Small Business Growth Addicts | Top Social Media & Marketing Podcast for Small Business Owners

DIY or Outsource? How to Know the Right Social Media Path for Your Small Business

• Amanda Hughes

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Are you stuck in the post–burnout–vanish cycle on social media? 

You know the one posting endlessly, seeing no results, disappearing for weeks, then struggling to start again. You’re not alone.

In this remix episode of Small Business Growth Addicts, I’m joined by Hannah from Hey Day Digital Agency to share the golden nuggets from our original conversation on one of the biggest questions small business owners face: Should you DIY your social media or outsource it?

Inside this episode, you’ll discover:

  • How to spot the signs that you need social media support
  • Green flags and red flags when hiring an agency or manager
  • Why “fit” and shared values matter just as much as technical skills
  • The most common misconceptions about outsourcing your social media
  • How to get over the cringe factor of showing up on camera
  • Why curating your feed changes how you feel about social media
  • How to build a simple strategy to attract, nurture, and convert without spending all day creating content

Whether you want to master your own social media or partner with an expert to manage it for you, this episode will help you decide the best next step for your business.

Links & Resources:

  • Connect with Amanda on Instagram: @amandahughes.uk
  • Growth Addicts Show Notes: Read the blog + grab freebies + guest links
  • Be Mentored by Amanda: Join Get Seen Get Sales and get the support, strategies & accountability you need to grow your business on social media with confidence. Learn more
  • Free Small Business Downloads: Access all of Amanda’s freebies in one place → Get them here
  • Exclusive Discounts: Exclusive discounts on Amanda’s favourite small business tools & services → See discounts




SPEAKER_01:

Hello and welcome to the Growth Addicts Podcast. I'm Amanda Hughes, your host, and I am delighted to be spending the next hour with you. Thank you so much for being here. I escaped the corporate world with not much more than a burning desire to be self-employed. Fast forward 10 years and I'm running not my first, but my second small business and this time around it's with a passion to share all that I know, all that I've learned and all that I'm still learning with fellow small business owners like you. As the title of the show suggests, I am addicted to growing my small business and I know you are too. That growth means different things to different people though and that's why we talk about a whole host of subjects on Growth Addicts, whether it's a solo episode with just me or with one of my many awesome guests. Between us, we share actionable tips, Instagram strategies, real-life entrepreneurial experiences and inspiring stories. So grab a pen, a cuppa, a biscuit, obviously, and get ready to grow that small business of yours. This is a Growth Addicts podcast. Hello and welcome to another episode of the Growth Addicts Podcast with me, Amanda Hughes. Thank you so much for being here today. This is our last episode before we go weekly in September. How exciting. We've all been getting organised behind the scenes, getting our guests lined up who are incredible, getting all sorts of subjects to talk to you about. So yeah, weekly from September. Stay tuned for the first episode. Today's episode, however, is another fabulous remix episode, just like we did a few weeks ago. And today we're going to remix an episode that I did with Hannah of Hay Day Digital Agency. The episode at the time was called Should You DIY or Outsource Your Social Media? And a bit like the last episode we remixed, I just really wanted to pull out some of the golden nuggets from this episode. Hannah and I had an incredible conversation about social media for Business Like and an incredibly positive conversation, which is really, really refreshing because we know there's a lot of negativity out there about social media, rightly so in some way. but when it comes to using it as a marketing platform for your small business it's an incredible place to be and it's an incredible place to get to know when it is what you make of it which Hannah and I say quite a lot in this episode but there was a few things a few golden nuggets of information that I just really wanted to pull out and highlight in an episode of its own things like where we talk about ideal client persona overwhelm on social media that sort of stop start process how to know when it might be time to get some support with your social media whether that's DIYing it or getting someone to manage your socials for you and then what to look for in that support so green flags red flags common misconceptions you name it there's so many golden nuggets we talk about here so today in this episode we're cutting the fluff pulling them out for you so get your pen and paper jot these notes down and hopefully this will help you either transform your social media just now if it's something you're stuck with it might just transform your mind set towards it if nothing else which in itself is a powerful step or it might highlight to you that you could be doing some support with it and then help you make a decision as to whether that's like the support I offer where I can help you do your own socials and get much more confident with your own socials and implement a really simple strategy to help you attract, nurture, convert or whether it's hiring someone like Hannah to help do it for you to work collaboratively with you to understand your needs for your business and how social media fits into that and then manage your social media posts going forward with you so Without further ado let's get started. If you know me by now you'll know that I love social media and I've had great success growing my business there on various platforms and now it's time to share that success with you. I've created a mentor group dedicated to helping small business owners just like you get seen and get sales on social media aptly called Get Seen Get Sales. Not only will the group help you grow on socials but it's a whole support system outside of that too with live monthly workshops and things like email marketing, creating standout graphics and much more than that. So whether you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed with socials or just ready to grow your business, we have got you. Check out the show notes for the link and come and join us inside. Welcome Hannah from Haiti, how are you today? I'm good thank you, thank you so much for having me. What a pleasure, I'm so excited for this conversation because of course I help people, well I help small business owners DIY their own social media but I know that's not for everyone. Some people cannot think of anything worse and they need someone to help so I'm so looking forward to hearing how you guys do that, what it's all about at the other end of things. Yeah definitely it's like kind of two

