Stay Consistent on Social Media When No One Is Engaging

Posting on social media and getting nothing back? No likes. No comments. No replies. Just silence. If you're a small business owner who needs to know how on earth you stay consistent on social media for your business when it's crickets out there, this is for you.

In this episode, I’m talking about how to stay consistent on social media when no one is engaging, and why low engagement doesn’t mean your content isn’t working.

This episode will help you understand what’s happening, rebuild confidence, and keep showing up in a way that actually works.

Want more strategies for Social Media Growth?
Join my incredible Social Media Mentorship Community for Small Business Owners right here

Links mentioned in todays show:
Morning ritual reel

Facebook group intro template

Ideal client podcast episode

Finding your community podcast episode

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Sponsor of This Episode
This episode is sponsored by Claire from Word Craft a website strategist and copywriter based in the North East of Scotland, working with clients across the UK and beyond.

Claire helps small business owners and creative entrepreneurs get their website’s words, structure, and flow right, so they attract those “I couldn’t-have-asked-for-better” clients.

You can work with Claire via:

• Done-for-you website copy & blog writing
• A strategic website audit (with a clear action plan)
• One-to-one advisory support so you can confidently DIY your copy

Connect with Claire on Instagram → @wordcraftclaire

• Social Media Strategy and Support: Join Get Seen Get Sales and get the tools, support, strategies & accountability you need to grow your small business (product or service) on social media with confidence Learn more
• Connect with Amanda on Instagram: @amandahughes.uk
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Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Hello and welcome to another episode of Small Business Growth Project. I'm Amanda. I am delighted you're joining me today. I'm talking about a topic that I know is a big deal for small business owners out there who are using social media to grow their business. It's when you feel that you're talking to no one, you feel that you're talking into the void, you're putting content out there, nothing's coming back, and how on earth do you stay consistent? How do you keep the momentum up when that's the case, when you feel essentially like you're talking to yourself? So that's what I'm going to get into today. Let's pause for a second to hear a word from our sponsors.

