SHOW NOTES:
What started as a 30-day detox turned into a full year without Instagram! My business looks different today than it did a year ago… so how did getting off the IG platform affect my online business? That’s what I’m discussing in this episode, so grab a seat and let’s dive in.
How do I grow a business on social media without burnout? What platforms should I use to recruit team members or make sales? Where do I enjoy spending time online and how do I monetize that audience? I asked myself these questions, and if you’ve asked yourself the same ones, I hope this e
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Episode Transcript:
Speaker 1: (00:00)
Hey guys. I hope you are having a fantastic day today, wherever you are, whatever you’re doing. And thank you so much for hanging out with me over here in my corner of the world, on this podcast. So I actually had no plans to record an episode on this specific topic, but I noticed that this month, which is April, if you are listening, when this podcast actually drops. So April has officially been one year that I have had no Instagram. I don’t use it for my business page. I don’t use it personally on my personal page. I do not have the app installed on my phone, honestly. I’m not sure I would even remember my login if I wanted to get on the app. Like I do not use Instagram at all. And what started as a detox for 30 days, I was gonna do this 30 day detox, cuz I felt like I was on Instagram a lot.
Speaker 1: (01:02)
Like a lot of time was spent scrolling and just surfing the app. So I was gonna do a 30 day detox last April. Well that has now turned into an entire year of no Instagram. Like what? So first of all, the year flew by. And when I think about this, it’s blowing my mind. And second let’s discuss this because I am an online business owner. I have an online business that grows on social media. That’s what I use. So how has being off of the Instagram platform for a solid year affected my business? Have I missed out on, on marketing opportunities? Have my numbers and sales gone up, gone down or what? And like the big question is do I think that I need to start using the platform again to market myself and my brand and my podcast and my business. So that is what we are discussing today.
Speaker 1: (02:00)
We’re gonna chat about all of that on this episode of the successful networking moms podcast, let’s do it. Hey mama, feel like you’ve tried it all to grow your business online. Every social media script, trick or hack doing exactly what your upline tells you, but you still feel like you’re missing something will Google no more. It’s time to stop hustling every day and starting from zero every month. Hi, I’m Shelly. I’m a marketing coach and proud entrepreneur that after a 10 year career in corporate advertising and sales decided to use my skills and talents to build an online business. I don’t have any get rich quick promises for you here because those don’t work anyway. But I do bring you weekly insight and training to help you put real marketing back into work marketing. If you’re ready to reach more people with your message and lead from a place of service, then I can show you how to run a profitable online business, automated to save you time and do it all around your life. As a mom, you’re in the right place friend, welcome to the successful networking moms community let’s get started.
Speaker 1: (03:05)
Right? You guys, I am ready to unpack this. Give me my thoughts. A little bit of reflection on the last year that I haven’t had Instagram and let’s just talk about how it not only affected my business, but how it could possibly be affecting yours. So I wanna back up just a tiny bit and let’s go back a year ago. Why did I even decide to take a break from Instagram? And I have to remember why I thought a 30 day detox was a good idea, right? And I, I can read like journal entries from back then. So I remember very vividly, like the first reason, which was that I just felt
Speaker 1: (04:10)
And I wasn’t necessarily the earliest adopter. I jumped on the Instagram bandwagon a little bit later, but I will say that when I left my corporate job and I started my online business, I started a business page and I did die then. So pretty soon into my online business journey, I did start an Instagram page and it, I mean, I say it was doing well. I thought that there was some good traction there as for as followers. I had a couple thousand, probably four I in followers. I have no idea. I mean, I don’t post anything there now I don’t engage. I don’t interact. So that number has probably gone down and I really couldn’t tell you what that is today
Speaker 1: (05:02)
And, um, yeah, and it was steadily growing. So I posted content pretty consistently on there. I was creating content. I did a lot of reels. Also, if you think back a year ago was when reels were really hot. Like they weren’t on Facebook yet. They were just on Instagram. TikTok was getting huge. So of course, Instagram, you know, started reels as their answer to that. And it was like a really big deal. That’s when they first introduced the money where you could earn money by being a creator on Instagram. So like reels was really starting to gain momentum and it was kind of in the beginning at that. And yeah, I mean, so I used Instagram a lot. I was on there a lot and I fell into this sort of trap of telling myself, well, I’m using it for my business. Right. I’m growing my business.
Speaker 1: (05:54)
I’m spending time engaging with my followers. Like I’m growing my follower list. I am interacting with other accounts and other people in my target audience, like I’m using it for business. And it did start out that way over time though, I noticed that it was becoming less about work and more about a habit. Okay. I had the app on my phone as a lot of people. Do you guys probably do. And it’s like, anytime there was a down moment or, you know, I had a second, I would like open my phone and I wasn’t even scrolling Facebook anymore. I was just opening the Instagram app and scrolling. Right. So I just felt on a personal level, like really convicted because to the point where I was wasting a lot of time scrolling Instagram to the point where I could no longer justify, oh, I just use it for business.