SPEAKER_00:

sides of the coin really isn't it?

SPEAKER_01:

Where does a business owner even begin to look for someone to help? What do you think they should particularly be looking for in a social media agency

SPEAKER_00:

or manager? So I think there's kind of three parts to what you should be looking for in terms of social media support. There's obviously the sort of the technical and the expertise side of things. So does the agency and do the people have the relevant experience and the expertise behind what they're what they're kind of selling the next is kind of results and testimonials most of our sort of inquiries and things come through existing clients and word of mouth and those are the best kind of clients that come through us so looking at their results looking at their testimonials and the things that they're sharing online that would be a great place as well and the third one that i think is really underrated are their kind of soft skills so their communication skills because obviously when you're bringing in either an agency or a social media manager you want them to sort of be a representation of your team and your brand it's such a personable thing and I think fit in that way is so underrated when it comes to a social media manager and you know a marketing agency that's going to come in sort of from internally and be a part of your team values and things are obviously something that we consider quite a lot as well we like to have sort of strong fit between our team and their team as well so I think it's completely underrated and something that not many people will kind of consider, but it's something that we've built all of our strongest client relationships on. It's the fit and the value side of things.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. And

SPEAKER_00:

you've

SPEAKER_01:

got to vibe with the person you're going to be working with like this. And I guess that comes back to us putting our business out there as well. Anyone putting their business out there, and I talk a lot about knowing who you're trying to attract, knowing your ideal client, your target audience, because you're wanting to also attract people that you want to work with. So it's no different when you're looking for someone to work with. Make

SPEAKER_00:

sure... You've got to know them a little bit. This might be totally off topic, but back when I was very first launching Haiti and I was developing our very first branding, I'd created sort of the hashtag logo that we have and we very much lean into the kind of pinks and things. And someone had said to me, a man had said to me, your branding's very pink. Do you not think that's going to put off some men from working with you? And I was like... not really my primary concern if I'm completely honest I was like if you know a man would like to work with us and they want to sort of use our expertise and our strategic thinking then I don't think they're going to be put off by a bit of pink so

SPEAKER_01:

absolutely absolutely yeah I've got a bit of pink in my branding as well and I did wonder if it was sort of feminine colors but I have men working with me and if they're fine with pink

SPEAKER_00:

then we're all good so many different industries and worked with so many different people that I really don't think the pink is the pink is a bit better with putting well Love your pink. Love

SPEAKER_01:

your pink. In fact, I can't actually believe I've not asked you this yet. Hay Day. Cool name. Love

SPEAKER_00:

our

SPEAKER_01:

name. What does that mean? So,

SPEAKER_00:

Hay Day basically means to live in the time of your greatest prosperity or to thrive. And that... is kind of like the whole vision and ethos behind heyday and that's kind of what we want to help small businesses and small business owners entrepreneurs creatives achieve living their heyday whatever that means for them and it could mean you know we're taking things off of their plate so that they're able to go and work on their kind of bigger dreams and their bigger goals sort of like in terms of the business or freeing up the time and flexibility to do more of the things that they love to do in their personal life so it means to live in the great the time of your greatest prosperity which is what we're helping our clients do every I love that. And it's not a Scottish phrase, is it? Is it a

SPEAKER_01:

worldwide phrase?

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah, I think it is. Yeah, I think it is worldwide. I didn't actually look up the origin of the word. I heard it. I can't remember where I heard it. It was somewhere. I was on maternity leave and I remember thinking, hey, that's a really cool name. And that would be a really cool name for a brand. And I was like, just, you know, squirreling that away for the future. Yeah.

