Can You Build A Side Business With Social Media?
- Updated on: 2021-05-22
- Read original article here
As a marketer, it’s pretty much inevitable to spend a lot of time focused on your job: strategies, tactics, and the day-to-day marketing activities that are part of your role. You likely even spend additional time learning, reading, and evaluating new and upcoming trends.
This is something that comes naturally when you’re doing it for someone else. It’s your job and it’s (hopefully) pretty easy to focus on the task at home when it’s not personal. But at the same time, what if it’s been a dream of yours for a while to do your own thing?
Even if you’ve been in the industry for a long time, it might be scary to imagine creating something for yourself. Yet, the same principles apply. Whatever you’ve done in the past for a company, all of the results and the progress you’ve made, could also apply to a side hustle.
Social media marketing has been a distinct discipline for more than a decade. Yet it still has much power to make (or, sadly, break) a business. And who better to make this work than someone that already operates and gets results in the field?
If you’ve been thinking of creating a side business or doing some gig work and you want to create an audience for it, here’s a look at what’s possible with social media and some guidance on how to do it.
First of all, you may be wondering why you should do it. And that’s a very valid point. Maybe (hopefully!) you’re happy doing your marketing work. But the idea of starting a side hustle can be fun if you have an interest or want to start your own thing. At the very least, it can be an experiment into how to make it happen!
Next, make sure that you have a valid idea for a side hustle. It should be something that you’re passionate about or know something about, and that you will want to throw yourself into. So make sure it’s something you are willing to be persistent about putting effort into.
Then comes the part you know—creating the marketing strategy. But you’re going to want to make sure that this is tailored specifically to your new business idea. Even if it’s in a different niche than what you’re used to, your marketing skills still apply.
When it comes to working out what to post on social media, just focus on one platform to start with. When you’ve nailed that, you can think about moving onto another. But it’s best to launch with the one.
Learn everything about it, from how to boost the algorithm to what happens when you block someone on Instagram. Really get into it from the perspective of your side hustle and look to master it.
Then you can start to build momentum. Keep going. Keep posting and engaging and interacting and creating good content. Whether your approach is strictly business or shows off your personality, create content that will help others and get your business seen.
Of course, you have to be consistent. By stopping and starting, you’re going to miss goals and lose audience. However, consistently promoting your side hustle (using helpful, engaging content) on social media will start to build traction and get results.
Finally, be in this for the long run. You know that marketing—especially organic content and social media marketing—doesn’t always produce results overnight. It takes time, and so does building and growing a business. So commit to this long-term in order to really see results.
If you’re used to creating campaigns and getting results for clients or a business, there’s no reason you can’t use those same principles to create something for yourself. Whether it’s a blog, a product, or a service, you know how to do this. So, get to work and enjoy the fruits of your labor. Even if it’s just an experiment to prove you can!
