The massive Social Media shift & why businesses are ditching social

There has been a distinct shift in social media usage in the past 12-18 months

Aussies are spending nearly 2 hours a day on social media which is a HUGE amount of time to waste on something that gives you little in return. Research has shown that businesses of all sizes are pulling away from socials and there are some very good reasons for it

Listen to why it is happening and the scary stats behind it all 
Shownotes here: https://saleswithoutsocials.com.au/s4ep2 

Transcript

00:00.00
tanyawilliams
Well I love there. It's tanya wims here chief everything at digital conversations and yep it sells with that social's time and today I'm going to talk about the shift away from social media and and why that is happening. Now the whole point of this podcast is to share ways to market your business without social media and as I've discussed I am not anti-social. It has a time and a place but we're seeing a big shift away by a lot of people. Um and the and the numbers back this up as well. The who are moving away from social or spending a lot. Time on it now I know I am having more and more conversations with other business owners who are totally over socials. The scary thing is that aussies is spending nearly two hours a day on social media 2 hours it's a huge amount of time to waste on something that gives you very little in return. Now as a business owner, you're probably doing it all right as a business owner. We wear all the hats we're doing everything and we're expected to be social media experts on top of that now if you listen to episode 12 of season 2 about how long your social media content lives for then you'll understand why I think. Um, you know, focusing on social media is not a good return. Um, so go and have a listen to that if you missed out on it. But um I think overall in general businesses are just feeling it. They're going. You know what? like this you know where we're over it for for whatever reason and'm going to dive into some of those but let's just think about where where.

01:35.86
tanyawilliams
At in the world today. We've seen a shift in a lot of things post- pandemic I think um businesses have fallen into this trap of using social as a default setting because maybe they're a bit lazy or they're really totally unaware of of what it actually costs them and again there's an episode that's all about what it costs you? Um, which is a very very first percentage. But ah, back in um, series one so go and have a listen to that because that'll blow your mind. Um, but I think it's just it's become this default I've just chuck it on Facebook I'll pop it on up on ah Instagram and that then I think that constitutes marketing and it certainly doesn't um but there's a really curious stat as well that I want to share from. Dan Kennedy wrote a book called the no bs guide to social media management or a report sorry um and the report stated that 60% of business owners were planning to invest more time and money on social in the coming year but less than 5% could state that their social media had actually increased revenue and profit. If at all like I'm just going to let that sink in from it 60% are going to increase their budget on social but 5 % of them don't even know if it's actually increased budget or profit. Why why would you increase your investment on a platform that gets such. Low returns because I guarantee that not a lot of these are getting huge returns. Um, so when you mean you could take that budget and invest it into areas that not only get you a result but they will bring you high quality leads. They'll be longer and better relationships because they're going to be better quality clients and cost you very little money or nothing at all.

03:10.21
tanyawilliams
I just I just don't get it but look and I'm personally overwhelmed being bombarded with ads on my feed every second or third post on Instagram and Facebook is an ad and I'm so sick of it I'm sick of hiding ads and reporting ads I'm sick of scams and fake products being sold and they're to do nothing about it even when you report them because. Why because they're spending a fortune with them. So why would they want to stop it because they're getting a lot of money from them I'm I'm sick of notifications telling me to like certain pages or people. Um I'm just sick of the lack of business support. Um, you know customer service from because that literally doesn't even exist. But. Know that I'm the loan. So while I'm having a good old rant here the stats actually support it as well. So the stats around Facebook and instar are definitely not supporting spending more time and money on it. Um, so there's some really interesting stats from the Pew Research Center in the us recently and they did a study. Um. And they're saying that large numbers of Facebook users are changing their relationship with Facebook and I think a lot of us have over the last year or so and it found that the rate of engagement with Facebook users has made a significant drop in the last eighteen months I would definitely agree with that. A little over half of Facebook users have adjusted their privacy settings and I know I have myself because I don't want certain people to see it I've made my account. Um, you know harder for people to see because there's so much spam and scammers and people you know getting on and taking over profiles and all that sort of stuff I want to be more secure. So.