SPEAKER_01:

Oh, you've absolutely nailed it. It's a brilliant name and it fits your branding and everything just all works so perfectly. I love it. So let's get into the nitty gritty. Social media. It's

SPEAKER_00:

quite the place, isn't it? I know. I think I've always said this as well. Social media is what you make it. So I get a lot of people when I'm speaking at networking events or I'm even speaking to new clients and they always say the same thing. I hate social media. It's so horrible. Such a negative place. Like, I don't want to do it. So that's why like I'm here. I want you to do it. And I always think that social media kind of is what you make it. There are so many vibrant communities and so many niches that you could get involved in. And it's a really exciting place to be actually. So it really is what you make it. It's all about tailoring your feed and tailoring the kind of content you want to see and, you know, interacting with, with kind of the right thing. So I actually like, I love opening my Instagram in the morning and like, you know, everyone's been up to and seeing what, you know, what all my favorite small businesses are doing. And it just feels like a really nice and vibrant place to be. Whereas I feel like if you are only interacting with things that are negative or really doom and gloom that's all you're probably going to see and yeah it's going to feel like a really negative space yeah gosh I mean I

SPEAKER_01:

could not have put it better myself Hannah yeah absolutely that's how I feel about it as well I've been using it for so long particularly Instagram I really find it to be a community in itself but That's probably like you said, because I've curated my feed to be like that. I see things that I want to see. I'm not following anyone's journey that I don't want to see. Why would you? Putting messaging out there, posts out there that are speaking to the people that I want to speak to. So I'm attracting those people. So that's good. But yeah, more often than not, I do hear exactly what you said there. Hate it. I don't know. A lot of the time it's because they'll say, I don't know what I'm doing on it. I'm spending a lot of time creating posts and nothing's coming back you know so there's no strategy behind it I think is half the problem most of the time and it can lead to a lot of small business owners just being completely overwhelmed with it and going through this stage of posting posting posting posting posting posting stop and then they disappear for like weeks or maybe months because the longer you're away the harder it is to get back into it because that can be what leads to the overwhelm feeling isn't it and that whole burnt out from it feeling just

SPEAKER_00:

confusion absolutely it's that vicious circle of you know well I'm getting I'm doing all these things I'm spending all this time I'm not getting any results I'm not getting any sort of clicks on my website sales through I'm not getting any inquiries and oh like I'm just so I'm so done with it and then you put it down and then go away and then yeah it just sort of dies a death and then trying to get it back up again is the hardest it does feel like the hardest thing in the world but if you are constantly creating content putting content out there you're not seeing results then it is time to sort of look at a strategy and look at the way that you're coming at things because if you're spending all of your time all of your energy and all of your focus on creating that content and it's just not resonating then you're not targeting the right people. That's not a normal experience. Exactly there is definitely a disconnect there.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely and I think as business owners what we need to remember here is we're using social media for marketing to market our business and It's free. It's an amazing place to be. Sure, you can pay for ads and things, but you don't have to. You can still reach the right people and not pay a penny. And with the right strategy in place where you're actually planning and posting with purpose, it doesn't have to take all that time. It can actually be quite an enjoyable and profitable process. So if we're speaking to the business owner out there who's listening, who is feeling like that and feeling like we've just described there, I'm always posting on social media. I'm not getting anywhere and I just feel like I don't know what I'm doing with it. But how does that business owner know if they need some support to sort of do it themselves or if it's time to hand it over to someone else? That's the thing I hear from business owners where they're not sure as to whether am i capable of this or do i just need to outsource this

SPEAKER_00:

if you're in that situation where you're feeling a bit overwhelmed you're feeling really burnt out with it you feel like you're doing nothing but creating content have a look at your analytics take a look at what has been resonating what has reached the right people what people have engaged with and interacted with and maybe lean into that a little bit more give that a try lean into that type of content maybe it's where you showed a bit of a behind the scenes of the business maybe lean into that a little bit more if it's something that you are sort of doing in your day-to-day that's the type of people thing that people maybe want to see a bit more of so try and try and maybe incorporate that a bit more and a bit less of the stuff that isn't resonating but if you feel like you've absolutely done all of that you've been through the ringer with your content and you just can't even look at it anymore which is what we hear a lot of people saying as well then yeah it might be it might be time to sort of bring in some expert help and maybe the first step is devising that strategy that's certainly the first step that we always take with clients is if someone's coming to us for social media management We completely go in, look at all of their analytics, look at what has been performing, what hasn't been. We devise a strategy for them and that's where it all starts. I really do think that that's the kind of The first step when you're working with any kind of marketing agency or a social media manager is an understanding of everything that has come before, because that also helps you get to grip with their brand voice, which is a completely unique part of your business. It can't be replicated. You know, we hear a lot about people copying other people's content and like trends are all the same and things like that. But actually, it's your brand voice that's completely unique. So it can never be copied or replicated. There's lots of people out

