Instead of treating social media as a long-term home, use it as a strategic tool to get your audience onto platforms you own, like an email list. The primary goal is to capture attention and immediately guide followers into your ecosystem, building a more resilient business off-platform.
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Unlike social media, where algorithms and platform changes control your reach, an email list is a durable asset you own. This provides stability and a direct line of communication, insulating your business from platform volatility and ensuring you can always reach your audience.
Business owners feel frustrated because their goal (driving traffic off-app to their website) is in direct conflict with social media's primary goal (maximizing on-app scroll time). This fundamental misalignment means the platform's success metrics work against your business objectives, creating a constant struggle for results.
The conventional wisdom is to move followers off social to an owned email list. However, the reverse is also powerful. Drive engagement and grow your social following by embedding links to your best social posts directly within your newsletters and promotional emails.
Unlike social media platforms which function as 'rented space,' an email list is a direct, ownable line of communication with your audience. It's a core business asset that provides stability and control, immune to algorithm changes or platform shutdowns, making it more valuable than any social following.
The biggest misconception sold to entrepreneurs is that social media is mandatory for success. In reality, a solid business model, an email list, and effective ways for the right people to find you (like SEO) are the only true necessities. Social media can be "icing," but it shouldn't be the core "cake."
Position your email list as the central hub of your marketing, not just another channel. The primary goal of all other efforts—social media, podcasts, blogs—should be to grow and serve this core, owned asset. This creates a sustainable, defensible marketing ecosystem.
Counterintuitively, dedicating budget to campaigns optimized for engagements, follows, and shares can be a powerful brand-building tool. This approach reaches more people less expensively than conversion campaigns, building an audience and 'searing memories' that lead to future demand, complementing direct response efforts.
Reverse the traditional marketing funnel. By linking from newsletters directly to a relevant social media post, brands can leverage their highly-engaged email audience to boost post performance and grow their social following simultaneously.
A single podcast episode serves as a content hub that can be repurposed into social posts, newsletters, and videos. This "compound content return" builds a lasting asset, freeing you from the daily content treadmill required by social media.