform it is, has most of this stuff built in! And I’ve got a blog post for you right here to get you started!

Pinterest is another game changing tool that I absolutely LOVE. And you might be thinking, “but it’s another social media site!”

I’m here to tell you, my friend, that it isn’t. The reason I say that is because you don’t have to BE SOCIAL. Sure, you share other peoples pins and you can even comment on them. But you don’t have to strike up conversations or like so many pictures for the Pinterest algorithm to push your content out to more people.

It works more like a search engine. Like Google. So the key here is…keywords. Very similar to how you add keywords to your site to help people find you through Google, you add keywords to your profile, your board descriptions, and your pins so the people searching Pinterest can find you.

The great thing about Pinterest is that with a tool called Tailwind, you can basically set it and forget it. Spend a few minutes each week adding pins to Tailwind and have fresh eyes on your content every day.

Plus with new Tailwind Tribes, it’s even easier to circulate your pins. I’m telling you, Pinterest is the place to be.

Not on Pinterest yet? No worries, sis. Check out how to get your Pinterest account started right here!