Speaker 1: (06:45)
It was legit a pastime for me. And I would kind of just numb out and zone out. And that was like me time at night after the girls went to bed and I would just like plop down on the couch and I would like scroll Instagram, but I just, I started to feel convicted about that. And I was like, you know what, Shelly, it’s really becoming addictive in a habit. So I think it’s time for us to just do a little reset, little 30 day detox. Okay. So that’s initially the reason why last year I decided to do 30 days with no Instagram. Another reason a business perspective was that I was so tired of creating content. Instagram is an app where you need to be creating content on there. And if Instagram was the only platform that I was marketing on, it probably would not have felt so overwhelming, but because I was also on Facebook and I had launched this podcast, it just felt like one more, more thing to be creating content on.
Speaker 1: (07:41)
And the reels took a while for me to shoot and edit, um, the graphic. I mean, it just, it was time consuming and I was creating content specifically for Instagram that wasn’t necessarily using in other places, cuz on Instagram, it’s a little bit different. You sort of want content for that up platform. And so that was another reason why I was like, yeah, let’s just do a detox. Let’s just take a break, not worry about creating all that content this month and then come back refreshed in 30 days. Right? Well it was probably the first week or two and here’s what I noticed. So as if I wasn’t already feeling convicted of that, that I thought I needed a detox. I noticed in the first week when I didn’t have the app on my phone, like my finger would habitually, like go to it and try to open it.
Speaker 1: (08:27)
And I was like, well, that definitely is a sign that yes, Shelly, this was a problem. It was very habitual, very addictive. And so I noticed that and then about two weeks into it, I was like, oh my gosh, I’m so glad I don’t have to make a reel this week. Oh my gosh, I’m so glad. I don’t have to think about that post. And so I was spending more time using the platforms that I was already on. I was able to podcast and get a little bit further out and ahead of that, I was able to interact in my community more like overall, I just didn’t feel so overwhelmed. And so at the end of 30 days, I was like, well that wasn’t too bad. Like maybe just another month. Okay. Like I just don’t feel like creating content this month. So I’ll hit it hard again by this time it was may.
Speaker 1: (09:10)
So I was like, I’ll hit it hard again, like in June or July, right. That they never came. I just didn’t get back on the app. And honestly, I guess what I really wanted to talk about in this episode is how it affected my business. Like, you know, if it was to the point where I just wasn’t making any sales and I was like, oh my gosh, all my leads were coming from Instagram. Obviously I would’ve had to stop and reprioritize that, but that’s actually not what happened. So here’s what happened. I was able to launch a course during the time that I was off of Instagram. I finished up a mastermind that I was a part of and my podcast really took off from there. And it’s, I believe because I was able to devote more time and I wasn’t like constantly switching gears between Facebook group podcast, Instagram, creating content, making these reels.
Speaker 1: (10:02)
Like I really just narrowed my focus into building my community. And the way I build my community is through my Facebook group, the successful networking moms, Facebook group. So there’s like 2,500 of us moms that are building online businesses and it’s an awesome place to be. And I really wanted to focus on making it an awesome place to be. And then of course my podcast is a community as well. You get to know me, I share a lot of tips and feedback, but also just stories and interviews with other people that are other moms working to build their business. And so that’s what I wanted to focus on was building my community. And so instead of taking the time to make reels, do video and all that, which I’m not gonna lie here,
Speaker 1: (10:58)
Okay. And I know you don’t have to because I see a lot of content that goes viral. A lot of people that create this content that they’re not dolled up, but for me, it’s like being on video was just one other thing. Right. And I really just wanted to focus on building my community without the pressure of editing content and video and all that. Right. So what did I do instead of being on Instagram? So the time that I was spending creating content over there, I, um, of course grew my Facebook group. You guys, that’s not a surprise. Right. And I also, I don’t think it’s a coincidence that around the time that I got of Instagram and really started just focusing on the group that it exploded, like members started requesting to join, which in turn grew my email list, my podcast numbers grew.
Speaker 1: (11:50)
Like I don’t believe that’s a coincidence. I think those two things are directly correlated because what you focus on grows. And that’s a principle that my husband and I actually learned when we were going through our debt free journey, which I’m actually gonna do a podcast about that a little bit later this month. Um, what you focus on grows. So we were focused on knocking out debt, right? Credit card debt, some debt that we’d let build up and what you focus on grows. And so that’s exactly what happened here as well. Yeah. So just like my daily activities, things that I focused on, I was sharing value posting in other Facebook groups where I knew my target audience was hanging out and just, you really striving to be as helpful answer questions, give resources and just really be seen as an expert in those groups.
