The pressure of social media: two small business owners share their perspectives

The machine of social media keeps many small business owners pressured and sometimes, paralyzed. We interviewed two business owners to hear their perspective on what it really feels like to be on social media.

“To me, social media feels like a fast moving river,” Megan deBoer, founder of Tended Wealth, a small business focused on financial wellness wrote in her email. Wehad asked what the experience of social media is like for her. “Getting out and getting back in is not easy. It's a strange kind of FOMO, like you will be all alone floating down the river if/when you jump back in. Everyone has already moved on and you missed out (even if you didn't really want to be in the water).” 

deBoer uses Instagram to connect with a small and loyal following. She knows the platform is beneficial for her business needs right now. “My following is small enough that responding to comments, dms, etc. still feels like one of the best ways for me to connect with people. It remains a strong channel for attracting new clients and professionals to the work I do,” she says.

Heather Lou, founder of Closet Core Patterns expresses similar feelings. With 175K Instagram followers, she says that having a strong presence on Instagram is a necessity and a challenge.

“It is far and away the most popular social platform for the craft community and where they meet and spend the most time. We want to meet them where they are, but it’s getting harder and harder to get eyeballs on our content,” she says. She adds that engagement is a challenge with a large following. “We had much higher engagement with 80K followers than we do now with more than double the followers, so it often feels like we’re doing more work for half the result.”

Lou and deBoer express frustration with the lack of nuanced advice around social media use. deBoer says the advice to “delete the app or take an announced long social media break rarely addresses the potential consequences of doing so and how to navigate them.” Lou adds, “I think there are a million ways to run a business and market your products, and social is only one way to do that. Now that it is increasingly difficult to make nice with the algorithms outside of paying for it, I wish there was a more nuanced understanding of how to market to folks outside these channels.”

deBoer expresses the persistent experience of small business owners when she says, “I do feel the pressure to post online. The intensity of that pressure ebbs and flows. It feels like an invisible voice is tapping its foot waiting for me to contribute something - like they are waiting for me to contribute something.” 

She adds, “I don’t like creating or performing under this pressure or expectation - even if I have only fabricated the pressure in my mind.”

Megan deBoer, Tended Wealth

Heather Lou, Closet Core Patterns

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Heather Birch is our in-house writer and is a member of OFFLINE.