SPEAKER_01:

there doing what we're all doing, but it's no one's you. yeah and that's the real important thing to get you you think you're in a saturated market but you're not because no one is doing exactly what you do it's not possible so yeah absolutely would agree to lean into that okay quick pause from our conversation because i'm wondering how you'd feel if i said i could give you a free 50 pounds today yep if you have been thinking about moving your business banking recently or perhaps you don't have a business banking account then i can highly recommend monzo and if you're opening an account with them via the link in the show notes you are getting a free£50 for nothing, just for joining. Monzo is free to bank with, I bank with them personally and it's so easy to use and also they won the best business banking provider in the UK 2024. So if you don't have a business bank account yet or you'd like to change from where you are just now to free business banking and£50 on your account, the link is in the show notes today. Head over there and get it done. Right, so as part of that... That means then we're not just throwing pictures out there of our work and hoping that that will put it out there and they will come. Then you build it and they will come. We know that that doesn't work. It has to be more than that. It has to be a bit deeper than that. And I talk about a strategy where we put out on social media content to attract new clients, nurture our existing community and convert to booking or buying or signing up or whatever it might be. Would you agree with that? There has to be a sort of a mix of content

SPEAKER_00:

there. to do all these different things. Yeah, absolutely. Because you never know who's going to be landing on your page and who's going to be landing on your page for the first time. So if you do only have sort of nurture content out there, then it's given no frame of reference as to who you are, what you do or like the impact of your work. So I think it's important to have those kind of three pillars sort of going at the same time.

SPEAKER_01:

And with

SPEAKER_00:

attraction content in particular,

SPEAKER_01:

we

SPEAKER_00:

can have

SPEAKER_01:

a

SPEAKER_00:

bit of fun.

SPEAKER_01:

And

SPEAKER_00:

I know you guys, because it's not just you, Heidi, is it? No, it's myself and Serena, and we've recently just taken on a paid ad specialist as well. Amazing, amazing.

SPEAKER_01:

And I know you guys do the occasional fun reel. Yep, we like to lean into the fun, lean into the cringe. Same, yep, yep. And the cringe, this is the thing. So a lot of business owners, you know, they tell me that they cannot, the fear of showing up on camera is just far too much. Like, it just feels so false and so fake, you know, they... They wanted to start their business to bake cakes. They were never intending on having to film themselves. And I totally get that. You know, it's daunting, but it can actually be quite fun and a really good way to help your clients get to know you, which, you know, helps with all the things we've just spoken about there, attracting the right clients. How do we help our business owner friends get over the cringe? Sometimes I just like to force them. I'm kidding.

SPEAKER_00:

You just like to run in with a camera in their face. Yeah, all the good blooper content out the way. No, I think the sort of best thing to do is show them just how accessible it is. So a lot of the time what we'll do is if clients don't enjoy filming reels or filming TikTok videos or whatever it is, we sort of show them examples of how it could look so that it doesn't feel as cringe. so that's looking at the kind of b-roll behind the scenes content sort of filming them while they're not looking that kind of thing and then showing them the impact of just what that can do on their socials because obviously Reels are always being pushed out to new people. And that's kind of one of the main ways that new people are finding you. So we always think it's really valuable to have them in a client's strategy when it comes to social. So we show them that kind of B-roll content. We encourage them to sort of spend a bit of time on the app and have a look through Reels that are kind of in their niche so that they can see just how other people are approaching it. And it maybe doesn't feel as scary then. We have gently nudged a lot of our clients slightly outside of their comfort zone when it comes to creating Reels. but something that we also like to do is if they are capturing real content a lot of the time they're sort of like oh no I don't I don't want you with me when like I'm capturing real content because they're it's just a bit too much for them so we'll provide them with like a little plan sort of like clip one we'd love if you could capture this clip two clip three and we've got some really cool things back from clients actually where we've been able to edit them together and create a really good piece of content that you know they can then see the value and the impact of it and they're like oh we should do that again and they get really enthusiastic about it so it's kind of it's kind of baby steps into into real territory but it's funny thinking about you know filming and reels and things because you know it's kind of just like a staple of of our content now it's kind of what we do we love we love having fun with it

SPEAKER_01:

great okay i was thinking earlier on i actually meant to ask this earlier on like if you are looking for a social media agency or what are the sort of misconceptions or myths that you hear out there about social media agencies that you can maybe bust for us today?

