Social Media and Self Care: Finding the Balance in Business
“I literally feel so attached to my phone, my life is my brand and I love it but its time for a digital detox.”
An active social media presence is a must for any beauty business today. Brands run marketing campaigns and work to connect with their audience over a range of different platforms — from Facebook and Twitter, to Snapchat, Pinterest, and even the up-and-coming meme platform, TickTock. Right now, Instagram is the most powerful platform for beauty brands to connect with consumers and convert interest into sales.
Research shows that 65% of the increasingly lucrative Generation Z market uses social media to find new beauty products and decide what to buy. And Instagram in particular is a great place to connect with Millennial customers; recent research shows that 60% of the platform’s users are between the ages of 18 and 29.
What does this mean for beauty business owners and entrepreneurs? And especially those of us running small independent businesses, without the means (yet) to employ social media specialists?
Yep; we spend a lot of time on social media. Between planning posts; looking for inspiration; setting up photo shoots; creating the copy for our captions; scheduling posts; and interacting authentically with our customers, an effective social media account that offers real value to the audience is a lot of work.
Add to that the evidence that social media can be highly addictive, and you’ve got a pretty potent recipe for digital burnout.
Do you find yourself thinking about Instagram more than you’d like? Is it difficult to switch off? You’re so not alone. But in order to avoid burnout and stay present in your life, it’s crucial to take time away from the screen.
But how?! My business will crumble if I’m not online every day!
I get it. Really, I do! But in order to be sustainable for you, your business needs to be able to stand its ground for a few days without constant social media updates from you. You have to be able to take a break.
So, here are three ways to plan ahead for a few days of digital detox. Do this regularly. You deserve it — and you’ll feel so much better for it.
1. Schedule Posts. Business accounts on Facebook and Instagram both allow you to schedule posts in advance; so you can prep a whole stream of updates and then switch off your phone, safe in the knowledge that those posts will go out at the date and time you specified.
2. Use a Social Media Management tool. If you’re constantly copy-and-pasting text from one app to another, or getting confused about when to post what where, use a management tool like Loomly or Hootsuite to keep on top of all your accounts in one place. These tools help you to create and schedule posts, as well as plan your social media strategy (and more!).
3. Be real. It’s OK to let your audience know that you’re going to be offline for a certain period of time. Your customers follow you because they believe in what you’re doing and they support your brand. They appreciate authenticity. You could even take them with you — set a digital detox challenge!
And when you’re online every day, set time limits
Treat your social media presence more like a job with set hours. Rather than checking in every 20 minutes throughout the day, schedule 30 minutes in the morning and 30 minutes in the afternoon for social media. Use that time to create and schedule posts, respond to comments and messages, and connect with relevant accounts.
And then switch off and do something else.
Social media is important for your business — but time offline is important for you.
Check out the latest episode of The Confessions of a #BeautyBoss Podcast here.