04:43.48
tanyawilliams
Um, people are adjusting their privacy settings. They don't want all this stuff to be out there. They only want it to be there. Their group of friends to see it. You know over 40% of users have taken a break from social ah from Facebook for several weeks or even longer and I'll put my hand up and say I've done that as well. Um, particularly over Christmas time when I can. Down tools because I don't need to be on it for any sort of client work. But it's always good to get um off Facebook I think have a little bit of a break up 26% of users have deleted their Facebook app completely from their phones 26 that's massive. Fact that 26% of users have deleted the app um says a huge um deal All in all 70 so 74% of Facebook users have taken 1 or more of those steps so they're facts guys. They're the numbers. Um and numbers. Don't lie. You think about those numbers that's pretty scary stuff and while would you want to be going and spending more and more money. Um, on, you know whether it's organically or ads or whatever it is on the lux of Facebook and insta because um, it's just not generating the results. So. Want just talk more about why business is turning away from social now I have a bunch of reasons here. So buckle peeps. There's a lot to cover. Um, and you you may or may not agree with some of these you may not, you may go hey yetp I agree with that. That's me as well and that's fine. These aren't all going to be relevant for you.

06:12.42
tanyawilliams
Ah, or your business. But I know a lot of people who are feeling a lot of these things. Um and a lot of businesses that are just going. It's time for a change. We need to to look at what is happening um with our marketing and where we're putting our time and our effort. So Let's dive into them shall we um the first one is around you know. Ah, time needed on channels to get any sort of traction now. Especially if you are starting off with 0 It is near impossible these days to build a strong um following back in the day when social first started. Yep sure you could easily get a bunch of people following you in no tie because everyone saw everything these days Organic. Um. Reaches in the toilet. So It is really hard to build numbers and you need to spend a lot of time on it and these days business owners going. You know what? I Just don't want to or don't have the time to do it. You know those time constraints um, are really impacting where business owners are spending their marketing resources. Because they don't have time to be spending hours a week on creating content and posting and responding to people and so forth. Another one is budget constraints right? This stuff's no longer free If You think that social media is free I would invite you to go and listen to some of the past episodes I've done around the real costs of social um socials not free, Even your. So-called free organic posts right? They still cost you time to create um and and post and respond and all those all those other things that are part of that whole process right? It is not free. So um, in these days you have to spend money to to get seen so you have to be.

07:49.86
tanyawilliams
Running ads you have to be boosting Posts. You have to be putting a lot more time and effort and dollars behind it to actually get seen and even then they're not getting great results. So um, people are going. You know what in our full sense spend our money elsewhere. Procrastination is another big one I think you know what channels should I do. Ah, got to work out what to post how to create an ad how much do I spend on it and all the questions pop up and then businesses going. Oh My God It's all too hard I'm just not even going to go there because I'm just spending more time procrastinating than actually doing anything Um, another one is they don't know how to use it So many people I speak to go. <unk>ve sort of got a little bit of an idea how to do posts but I don't know when to post how I should do it what content I should use what channels I should use. It's all too hard I don't want to learn it I want someone else to do it for me. Um, you know if you don't understand how to use it then chances are you're probably not going to use it as well or you're going to outsource it and maybe. Um, we should be doing you know other things instead the algorithms so we talk about the Algorithms the algorithms are making it harder wouldn't it impossible to actually get seen because Algorithms are designed not to be beaten as we know. Um, you can't beat the algorithm despite what anyone tries to tell you That's a lot of Bs. Um, but we're always hearing from them about there's an algorithm changing you have to do this and you have to do that and as busy business owners. It's hard enough to do what we've got to do let alone try and figure out what the damn new algorithm is and how we're going to you know, get.

09:19.96
tanyawilliams
People to see more of our posts. It's just it's too much return on investment big one um people are spending a lot of money on you know, creating posts getting stuff out there across too many channels because usually they're spreading themselves too thin so they're not doing any of them. Well. And it's just not getting a return on investment now some of the stats that I I shared before you know people 5 % of people don't even you know or think is it actually getting as a result, it's pretty bad. So why you're spending money on it. Um, they're no longer convinced that Facebook and instead of worth their time as well. I think people are. Finally getting to the point of oh my god like I'm doing all this stuff and I've been doing it for years. Is it actually working. Is it worth me spending time here as we know Linkedin is a different story because Linkedin was created for um, business. So I have a very different take on Linkedin to the likes of Facebook and insta but I think people are just no longer convinced that it's where they should be. They're intimidated again by all the options right? There's all this lingo and options we can do posts and reels and lives and videos and stories and ads and boosts and Dms and and everything else under the sun right? and it's. Fusing you know it's intimidating if you don't know this space and you're not a big social media user or don't know a lot about it just thinking about all those things and going oh my god I don't know where to start is really intimidating. So it's another reason why people are turning away. Um, they don't understand how to use it properly I know a few.