SPEAKER_00:

I would say that the sort of the kind of biggest, the biggest one that's been a bit more of a barrier for small businesses in particular is thinking that maybe social media support and social media agencies in particular are only for big businesses and that it's, you know, it's something that's completely unattainable, not kind of in my budget or I'm not kind of there yet. And there is a wee bit, I think, of imposter syndrome around that as well because it's kind of like, oh, you know, I'm not big enough to outsource help, but actually... regardless of the stage of the business that you're at if there's a barrier in your way like if you're spending all of your time on social media management and social media content creation and things you're not getting anywhere but you're also then having to neglect other areas of your business then it is time to sort of look at support that you can bring in, even if it's support and just building that initial strategy and things. But I would say the biggest misconception is probably that it is only for big business. It's definitely not the case anymore. I mean, that's one of the main reasons that I wanted to even launch Hay Day in the first place is because I did see that there are a lot of like the kind of big agencies out there that are doing sort of like the big sort of national campaigns and things. And it does look kind of unattainable for smaller businesses. But I'd worked with so many small businesses and the impact that it can have on the way that they run their business and the way that they run their lives can be so tremendous that I was like, I just need to do more of that, please. It's such a lovely feeling when you know that you've had a direct impact on helping someone either free up time, flexibility, or just taking something super stressful off their plate. Absolutely. Honestly, we're just

SPEAKER_01:

such in the same wavelength here. Just that you're more... helping the client actually you do more for them I guess you're doing for them because I'm helping them do it themselves But there's plenty of business owners in both camps that need that help on either side, isn't there? But yeah, our train of thought is just very, very similar because it's an amazing feeling when you can really take someone from A to B when they've been really, really struggling and then all of a sudden they're like, oh, I showed up on a reel today. Like, I'm so proud of myself. And you know what? I got phone inquiries from it. Fantastic. Like, it's an amazing transformation.

SPEAKER_00:

Yeah. You know, I've worked in sort of bigger businesses before and, you know, it's very much about me. So it's kind of a thankless job. But when you're actually working with someone one-on-one and you can see that impact. It's just, it's so kind of affirming that you're doing the right thing in your life. Really helping

SPEAKER_01:

business owners get their dream out there, like they've dreamed about this business and you're helping them make that dream become a reality. So before we just have a bit of fun and wrap up, is there anything else you'd like to

SPEAKER_00:

talk to us about that we've not covered? Oh, something that we haven't covered is looking at sort of like green flags and red flags when it comes to it. client and sort of social media manager relationships. One of the things that I would say is if you're looking for a social media manager or if you're looking for a marketing agency for support, green flag for me would be that they are super inquisitive about you, super inquisitive about your business and they have a period of learning built into their whatever it is they're offering you. So they're getting to grips with you, your brand voice, your audience, your content, the analytics and everything that's come before. There's been a few times we've had people who think when you work with a social media manager, it's like, oh, well, you sign on with me at the start of the week and then tomorrow you'll be posting content when actually... there is a period of learning that you need to have that's absolutely fundamental to getting it right for your social media audiences. So I would say an absolute red flag would be, yeah, I can post for you tomorrow. I'll just bang this out like really quickly. No, like, let's not do that. How could you possibly do that? Yeah, exactly. So I would say that sort of like the green flag would be they've got a period of learning because they are like I say representing you and your brand so

SPEAKER_01:

okay I

SPEAKER_00:

love that thank you

SPEAKER_01:

so much that's a biggie I'm glad we covered that absolutely definitely thank you so much for your time Hannah I've honestly truly enjoyed that conversation it was just so like I say so nice yeah to have a positive conversation about social media so yeah I'll get all your links in the show notes go and find Hannah just go and find her anywhere whether you're looking for her support or not and if you've got any questions I'm sure Hannah would be more than happy to answer them

SPEAKER_00:

yeah absolutely thank you so much for having me it's been a lovely a lovely way to spend a morning And also your first podcast. My first ever podcast, I know. Maybe I've got the bug now. Maybe you'll never hear the end of me now.

SPEAKER_01:

Absolutely. Well, I hope so. I hope so because it's been lovely. Okay, well, enjoy the rest of your day, Hannah. Take care. Thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of the Growth Addicts Podcast. I hope today's episode has given you inspiration and tangible tips that you can use to grow your small business in a way that feels right for you. If you loved today's episode, please check out today's show notes where you can find details of our wonderful sponsor KM Accountancy and details of how to join my thriving email community so that you never miss an episode. Please don't forget to leave a review today. Reviews are invaluable to us in helping us get the show out there. Every single one is read and very much appreciated. Until next time.