Speaker 1: (12:42)
I was, um, nurturing my Facebook community. I was interacting and, you know, starting conversations with people in my own group. And I was writing and, or recording content specifically for my community members in the Facebook group post there, my email list and my podcast. That’s what I created content for. And a lot of that was not video. You know, it was audio and it was written and things like that. So that was what I did. And that’s what I really prioritized. So when I wasn’t on Instagram, either creating content or mindlessly, just numbing out and scrolling Instagram, those were the things that I was doing to grow my business. And when I look back, like I said, I don’t think numbers lie. You know, I think that the data here tell was a really interesting story. And like I said, of course my group grew tremendously in that time at a much higher rate than it was growing previously exponentially.
Speaker 1: (13:47)
My podcast downloads, we hit 5,000 downloads pretty quickly after. And this was when, you know, I can’t do the math. I can’t even remember how many we were getting a day, but I was on track. It was gonna take like years to get there. Okay. But that’s not what happened. The podcast downloads grew really fast. Like I said, I launched the group growth blueprint course during this time. And sales started coming in and that was from P people that either had heard the podcast or had seen me in other Facebook groups that were then connected in my Facebook group and that got them on my email list. So a combination of those things basically being in my community is what was selling my course. And it makes complete sense to me. I really wanted to practice what I preach in the group growth blueprint, which is it’s a complete a Z system on how you can start a Facebook group, take that community, nurture it, grow it so that you get like your first 500 members, or if you already have 500 members, you get your next 500 members of the perfect people that are in your audience, right.
Speaker 1: (14:56)
Grow your Facebook group, write and create and make content that they love and then create something that you can sell to them, make sales, grow your team. Like all of the at is taught in the group growth blueprint. And it’s very systematic and it’s step by step, like start, grow, optimize, monetize, and then automate your Facebook group. That’s what the whole course is about. Right? And so I wanted to practice what I preached and that I wanted to make sure that I was doing those things and that that’s what I was focusing on was my community. So I wanted to make sure that I was using my group to sell my course. That’s all about how to sell in your group. Right. So I did, I used this year to really practice what I preach and use my group to monetize. And so that’s what I’m really passionate about sharing with you.
Speaker 1: (15:51)
That’s why I have a, this podcast. I wanna help you be able to find that same freedom that comes from an online business. And that comes from a Facebook group that you can monetize and you can make sales from. And so, okay. I say all of that to say that my numbers, um, in sales, all of the metrics that I paid attention to engagement group, member numbers, email list, sales, profit, all of that went up when I deleted Instagram. So it’s, it was kind of cool. Right? So the next thing I know it’s been a year and it’s like, I’m not missing anything compared to what I had before. You know, I didn’t even have, of course, uh, my, my podcast was brand new. My group had a couple of hundred members, right? And so everything has just grown in that year. And I genuinely believe not because Facebook groups are better than, you know, anything else, even though not gonna lie.
Speaker 1: (16:49)
I’m a fan of Facebook groups. I do believe they are an awesome, phenomenal way to grow your business online. If you’re a mom that does not want the hustle and the struggle and the constant like hamster wheel that online marketing can become and has become for a lot of us, I think it’s hands down the best way to do that. But I’m not saying that there’s not a place for Instagram or that there’s not a place for paid Facebook ads or that there’s not a place for Google or that there’s not a place for in-person networking. Like all of those marketing techniques have their place. What I am saying is that what you focus on grows. And my attention a year ago was too fragmented too. I was showing up in too many places and honestly believing in my heart of hearts. That that is how I could help more people and reach more people and spread my message into the world faster.
Speaker 1: (17:46)
And you may believe the same thing. You may be showing up everywhere. You may be doing TikTok. You may be making reels. You may be on Instagram, engaging. You may have a Facebook group. You may be interacting in Facebook groups. You might be posting as much as you can on your Facebook profile. You might be messaging as many people per day. As you can message. You might be trying all of these things to grow you your business because in your heart of hearts, you know that you can help people with what you have and you know that what you’re selling can benefit them. And you feel like the more you get out there and the more places you show up, the bigger your impact is gonna be. But I’m here to tell you that that is the opposite of what I found over this past year.
Speaker 1: (18:29)
Bigger impact is when you focus on one thing and you do it really, really well. So I went all in on my Facebook group. I went all in on building a community. I went all in on giving so much value on this podcast that people could literally see results in their business, just from listening to the episodes. That was my goal and building a community. And then in turn, teaching moms, everything I’d learned like, okay, now that I’ve monetized my Facebook group, now that I’ve grown it to 2,500 plus people that are in my perfect audience, like how can I teach other moms how to do that? Right. That’s what I went all in on. And at the end of the day, I’m not saying you shouldn’t be on Instagram. I’m not saying Instagram’s bad. I’m not saying it doesn’t fit into your business model, but I am saying that whatever you’re gonna do, like go all in on it.
