Don’t get me wrong using Instagram for marketing your business works for a lot of business owners. But I’m tired of constantly being told: “How great Instagram is for marketing your business”. If you’re a social introvert you might like using social media for your business but it’s just not for me. I also think that there are way too many marketing gurus out there trying to sell you on why you “must” use Instagram to market your business. And if you’re anything like me you’re tired of being on the constant hamster wheel of trying to figure out what you’re going to post on your feed.
Even if you like using Instagram for your business you might still want to consider using an alternative method to market your business. Because news flash you don’t own the platform. Therefore you don’t have any control over how it works or how well your content does.
Why I Don’t Enjoy Marketing My Business On Instagram
Introvert>Social Butterfly
Despite being very outgoing I’m 1000% an introvert. Some people love being social and therefore love Instagram. Which is totally fine but it’s not for me. I’d much rather write a blog post at my leisure than have to record an Instagram story.
Posts are Useless After 24/48 Hours
Unless you have a post go “viral” every single piece of content that you take the time to post on Instagram is only going to last maybe 48 hours if you’re blessed. Not only does Instagram want you to be on the app constantly but they also want the apps content to be current. You can post a super valuable post but it’s ultimately only going to last for a short amount of time. Now think about if you turned that last carousel post you made into a longer blog post. If it’s something that your ideal clients are searching for on Google that post could rank for years in comparison.
Timing is Everything
While you can technically schedule Instagram posts in advance most of the time you have to post things in real time, especially stories. So that you can engage on the app around the time you post to please the algorithm. And your timing needs to be based on when your audience is active on top of it. I don’t know about you but I didn’t start my business so that I could be on someone else’s schedule. To my knowledge, it doesn’t matter to Google what time of day you publish your blog posts, it just matters that they’re helpful. Yes consistency does matter and you should create a consistent blog posting schedule but it’s not as time-sensitive as social media.
People on Instagram Aren’t Always Ready to Buy
Look back to a time before you started your business. Did you ever go on Instagram looking for something to buy? Maybe you do now because once you use Instagram for business it changes how you look at the app, but I bet you didn’t before. If you’re marketing to other business owners this could be to your benefit but if you’re marketing to consumers that’s not necessarily the case
Instagram Marketing Alternatives for Introverts
Consistency is very important no matter what marketing strategy. So you need to choose a strategy that does two things. One it sounds fun to you and two you’re confident you can do it consistently.
Pinterest in a lot of ways is made for introverts. You can schedule your content ahead and it doesn’t require “showing up” all the time. Like anything consistency matters but scheduling, Pinterest content is going to be way more enjoyable than figuring out Instagram.
Blogging
Not only can blogging give you more content to pin to Pinterest. But adding quality content to your website will also boost your SEO. Blogging alongside using Pinterest is a very good marketing strategy but if you want to start with one start with whichever sounds more fun to you.
Why You Should Have a Blog on Your Website
Podcast
Another way to create more quality content for your website and Pinterest is to start a podcast. The one caveat of this marketing strategy is that it does take more time to create compared to blogging. But if you don’t like writing and talking is easier and more fun for you it might make more sense to start with it. If you do start a podcast make sure to host it not only on popular podcasting platforms like Spotify but also add it to your website. Blogging the podcast transcripts is effectively the same as if you wrote a blog post and published it to your website. This will be better for your website’s SEO.
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