10:50.74
tanyawilliams
Friends of mine who I cringe when they when they post because I'm like oh my God Um I also need businesses that do the same on like please use it properly? Um, but you know if you don't understand how to use it properly I get you might be trying to do it. But you know why? um persist with something that's just not getting your results that you need.

11:10.60
tanyawilliams
Opportunity costs is another one if you're going be spending less time and getting better results somewhere else. Why do you want to be spending it on Facebook and instta makes a little sense right? and another big one is competition. There is more competition than ever before. Ah, there is more people you know like wanting to be seen using it from a business per perspective. So even though users are dropping. There are still a lot of businesses on the platform and it's a global platform obviously and more businesses that are getting convinced to run ads and do all that sort of stuff. So the more people are running ads and the more scammers that are doing stuff and running ads and spending all this money. It means. You know there's more competition out there. So your stuff isn't getting seen as much. Um there's also some questions around ah the way that meta actually operates and they're not actually happy with the way that the companies operate and their values. An example of that is lush um. They are a very big brand who totally pulled off pulled off socials because they were just like their values to just do not align to ours as a business and we don't think we're going to lose much out of not being there so they um they took the step and went well. You know we're going to market another way. So it is possible to do peeps. Um, there's a lot of volatility and there's a lot of toxicity around socials as well because people are worried about you know some of this stuff if I get um you know someone takes over my account and post stuff. My reputation can be impacted. There's a lot of user abuse happening. You know we've seen stuff where people are very quick to judge.

12:44.95
tanyawilliams
Um, or comment on certain things and I admit I've done that myself when you know someone's posted something you went. That's not True. Um, or that's you know, don't agree with that or whatever you know we've got to be very mindful of the fact that there is a lot of um abuse and people that will tart. Will you know make comments out there. And not every business owner is prepared to put up with that and neither should they be Um, there's a lot of brand bullying trolls as well. Um, that are out there. You know people will leave leave comments on posts and they're not even a customer. They just troll and they leave comments randomly because they think they can or maybe they do it for their own amusement. But that's taught me a lot and I think a lot of businesses are just sick of dealing with it. Um, again, it no longer aligns to your values. Um, you know as is in you know, luscious circumstances. They were lucky you This doesn't feel right anymore. Um, people Also don't understand the riskto-reward model like But. All the time and the effort we're putting into this and we're risking marketing dollars and so Forth. What is that reward look like and um, you know we're seeing from the numbers that the rewards simply aren't there increasing scams is one of the big ones as Well. There's so many clone accounts out there. So many scammers. There are so many fake businesses putting stuff out there that it's becoming really hard to work Out. What's real and what's fake. Um and the sad thing is that men are doing nothing about this or they look like they're doing nothing about it because they don't seem to care because they're getting money off these people. So.

14:15.70
tanyawilliams
Um, you know there's constantly I'm seeing people going. Oh someone's you know, got into my account and you know don't you know click on any links and all that sort of stuff but it's happening every single day and I think we're a bit over it. Um, the other thing as well as people are going well why do we need to spend time perfecting this stuff. Like you know they saying you do reals. Why should I do that when they could literally disappear tomorrow now there's a lot of platforms that have done that I remember blab several years ago you had Bb and vine and all these other social channels that were out there and they're encouraging people to get on there and generate all these users. Well they disappeared overnight. So people are going well why would I want to spend all this time and effort when literally these things can be taken off as a feature tomorrow. So I've just wasted all that time. It's also um, hard to qualify the value. It offers to brands as well like you know how much value are you actually getting from those posts on Facebook.

