If social media consumes more of your time than you’d like and yet you feel you must be on there because it is also an important part of doing business, I get it. We are in the same boat.
However, I believe it is a conscious choice to either doom scroll, or only go in there and then quickly get out as fast as you can before you go down the rabbit hole.
If one isn’t careful, it will end up costing a person loss of time that they could be spending on more productive things.
For most of us business-minded ladies, we want to use social media to post our upcoming events, network in groups to get leads or promote our products, or just simply conduct activities that support the growth of our business.
However, I find it is very difficult for most individuals to stay focused on these things without getting sucked into watching a whale video (sorry cat, but I think you’ve been replaced).
If you are one of these individuals that are looking for a better solution, then I recommend the following.
Self-Awareness Technique
One way to beat this game is to make it a goal to become self-aware when you notice you are on social media longer than you originally wanted. As soon as you find yourself being sucked in, (when you first become aware of what’s happening), then make the conscious choice to close the app or tab. The more you do this awareness technique, then you will find that you’ll be on there less and less as time goes by. This requires complete focus and a high attention span to not get sucked in. And a lot of people are unable to do this unless they have some type of discipline such as removing the apps from their phone and only log into their accounts on their computers. Another option is setting a timer, or using one of those apps that limits screen time such as AppBlock.
Social Media Cleanse
This one is my personal favorite, but not everyone is willing to do it unless you’re able to resist the temptations of the addictiveness that comes with social media. It is a good idea to go on a complete social media cleanse and take a break from social media for at least 3 months. There are a lot of benefits to this. One you will find better use of your time and get to more of the things you had put off. Two, by the time you go back on there again, you won’t have the desire to be on there as long because you’ve already created better habits like a regular exercise schedule that actually helps your mind, body and spirit.
Except as a business owner this option can be impossible for those of us who rely on social media for business. And yet I still believe it is possible to grow your business without social media. I invite you to consider other ways to promote your business other than through social media. There are many different ways to getting clients and selling products. You can set up a booth at an industry related expo, festival or conference. You can find local organizations that have weekly and monthly meetings to attend. These are just a few examples.
I’ve witness some business owners rely too heavily on social media and it has cost them a great loss. I have a photography friend who did not have their own website. Instead they used their Facebook page with over 20,000 followers to upload their entire portfolio of work. They were relying on this as a way to market their services, and then one day it gets shut down. And sadly, they were unsuccessful at requesting Meta to bring it back. Poof. All of this gone in one day after years of hard work to establish themselves with all of their photos disappearing from the internet and no website of their own to protect their work.
This is one of many examples that I have seen. So please consider that social media is not an end-all to marketing your business. And what could you gain and replace it with by going on a social media cleanse?
Extensions
Another option I recommend is getting a few Chrome Extensions to support you if you can’t resist the doom scrolling and you want to tune out your news feed altogether so that you can go into Facebook and easily. Some of them work only on desktop and others will work for both mobile and desktop. I recommend researching to find one that fits your needs, but here are a couple to start with:
News Feed Eradicator for Facebook, IG, X, LinkedIn, and more
Find what will work for you. All of the above suggestions I’ve mentioned are simply creative ideas that can hopefully guide you to ultimately limit time on social media to be more intentional so that you become more prosperous in your life and business.