SPEAKER_00 0:35

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SPEAKER_01 1:28

And what I wanted to tell you about is my own personal story of this, and also one of my members in GetSeen Get Sales, which is my online social media mentorship community. We have definitely discussed this in here where members just feel like no one's commenting, no one's coming back to me. Like, what is the point of this? To the point that I almost feel silly putting content out there, you know, because no one is responding. So let's talk about Susan from Rise Strong with Susan, who is actually my sister also. She is in my mentorship group. She gets a zero special treatment. She's actually got a badge next to her name that says Amanda's sister, no special treatment. Um, if anything, she gets it much tighter than any other member. But here's the results that she's getting. In April of 2024, and as I record this, it's January 2026. Susan decided to set up her own yoga business, doing yoga by the beach or by the sea and dipping in the sea, yes, in Scotland in Ayrshire. Yes, it is freezing, and there's meditation that goes with that as well, and also working with another member of the group who has a sauna at some beach locations in Ayrshire. So she decided to set up our business properly in April of 2025. You know, she'd done all the training years prior and had been getting all the experience in and whatever, and this was the time to go for it and set things up on social media and really start to get it out there. She wasn't planning on doing any events or classes at Amazon for a few months, so we wanted to get the Instagram, it was just Instagram she started with, but wanted to get the Instagram page set up to start with, to start getting things out there, get content out there, and build up momentum for when she actually wanted to launch her classes. So that's what we did. And she was she's been in Get Sing Get Sales, she's been following the guidance in there. Like I say, no special treatment, she's just been following the guidance that's been in the group from our monthly masterclasses, our weekly content packs, asking other members in the group. There's lots of yoga teachers in there, so share an experience between them. We really focused on attract and nurture content, attract in order to grow our account, bring new followers in, bring new ideal clients in and grow the account, get eyes on our work, and then have the opportunity to then nurture them, build relationships, build a community, help them get to know Susan, get to know what she does or is going to do, know her background, our why, all these sorts of things. She was also doing some little free videos on YouTube as well, which she could link to as a slight conversion content, but part of that overall sort of nurture, attracting nurture. So we did this, we did this for quite a few months, and she was always complaining. And I could say complaining because she's my sister, no one's commenting, no one's getting involved, no one's doing this, no one's liking. I feel I can speak to myself. So this was a real having to keep Gina up, listen, people are following along, people are watching, people are taking it in. Just bear with us, we're doing the right things, it will pay off. You know, at the minute, you've not got anything concrete to lead them to, as such. But people are subscribing to the YouTube channel, they are watching the YouTube videos. At the minute, that's the only place we're directing them to. Everything else is attracting notary. They're watching, they're listening, just have to trust the process. She definitely doubted the process 100%. However, she then went to launch her first event a few months later, which I believe was sort of late summer. She launched her first event for yoga, dip, and sauna on the beach. It sold out almost immediately. Sold out within hours. All 12 spaces were gone. I think she had to add on a few extra spaces, and then she quickly created another event which also sold out, and she was just like, What has happened here? And that is it, guys. That is the process. That is the process working. You might feel like a lot of the content you're putting out there, that you're speaking to no one, but trust me, people are watching, people are listening, people are taking it in. And I think there's a whole reason behind that. I think there's a whole trust recession on at the minute. It's been on for a while, to be honest, and I'll talk about that in more detail in a minute. But also wanted to give my own experience with this, with feeling like no one's watching, etc. Now, I'll be honest, I over years now have built up an incredible community on social media on the platforms that I primarily use. I'm on all platforms, which mainly for learning purposes, but for my own business, Instagram is my number one and Facebook is sort of number two, like in number three, you know. So on those top three platforms that I use, I have built up good communities and I don't necessarily have a problem with low engagement or anything like that. You would like to think so. This is what I do for a living. So, you know, fair enough, fair enough. But what I'm noticing just now is in my mentorship, so it's called Get See and Get Sales. We abbreviate it to GSGS, appropriate the call, because that's what we do in there. We help each other, we learn and grow and support each other to get see and get sales on social media, just like the example I've just shared there of Susan. But even with myself, I notice that the new members that come and join GSGS, they are not people who have been in my inbox asking lots of questions. They're not people who've been commenting on all my posts all the time. They're not been liking some of them just recently liked my page and then, you know, just had a good browse and decided to join. Like honestly, some members who've joined Get Seen Get Sales recently, I have never seen their name before ever. They obviously have seen me, they've maybe listened to the podcast and then came and followed me on Instagram, and they've just been taking it all in and watching and listening and waiting for the right time for them where they feel as if they've got to know you enough, they've got to know what you offer enough, they've seen you share in client words, client reviews, they've maybe even share seen other clients sharing some of your work, but you've, you know, reshared and stories, and it's just built up this bigger picture so that when the time is right for them to buy, book, join, sign up, whatever it might be, without pressure, they do. Honestly, the process works, and I'm going to tell you what the process is. If you know me by now, you'll know that I love social media. It's how I've grown my businesses, and now I want to help you do the same. That's why I created Get Seen Get Sales, my mentor group for small business owners who want to get seen online and actually attract followers that convert to customers. Inside you'll get weekly content prompts, live