I spent twenty minutes this morning writing a social media post about a website. Twenty minutes. I rewrote it six times, changed the emoji three times, and then deleted the whole thing because it sounded like a robot who had been sent to a seminar.
Then I posted a picture of my dog instead. It got more engagement.
That is business marketing in real life. You carefully plan a thoughtful message about your services, and the internet responds with, "cute dog, what's his name?"
Things I have learned about marketing, mostly the hard way
- Posting at the "perfect time" is a rumor started by people who sell calendars.
- Every platform wants a different length, a different tone, and a slightly different version of me. I now have four voices. My family says I used to have one.
- Somebody will always comment "check your inbox," and you will never find the message.
- Writing about my own work feels like bragging. Writing about anything else means nobody knows what I do. There's no middle ground, so I split the difference and write about coffee.
The honest truth is that I love the part where I get to explain things to people. What I don't love is turning that into a caption that keeps an algorithm happy. So here's my new plan: write like a person, answer messages like a person, and accept that some days a picture of the dog really is the best marketing available to me.
If you're a small business owner doing the same dance, you are in very good company. We are all out here posting thoughtfully at 11:47 at night and hoping for the best.