15:12.84
tanyawilliams
Um, is it really generating anything for you. Um I'm sure that there are other ways that you can do you know that you can create visibility for your brand without focusing on that and you really can't build sustainable businesses on platforms that you don't own right? like you do not own your social media channels. So why would you put all your eggs in 1 basket and spend all this time and energy on a platform that you don't own. You wouldn't go and build a house on a random block of land that you don't own because what happens is one you' getting get found out and someone's going to say well hey on that's my block of land that you just put that house on right say me. Social media. You don't own it. You don't control it. You know why would you want to do that. Um, you know and another good reason for you know that the brands are turning away from it as well as the platforms are limiting your capacity to engage with your own followers and your own fans because of the algorithms. You know you can have 5000 people that follow you. Ah you know, ah fans of your page and we know that with organic reach that's not happening when you post something 5000 people aren't seeing it so they're really limiting your capacity capacity to do that organically and forcing you to pay to reach them which is sort a great thing because. An engaging experience for you for your fans or your customers. The reason is is this stuff's gonna get harder and harder it literally is going to get harder and harder to reach people and I think businesses now are getting to the point of going you know what I am exhausted and I don't want to do it anymore. I don't want to play the games.

16:44.77
tanyawilliams
Um, I'm just going to find better and easier ways that are more effective than wasting all my time here and of course you don't want to link your entire strategy to a platform that you have no control over as well because I've seen this all the time where people go I Want a media Market Marketing Strategy 80% of that strategy will be social media. Um, and even then it's it's just posting or whatever else which is not a strategy. Okay, that is not a marketing strategy So a strategy needs to be well-rounded it needs to include lots of different channels or you know at least channels that are most relevant for you Not just um, social media.

17:22.33
tanyawilliams
Also um, another reason brands were getting bited over is because staff are being sidetracked from customer service and inquiries and the stuff that they're you know on the floor you know at at that storewfront level where they can actually influence sales rather than you know, being on social media when they shouldn't be um, there's also this you know. Mental Health impacts and the psychological discomfort that we're feeling around social as well. It's always easy look at what another business is doing what the perception is on Facebook perception and reality. Ah, as we know are very different things but that can have an impact um particularly if you aren't. Staying focused to what you need to do as a business and you're getting too caught up in what your competitors are doing and so forth it really can have an impact on your mindset and your mental health. So maybe it's an idea to not take so much notice of it. Um, we're seeing an increase in criminal activity and. Gams like so many accounts are being hacked. There's so many fake accounts. There's so many scams being advertised that people are falling for more and more of that is happening and it's pretty darn scary. There's another podcast that I love called anatomy is anatomy of a scan and they talk about all this stuff and I'll tell you every time I listen to it I think oh my god this is more and more of a reason to not be on social media right? It's pretty dar. Scary. What's happening out there so please go and educate yourself around that. Um and think businesses have also worked out that social media is not a strategy in itself. It is just.

18:49.63
tanyawilliams
1 component which I keep ratting on about and have been for so long now that it is 1 element of it. Okay, so if you're not convinced that time on Facebook and Instagram should be minimized or even totally deleted from your marketing plan then I don't know what will because. Some of that information some of those stats are pretty powerful I think now as I said every channel is different and I've always said that Linkedin is a totally different beast to the likes of Facebook and Insta and Tiktok and don't even start me on Twitter or x or whatever hell they call in it these days because that's not even relevant. But um, if you are a b two b business owner and you feel like. Ah, you have to include socials in your marketing then maybe just choose 1 channel um and focus on that rather than watering down your efforts and trying to be on too many channels and not doing any of them really? Well if you are going to do it. Make sure you have a clear strategy and understand how exactly you're going to use it to generate sales. Don't just randomly post stuff and be really mindful and intentional on on how you use it? Okay, um, so basically social media marketing results are unequal because time and effort doesn't impact doesn't equal those results either. So um. Ah, really encourage you to go back and listen to the first 3 series of the sales of that socialist podcast because there is a lot of gold. There's a lot of ideas and inspirations that will help you market your business without focusing on social media because there is this shift happening not just from me.

20:17.81
tanyawilliams
A lot of other people. A lot of business owners. A lot of companies and big brands are starting to move away from from it for all of those reasons that I've just spoken about so um I hope you took something away from today I hope it just gets you thinking um about well maybe I shouldn't be putting so much focus on it. Maybe I need to be looking at. Other things that are actually going to get me a better result and will cost me nothing or very little anyway, that is me for today's episode as I always say never let anyone die your sparkle and just stay fabulous.