workshops, and support on everything you need to grow confidently on social media. If you're feeling stuck, overwhelmed, or just ready to do things differently, I've got you. Head to smallbusinessgrowthaddicts.com to join us. Now, first I want to touch on that trust recession. I feel particularly if you're in an online service area, and that's whether you're selling products online or a service online. So I guess just whether if you're an online business at the minute, there is what we're sort of calling a trust recession. It's been there for a while, it's not brand new, and what it means is people have been stung before. Most of our ideal clients, if we're selling something online, most of our ideal clients have been stung in the past before with offers, promises from a course or a membership group or a product, you know, that's just not delivered what they thought it was going to deliver. Now, a lot of marketing research shows that this comes back from 2020, lockdown, when a lot of small businesses who were forced to stop and couldn't trade, then turned their hand to online digital marketing, digital products, or selling online, but selling even products online, but with no experience of having done that. And some, you know, there were some problems and missing items and whatnot. And other times they were creating online digital products like courses, etc. My being starting up podcasts that just didn't deliver, the experience wasn't there. It was done in a rush and a panic in the middle of the pandemic, you know, which you can understand. So there is some research to show that it stems back to that. But also, you know, digital courses in particular have been on the go for a while and that they're not all equal. Some are incredible and put together meaningfully and genuinely and authentically by the person and deliver exactly what they say they will. Others are not, they've been marketed as quick fixes, and you know, all they really are are an upsell to something else, which means once you've bought that course, you go into it, you get sort of basics. And if you really want to get the nitty-gritty, actually drive forward and make the changes, then you have to pay more. So there was a lot of that as well. So I believe that's a combination of things that have led us now to this trust recession that we find ourselves in in 2026, particularly if you're an online business. Therefore, then that's probably where this hesitancy comes from. Gosh, people are maybe sometimes scared at times to comment on a post on social media because they think they're going to get hit by an automated DM from, you know, many chat or what they like. So you could just comment on a post, you know, this is so cute, but that triggered something that sends an automated DM that says, here's the link to my guide to download it just now, and join my email list, etc., etc. And you're like, oh my god, I was just trying to engage, like I'm not ready or interested in anything like this. And that can be enough to just make you unfollow that account. So people are hesitant to engage, to get involved until they've really got to know you and got to know what it's about. And unfortunately for us, that can be a quiet spell. It really can be sort of ghost town feeling at our end. But your job is to keep showing up. And I know it's hard, it's very hard to keep the momentum up, it's very hard to stay consistent when you're not getting results. You've got to not miss out. I talk about creating three types of content: attraction content, which continues the growth of your social media accounts, nurturing content, which ensures you're connecting with and building community with the existing followers that you have, and conversion content to ensure you're making sales. But I always say the conversion content, you know, we do it, it's important. It's important to put out there exactly what we are offering and how to book or buy or join. But the sales decisions are not made in that conversion content, they're made in particularly nurture. Let's talk about Instagram, that's my favorite one. If you're doing attraction content there, which are reels, because reels are primarily shown to non-followers, you know. So you're doing your reels to get new followers in, and then you're jumping right to conversion where you're saying bye, book, sign up, get this, get this, get this. You're missing the most important part because your sales are made in the nurture. Your sales are made in telling them what your morning routine is as a candle maker and you know, a mum. So, you know, something like that. I shared a reel the other day about my morning routine where I open all the windows in the house, make my breakfast smoothie, then close them, and how that just resets the energy in the house after the chaos that is school drop-off in the morning with my twins. For me, it just triggers something to say that that's me ready to start my working day. It changes the air in the house, so it like physically changes how things feel, you know. I shared that reel the other day and got lots of engagement on it. That is not directly anything to do with my work as such. It was a real, so technically it's attraction content. And what I'm looking to do there is invite new people, new ideal clients into my work. I've been very specific with the hook on it. I am a busy mum and small business owner who works from home, and this is a non-negotiable morning ritual I do. This sounds a bit long every morning after school drop-off and before work. I feel like it's a bit shorter than that. So I will link to that reel in the description in the show notes so you can go and have a look at it yourself and try that hook, you know. So, what I'm trying to do there is attract like-minded people into my world who are busy mums and small business owners. That's not exclusively who I work with, but it's part of the remit of one of my ideal clients. So, what it did is it attracted new followers and it also got lots of engagement as well from other people who said, I do this as well, you know, so they feel seen, instantly feel like she gets me. She's in the same wavelength. I want to learn more. And then my next post might be a carousel, which is primarily shown to existing followers where I'll nurture even further and tell you a bit more about my business and why I do what I do, or recent client success, recent client words or member words, you know, whatever it might be. That guys is where the sales are made. I cannot emphasize that enough. I cannot emphasize that enough. So, yes, we are on trust recession. Yes, it's hard to keep momentum up and stay consistent when you feel like nothing is happening, but you have to trust the process, and the process is what I'm going to go into next. Let's pause there for a second to hear a word from our incredible sponsors today. Not only are they awesome businesses, they also enable me to continue to provide the podcast and all the incredible information that it comes with for free for you.