Speaker 1: (19:21)
And for me that was Facebook groups because I enjoyed interacting and I enjoyed building relationships. I enjoyed being able to be a resource and answer questions for people. I got energy from that, but when I would be done scrolling Instagram for the day, I didn’t feel that same energy. I, I honestly felt a really severe case of comparisonitis. I saw everyone with these like picture perfect houses and these gorgeous little outfits. And like, how did they get their kids to smile for the camera? And like, look perfect in these pictures. Right? Because my kids were just like bouncing off the walls. Right. And so I, I found myself comparing and that wasn’t helping anybody, all that was doing was making me feel worse about myself and what I could offer. And I really just wanted to focus on helping other moms.
Speaker 1: (20:15)
So when the questioning comes up and I’m like, well, should I get back on Instagram? Am I missing the marketing boat? Is that something that I can fold back into my marketing strategy? First of all, I will say, I have an amazing VA Ashley, and you guys heard from her a couple episodes ago and she’s a tremendous help. So that is something that I would not have to take on like a hundred percent shoulder that myself, like I do have help in my business, which is the only reason I would even consider it. But on the flip side of it, it’s like, do I need it? You know, do, is that the only place my audience is because here’s marketing tip for you too. And you’ve probably heard me say this a hundred times, if you’re a long time listener of the podcast and that is you have to go where your audience is, it’s a fundamental principle of marketing, wherever your audience is, that’s where you want to be.
Speaker 1: (21:08)
And so is my audience on Instagram? Well, it’s my audience, moms. They have an online business. They don’t wanna feel like they have to hustle all the time. They’re working in network marketing, they’re growing a side hustle. Like, yeah, she’s there, she’s on Instagram. She’s spending time on. She’s probably spending a lot of time on there. Like I was right. So I get that. Yes, my audience is there, but she’s also in Facebook groups because she’s searching for answers and she’s looking for relationship building. And she knows that social media, there’s so many eyeballs and that she should be marketing there, but she just doesn’t know how, and she’s trying a million different things to try to find something that sticks. Right. So, yeah, she’s on Instagram and she’s definitely scrolling and she’s probably comparing herself to all these other beautiful moments out there on Instagram.
Speaker 1: (22:00)
Like I was, but she’s also in Facebook groups, she’s also listening to podcasts. She’s you she’s me. She’s got her earbuds in and she’s multitasking. Okay. Cuz she’s a multitasking mama that is literally building her mom empire. Right. She’s listening to podcasts. So I, I just go where my audience is and that’s what I would always suggest for you guys too. And that may very well be Instagram. I’m not saying that it’s not, but if Instagram’s not your jam and you’re like, okay, Shelly,
Speaker 1: (22:49)
Ugh. That’s always a good place to be in your business. We can take a step back and think, right. If that’s you tell me in the group, the successful networking mom’s Facebook group, I will cheer you on for the next 30 days as you do that detox. And then just come back energized and excited and like ready to crush it. Right. But if you are sitting here and you’re like, well, I kind of like the way you’ve grown your business, Shelly. Like, it sounds kind of cool to not have to be making videos and on reels and you know, not be doing all the things. Right. And I, I like Facebook groups, Facebook groups are fun. I could start a Facebook group. Then you’ve got to get the group growth blueprint. Okay. It will outline everything for you that I have done my exact processes.
Speaker 1: (23:37)
I’ve even included in there as a bonus. Like all of my templates, all of my, like my Trello boards that I use to organize my day, organize my content, figure out what the heck I’m doing so that I’m not just like super overwhelmed. And then later can, you can like pass that on if you get a VA or some help or something, but all of that’s I included in the group growth blueprint. So check that out. I would love to have you guys in there with us again, that course is called group growth, B it, and you can find it at group growth, blueprint.com and just know that however, you’re choosing to grow your business and run your business and market that I am here to support you and encourage you. I am all about moms making a difference in the world, making a difference in their families, finances, making a difference in all the different industries that they’re in, health and wellness and hair clear and nutrition and, um, products that they sell that make mamas feel great and essential oils. And like those businesses help people. And I am just so excited to partner with other moms who have the same mission of empowering in and empowering their customers. So I’m here for you. Like I said, group growth, blueprint.com. If you wanna check out the course and you can always join us over an, our free, successful networking moms community, I’d love to see you over there and we’ll chat. Next time.
Speaker 2: (25:01)
You’ve been listening to the successful networking moms podcast. If you, you are ready to take action, start reaching your sales, recruitment, and income goals. Now then join us in the successful networking moms Facebook group. This free community offers support by me plus the accountability of a thousand other networking moms, scaling their businesses, search on Facebook for successful networking moms or check the show notes, the link to join.