Getting Started Doesn’t Mean Posting

Every month, my newsletter, Sustainable Social, comes out with a topic related to using social media when you are on a small team, a team of one (or none), or are a soloist. This is a reprint of my May 2023 newsletter focusing on getting started. I’ve edited the text lightly to align us better in time & space.

Last year, I had a friend ramping up her business, and she told me she was frustrated with her new company's social media program.

"I just cannot get started," she said, "No matter what I tell myself."

I paused because this friend had done so much already. I’d seen the work she’d put in - research and content ideas, and she had a designer working on graphics. We had just finished discussing how she should pace her content on different channels, what scheduling system she would use, and her engagement strategy.

"What do you mean you can't get started? You've done so much already!"

Then it hit me. She was equating getting started with posting to social.

Hitting the "post" button and seeing posts populating her channels. Filling up her grid, timeline, stories archive, or more with content.

But here's the thing...

...that's not how it works. That's not how ANY of this works.

Ok, that is KIND OF how it works. Eventually, you have to post on social media to say you are using social media to communicate with your people. But that’s not all.

It’s the year 2024, and there are STILL crappy social media marketing thought leaders out there who like to pretend that "social media is easy," and you can create 10 months of content in 10 minutes and GET! TO! POSTING!

But that's not getting started.

Starting is in the research you put in to your audience & where they live.
Starting is in planning & figuring out where you'll source content from.
Starting is in identifying a customer service or response plan.
Starting is in defining goals and when & how you'll measure what you need to.

By equating "getting started" with posts on channels, you throw out ALL the initial and ongoing work you'll have to do to maintain a social presence.

These are the things you need to think about as you get started AND that you need to carry on with as you move forward. And then shift, and refine, and keep going.

So don't cut yourself (OR the person running your social media program) short by thinking that the time you (or they) spend planning, working out ideas and problems, and who will carry what isn't "getting started."

Because by doing all that, you'll be further along that first day you DO hit post than if you just posted whatever the heck you thought of first.

Do you want to know what kind of things you can think about before you launch a new channel instead of GETTING TO POSTING RIGHT AWAY?

Click here for the short version of my social media channel launch document, Getting Started.

Don’t wanna do it yourself? I’d love to chat about how I can help. Send me an email!

Want more of this? Subscribe to Sustainable Social, my newsletter for small teams, teams of one and soloists!

*ugh. these guys are the worst.