SPEAKER_00 13:53

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SPEAKER_01 14:52

Okay, so I have a method to share with you. The Gets and GetSales method. As I mentioned, Gets and GetSales is the name of my online social media mentorship community where we have, as it stands to say, we have 40 members, which is just incredible. 40 engaged, focused, fun, community-driven members in this mentorship community who are thriving, let me tell you, because they're following this method, they're leaning on each other, they're sharing the wins, the wobbles, and everything in between. They are listening to the advice that I'm sharing, the topics that I'm sharing, the tips that I'm sharing, that are things that are working right now, you know, because I've earned that trust. I've earned that trust in the process up until now, up until them joining. You know, I share daily Instagram tips, I share things on Facebook that work. I put lots out of my podcasts for free. The time they join, I feel like I've earned that trust so that they now know this is a voice of authority that I can trust and I can rely on, and that I know works because I've already tried some of our free tips from the podcast or from Instagram. And they have worked, you know. Just on Facebook this morning, I had a small business owner telling me that she used a template that I put out as a post on Facebook the other day. I believe the hook was, are you guilty of a drive-by link drop? And what I was talking about is small business owners using Facebook groups. Now, well-run Facebook groups, well-moderated Facebook groups, they're not all equal, are a fantastic place for small business owners to grow because it's, you know, if you find the ones where your ideal clients are in, you're essentially finding a place where your ideal clients have opted in to be and get more information on a specific topic which you can help with. But then you get the days where it's like promote your business thread. And what I see is small business owners just literally dropping a link and that's it. No context whatsoever. I did a Facebook post with a little template that you can copy and paste and amend to yourself that you can use to promote yourself in Facebook groups. I will link to that post in the show notes and description today as well, so you can go and try it yourself. I had a comment this morning from a small business owner who tried that and got five new followers within 30 minutes from an introduction post in a Facebook group. So this is where I'm saying by the time they join my community, my mentorship, I've earned that trust. That's why we're following the get seen get sales method. And here's what it is. So it starts with ideal client. Now, as I speak to you today, I'll hold this up. If I've put this out there on video at all, you know, sometimes I share video clips on Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, YouTube. So have a look on there. You will see that I am wearing my t-shirt that was gifted to me by Susan, who I mentioned, fellow small business owner, and my sister. And it's a t-shirt that says, Do you know your ideal client? Because in one of my past podcast episodes, I had joked that if I was to create a t-shirt for my business and have something written on it, that's what it would say. It would say, Do you know your ideal client? Because it's really the first thing I asked. Most questions go back to that. Most questions that small business owners have for me go back to ideal client in some way, shape, or form. So that is a very, very first part of the get see and get sales method to get see and get sales on social media and beyond. You have to know your ideal client. You have to know them inside out. I want you to know them so well that you could order them a coffee or not because they don't like coffee. See what I did there. So Ideal Client is at the heart of everything. And if you need support with that, I've got another episode on Ideal Client that I can link to. I've got lots of content out there about Ideal Client because it's like my mastermind subject. If I was going to be in the big black mastermind chair, if you're old enough to remember what that is, if not, it was a sort of game show style show, I guess, where there's this big black leather chair and you were just asked lots of questions on certain subjects, that would be what I would choose. Yes. First off, you have to know your ideal client. Next off, for social media in particular, we have to make sure that our profiles are optimized in order to be found. I've got lots of information on that as well, which I will link, where you can sort of audit your own profiles and make sure that they're set up to be searchable. For example, your profile name on Instagram. If you just have your name in there, well, the only way that's going to be found is if someone specifically searches your name. You want to have keywords and key phrases in there like Yoga Glasgow or online tutor for children 11, that kind of thing. You want to have keywords in your profile name on Instagram because it's highly searchable. So stuff like that, you want to make sure your profile is optimised in order to be found. Quick pause from our conversation because I'm wondering how you'd feel if I told you I could give you a free£50 today. Yep, if you've been thinking about moving your business bank account or perhaps you don't have a business bank account yet, I can highly recommend Monzo. And if you open an account with them via the link in today's show notes, you get a free£50. Monzo are free to bank with. I bank with them personally. It's so easy to use, and also they won Best Business Banking Provider in the UK in 2024. So if you don't have a business bank account yet or you're looking to change from where you are just now to free business banking and£50 in your account, head over to spawbusinessgrowthadicts.com for the link and enjoy. Then you want to plan your content. Now this is a huge part of staying consistent and keeping the momentum up. Planning content includes looking at your past performance. What's landed, what's not, that helps you determine trends, patterns, user behaviour, what's landing well, what's not, what used to do well, what isn't, what's working well that's surprised you, you know, and these are things then you can carry on into the next week. But as well as that, you want to document your business goals. You know, I say that planning should