188. Social Media is NOT a Marketing Strategy With Ruthie Sterrett

The world is on social media, so we have to have a presence – but we can't let it consume us. Social media is just a piece of the strategy.  Ruthie Sterrett is a brand and marketing strategist and founder of The Consistency Corner, a content management agency that helps small business owners create content that drives revenue through quarterly planning, simple marketing best practices, positive reinforcement, and accountability.  As you know, I'm not a social media lover. I use it, but I don't love the time that it takes from entrepreneurs. There's so much we could do towards revenue-producing tasks outside of social media, and Ruthie hits that dead-on.  She compares social media to a coffee cup. A coffee cup isn't coffee; it's a container for your coffee. Social media is a container for your marketing strategy. Other containers are email, your website, networking, podcast, and blogs, to name some. She says they tend to compare themselves to their competition. When we talk about seeing people on the beach saying they work two and half hours with 500 million followers … but where were they five years ago? What are all the steps that they took between now and then? Someone starting out isn't seeing that entire history on the timeline.  Ruthie adds that AI is adding to this aspect as well. She says AI can save you time, but it's scraping content from others; it's recycling and rehashing. And the consumer is going to get bored with that.  Ruthie advocates for quarterly planning so that the process is faster when you sit down to batch create. She might map out her monthly podcast topics, then her email marketing. What's their intent? For social media, how many times can she post consistently without burning out? And depending on the season, it might be different. In a launch season, you might post seven days a week. If not, it might be four days a week. Picking the cadence and then building a framework where, for example, you post a quote every Tuesday, every Thursday, you post a reel, and every Friday, you post a photo with a story. And when you sit down to batch create, you can do it in a platform like Meta Suite or Google Docs instead of your phone. Campaigns can also help you think about the funnel: attract, nurture, convert, and ensure the content serves those purposes. The next step is to match the containers and platforms you use to those purposes.  Sometimes you have to take a break to re-energize. Take your phone and look at your screen time. Be aware of the number -- full transparency, Ruthie said last week her phone told her she spent an average of six hours and 18 minutes a day on social media. It is her job, but it doesn't include the time she spends on her computer either. She says every business owner can ask themselves: Is that serving me? If it's not, lower the number. Let's get to it!   Free Gift from Ruthie Sterrett: 10 Ways to Attract New Eyes On Your Business mini-course: www.theconsistencycorner.com/attract  LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/ruthie-sterrett/ Other Game On Girlfriend podcast episodes you might want to check out:  The Power of Mastermind Groups https://sarahwalton.com/mastermind-group-benefits/ 3 Biggest Time Wasters For Business Owners: https://sarahwalton.com/time-wasters/ How to Create Before You Compare and Despair: https://sarahwalton.com/create/ You can check out our podcast interviews on YouTube, too! http://bit.ly/YouTubeSWalton  Thank you so much for listening. I'm so honored that you're here and would be so grateful if you could leave a quick review on Apple Podcasts by clicking here, scrolling to the bottom, and clicking "Write a review." Then we'll get to inspire even more people! (If you’re not sure how to leave a review, you can watch this quick tutorial.)  #SocialMediaBurnout #SocialMediaManager #SocialMediaStrategyTips #SocialMediaMarketingStrategy #ContentCreators #AskExpert #IntuitiveBusinessCoach #SocialMediaEntrepreneurship #SocialMediaMarketingForBeginners #SocialMediaMarketing