Overwhelm is one of the biggest issues Club members and the people I chat to in my DMs and on my public posts face. It’s understandable too; there are a lot of platforms to choose from, styles of content to figure out, and pieces of (bad) advice to make you feel it’s impossible.
In this post we’re going to put a stop to all types of social media overwhelm one and for all so you can get on with actually using social media effectively.
Platforms.
We’re not going to dig too deep into this here because we have a whole blog post on how to choose a social network for your small business but the main way to tackle this specific overwhelm is by accepting that you can’t be everywhere.
You are one person (or perhaps a handful of people) who is also running their own business, there is no feasible way for you to launch on all networks successfully straight away. Pick one or two social platforms that you enjoy and start there, give them your full attention and grow those before considering adding more things to your to do list.
Content: what?
Whatever platform you’re growing there are a tonne of different options for sharing content. Fleets, Reels, video, polls, graphics, carousels, text only. We suggest starting with the types of content you feel most comfortable and confident creating. Give yourself permission to not hop on the latest feature that Instagram steals from another platform and stick to what you love unless you’re feeling inspired.
Content: how much?
When it comes to amount of content the only thing you need to consider is what is feasible for you. If you can definitely get 1 post out per week, then 1 post per week is perfect.
Please don’t commit to a posting schedule which leaves your burned out and feeling like a failure. Be realistic about the time and energy you have and use that to decide how often you post.
Content: planning.
This was a big theme in the Social Media for Humans Club through May, off the back of our scheduling training. Even with a schedule that feels achievable and a limited number of platforms and content types, staring at a blank content planning can be overwhelming.
Understanding what is overwhelming you and how your brain works is key for this issue but depending on your specific overwhelm here are a few solutions.
- Try planning for a smaller period of time; if you decided to plan a month, try just 1 week.
- Fill in some of your blanks with re-purposed content before you start the creation portion of your planning.
- Switch to digital or paper planning and see which suits you better.
- Try making your content plan movable with post-its or a content planner or app which makes moving things easy.
- Find an accountability buddy or join an accountability session to help you just get started.
If you’re totally stuck for inspiration, we have a blog post about how to never run out of content ideas.
And that’s it! If we didn’t cover your social media overwhelm struggle, come and share it in the free Facebook group and let’s figure it out.