be a weekly process. And so you want to think about your business goals for that week. Perhaps that is part of a bigger picture for the month or the quarter or the year. But certainly for that week, what do you want to focus on? But at the end of that week, if you'd sold X amount of something or got X amount of new ideal clients in your world by following along or whatever, are you focused on growth? I'm not tricking bear, a bit of everything. You know, you have to know what your business goals are and then plan content that's going to help you achieve your business goals. I have a free download of my Amazon number one bestselling, a social media planner. You can get a free download of that, which also comes with a little video workshop to talk to about content planning as well. Completely free. I will link to that today as well. Then you know your ideal client, your profiles are optimized to be found, you have planned your content, and the next thing is now to create content that attract, nurture, and convert. And that's using everything of the above that you know, you know your ideal client, you know what you want to focus on this week, you know what's working well, and then create content to attract, nurture, convert. And again, if you get the free download of the planner, the video workshop that comes with that talks about that type of content as well. This is a process we have to trust to keep up momentum, to stay consistent, make this a weekly process. Check in on your ideal client, where are they at right now? Has something changed? Has the seasons changed? Does their life change? You know, what are they thinking about? Say you're a skincare expert, it's January, maybe they're worried about dry hands just now, dry skin, you know, that sort of thing. Adapt with them, move with them, always be where your ideal client needs to be and meet them where they're at. And by following this process, you can do that. And then that's when you start to see results as the time goes on. Trust the process if people get to know you, bearing in mind this whole trust recession, you know, let them get to know you, let them see behind the scenes, let them into your world, build that trust. And then when the time is right, you've already done the hard work and they will hit by. When you're putting that conversion content there, say you've got a special offer on skincare, if you buy, you know, by the end of today or by the end of the week and whatever, the decision's already made, they've got to know you, they've got to know your business, they know that you get them, they feel seen, they feel understood by you, that they've landed in the right place, you know, and you've shared client reviews that your skincare products really work for this type of concern. So when you're they're presented with the exact opportunity to join, the decision's already made. And the last part of the get seen get sales method is community. It's so, so important that you find your people. Now, my last episode from podcast is actually all about community, so do check that out. I think 2026 is the year of community. I really do believe that we have to find our people now, whether that's joining a paid community like mine, like this a social media mentorship at its core, but it's so much more than that. There's so much experience in there. People are building each other up, they're supporting each other, they're sharing tips that's worked for them. You know, it really is community over competition. There is not one person who is competing with another in there at all. We are all there. A member said recently, if you want to be in a business group that only wants good things for you, then come and join us. As simple as that. But that's not the only way to have a community, you know. If for whatever reason that's not on your radar just now to join a paid community, then look at Facebook groups, look at just your own social media, using your own social media to connect with peers. I speak about that in the last episode as well, which I'll also link to. My gosh, I'm putting lots of links in for you today. The last episode on community, it talks about how you can use your own social media to connect with peers. I've did that in the past and found lifelong friends and also someone you can just share business highs and lows with. Maybe it's a friend who also self-employed in a completely different profession, and you're going to meet up every couple of weeks for a co-working date. Whatever it is, find your community, find your people. We were not meant to do this alone, and we don't have to do this alone. And it's so much easier to stay consistent, to keep the momentum up, to follow this process and trust the process if you have people around you who get it. So I really hope that's been helpful. I completely acknowledge how difficult it is when you're posting and nothing's coming back. But I hope hearing these stories, my own personal experience, that of one of our members, and I've got more stories like that from Get Seen Get Sales as well, you know. So just come and follow me on Instagram at amandahughes.uk to find out more. The link to follow me on Instagram is below, and I'll link to everything else that I've mentioned there today. But I regularly share success stories, and a lot of it comes down to this. It's about continuing to show up. And then you're like, okay, so show up, show up how this process, this method, this is how we show up, this is how we keep growth aligned, this is how we make sure we're hitting our business goals, this is how we make sure we are doing what's working right now on social media. This is how we feel supported, this is the method, this is the process, and we have to trust the process. Any questions for me? Please don't hesitate to drop me a DM or a comment on amandahughes.uk on Instagram. That's where I hang out most. And I will speak to you soon. Take care. Thank you so much for joining us today for another episode of Small Business Growth Addicts. 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 love today's episode, please head over to smallbusinessgrowthadicts.com and check out today's show notes where you can find details of our wonderful guests, sponsors, discounts, freebies, and so much more. Please also don't forget to leave a review today, reviews are invaluable to us to help us get the show out there. Every single one is read and very much appreciated. Until next time.