When Facebook hit the mainstream, I wanted nothing to do with it. “It’s just a waste of time,” I said.
Meanwhile, my now ex-husband became quite the social media butterfly. The short form media was perfect for his quippy comments and sarcasm.
But all my marketing gurus insisted you need to do social media for a successful business, and everyone agreed (though I can’t pinpoint a specific “everyone”) so I just assumed it to be true.
After a bunch of resentful stops and starts, I engaged in Facebook from a more playful place, and had a completely different experience.
I discovered groups of spiritual entrepreneurs where people were interested in what I had to say. It was a wonderful testing ground for my ideas, and great fun to connect with people all over the world, many of whom became friends, partners or clients.
Then in 2020, something started to shift. Whenever people would say, “You need social media for a thriving business,” a voice in head would whisper, “Oh, really? Is that true?”
I started wondering if it was possible to turn your back on social media and still make a living.
I sought out people who had broken up with social media or who were using it in unconventional ways, then created articles and videos about their experiences.
I shared what I was learning about marketing without social media, which resonated powerfully with an audience of people who were fed up, overwhelmed and disgusted with their social media dependency, but who felt they had no choice.
Then came a fateful day in 2021 when I received this message on Facebook from the creator of a group with over 30,000 members:
Honestly, it was a rather nice message. She even started with a compliment!
But I was angry and defensive. My intention wasn’t to help people leave social media; I was simply pointing out that it was a viable choice. And clearly she was insecure for feeling threatened by little ole me and my harmless, if contrarian, posts.
I stewed in the juices of judgement for a bit.
While I didn’t like to admit it, she was right.
There was something hypocritical, or at least “weirdly ironic,” in sharing so much content about how you don’t have to do social media marketing on social media.
Was I ready to put my money where my mouth was?
Thus began my #NoSocialMediaMarketing Experiment, initially a 30 day break up with social media, made with the promise to chronicle my journey.
My one month experiment became three months, then six, then a year…
…and to this day I have not returned to using Facebook either personally or professionally. My Facebook and Instagram accounts still exist, but they’re languishing. I do a bit with YouTube and very occasionally LinkedIn, neither of which feel like “social media” to me.
I mention this now because Get It Done is promoting a presentation called, “Plan Your Year (Without Social Media)” as a lead-in to their “Marketing Without Social Media Course.”
I’ve been tempted to buy the course for years, and have never pulled the trigger. Not because I don’t think the $310 price tag is worth it — even one marketing insight can spark hundreds or thousands in revenue – but something about it misses the mark.
The bulk of the course appears to focus on alternative strategies for marketing your business, along with case studies and examples as proof that it can be done.
But would I recommend YOU to buy it?
(If you know me well enough, you can probably guess my answer. What do you know about it? Do you get a “yes” or a “no?”)
The real value of the Marketing Without Social Media Course, and all the research I did before my own social media breakup, comes down to this:
You get to play the game of marketing however you like, with or without social media.
The reason most people want to escape social media is because they think it makes them feel bad – when in reality, it’s what they’re thinking that feels bad.
You can ditch social media entirely. There are tools and strategies that allow you to use it for your business without spending any time on the sites.
Yes, there are consequences in making a choice to step away, but businesses have created clients without social media for thousands of years, and are still doing so today.
I think an experience promising an end to the aggravation of social media marketing, without addressing the true source of your struggle, is missing the point.
The intention behind everything I do is to illuminate where your experience comes from and the immensity of your creative power…so we can create cool shit in the world and have more fun with it.
In the CREATE program, we take action on a new offering and launch it within four weeks.
You’ll have a real-time experience of everything that seems to stop you from creating, and watch it dissolve before your eyes.
It’s time to discover yourself as an unstoppable creator, and the magic of co-creating with the Universe through intention and action.
https://www.theawakenedbusiness.com/create-sales-invitation/
Yours in love and play,
Steph
