Are You Building a Business - or Just Broadcasting One?

There was a time when, if you wanted to sell something, you actually had to talk to people.

I know. Terrifying. 😂

You had conversations.

You asked questions.

You found out what somebody wanted.

You listened.

You recommended something.

You followed up.

And at some point, you actually asked them to buy.

I've spent more than 20 years in and around sales, and some of the best salespeople I've ever known weren't particularly "salesy" at all.

They were interested in people.

Then social media came along.

And I think a lot of us collectively thought:

Thank God for that.

Now I don't need to sell.

I'll put a picture of my product on Facebook.

I'll tell everyone what my service does.

I'll post my latest offer.

Hundreds of people will see it.

And the orders will come rolling in.

Except...

It was never really that simple, was it?

And more than two decades into the social media experiment, I think we've created a rather strange problem.

We've confused broadcasting with selling.

And, even more worryingly, we've confused posting on social media with running a business.

They're not the same thing.

Telling People What You Sell Isn't Selling

Scroll through social media and you'll see it everywhere.

New product!

Spaces available!

Here's what I offer!

Here's what's included!

Here's the price!

Here's the link!

Last chance!

Don't forget!

Still available!

Anyone? 👀

Now, before somebody thinks I'm saying you shouldn't talk about what you sell, let me be very clear.

Of course you should.

People need to know what you do.

They need to understand what you sell, who it's for and how they can buy it.

One of the other mistakes I see businesses making is talking around their offer so much that I'd need a detective, three hours and a strong coffee to work out what they're actually selling.

Visibility matters.

But constantly telling people what you have available isn't a complete sales strategy.

It's broadcasting.

And broadcasting has a place.

It just can't do all the heavy lifting.

Social Media Changed Where We Sell - Not Why People Buy

This is the bit I think we've forgotten.

Social media completely changed our ability to reach people.

A tiny business operating from a kitchen table can potentially reach thousands of people without a huge advertising budget.

That's extraordinary.

Then websites became easier to build.

Email marketing became accessible to small businesses.

Funnels arrived.

Automation became affordable.

And now AI allows us to create more marketing material in an afternoon than we could once have produced in a month.

I use these things.

I recommend these things.

I think businesses should build systems that mean everything doesn't depend on the owner manually doing every job.

But none of that changed the human being on the other side.

They still have wants.

Problems.

Questions.

Doubts.

Priorities.

Budgets.

Things they've tried before.

Things they're worried about.

Reasons for buying now.

Reasons for putting it off until next month.

And approximately 427 other things competing for their attention while you're desperately hoping they've spotted your latest Instagram post.

Social media changed where we sell. Technology changed how we sell. Neither changed why people buy.

Being Visible Isn't The Same As Creating Demand

This is where things get particularly interesting.

Because we've become obsessed with visibility.

How many people saw the post?

How many followers did we gain?

How many views did the Reel get?

How many people engaged?

All useful information.

But none of those numbers answers the most important question:

Is this activity helping to grow the business?

You can have a Reel watched 20,000 times and make precisely £0 from it.

You can have a post seen by 500 people that starts three conversations and leads to two new customers.

I'll take the second one, thanks.

The job of your content isn't simply to accumulate attention.

Good content can help the right people discover you.

It can make someone stop and think.

It can help them recognise a problem.

It can demonstrate that you understand their world.

It can build familiarity and trust.

It can start a conversation.

It can create enough curiosity for somebody to want to know more.

But then something needs to happen next.

The Algorithm Isn't Your Sales Department

I feel like this might need putting on a T-shirt. 😂

Because Facebook, Instagram, TikTok or whichever platform you're using is not responsible for building your business for you.

The algorithm doesn't know your revenue target.

It doesn't know which product makes you the best margin.

It doesn't know you need five new clients this month.

It doesn't know which customer hasn't bought from you for six months and might appreciate hearing from you.

And it definitely isn't sitting there thinking:

"Poor Susan has posted consistently for 93 days. We really ought to send her some customers."

That's your job.

Social media is a tool within the business.

It isn't the business.

And that's where I think a lot of small businesses have got stuck.

They're spending so much time feeding the content machine that they've stopped asking what the content is supposed to be doing.

What happens when somebody sees you?

Where do they go?

What do you want them to do?

How do they get closer to becoming a customer?

What happens if they're interested but they're not ready to buy today?

What happens after they buy?

How do you encourage them to come back?

How do you turn a happy customer into somebody who recommends you?

That's business growth.

Your Content Needs Somewhere To Send People

This is why I talk so much about building a business ecosystem rather than simply creating more content.

Imagine somebody discovers you through a Facebook post.

Brilliant.

What happens next?

Perhaps they visit your website.

Maybe they download something useful and join your email list.

They receive a few genuinely helpful emails.

They start understanding how you could help them.

They reply to one.

You have a conversation.

They make an enquiry.

They buy.

They receive a great customer experience.

You stay in touch.

Three months later, they buy something else.

Eventually, they recommend you to somebody they know.

Now we've got something.

Social media created the introduction.

Your website, email, funnel, automation, conversations, offer, follow-up and customer experience did their respective jobs afterwards.

That's an ecosystem.

And importantly, you're building something you have far more control over.

You're not starting from zero every morning wondering what on earth you're going to post today.

"But I'm Not Good At Sales"

If I had a pound for every time I've heard this over the last 20+ years...

I'd have quite a few pounds by now.

And usually, when somebody tells me they're "not good at sales", what they really mean is:

I don't want to be pushy.

Good.

Neither do I.

Because selling isn't about cornering somebody and convincing them to buy something they don't want.

Some of the best salespeople I've ever known have been brilliant at something much simpler.

Curiosity.

They're interested in people.

They ask questions.

They listen to the answers.

They remember things.

They understand what somebody is trying to achieve.

They recognise when they can help.

And, just as importantly, they recognise when they can't.

Selling isn't endlessly talking about what you sell.

Often, it's shutting up long enough to understand why somebody might want it.

That's difficult to do if your entire sales strategy consists of broadcasting another product post into the internet.

More Content Isn't Necessarily The Answer

This is probably the point at which I get myself thrown out of the Social Media Strategists Club. 😂

But I don't believe most businesses need to endlessly produce more and more content.

We're already drowning in it.

And AI is about to make the volume absolutely enormous.

We can create posts faster.

Blogs faster.

Emails faster.

Videos faster.

Graphics faster.

We can ask AI for 30 days of content and have it sitting in front of us before the kettle has boiled.

Great.

But the ability to make more stuff doesn't automatically mean we should make more stuff.

If your existing content isn't connected to a wider growth strategy, producing twice as much of it isn't necessarily going to solve the problem.

You might not need another Reel.

You might need to follow up with the six people who enquired last month.

You might need to email the customers who haven't bought from you recently.

You might need a lead magnet that gives interested people a reason to join your database.

You might need to improve what happens after somebody lands on your website.

You might need to ask your existing customers what else they need.

You might need to pick up the phone.

You might simply need to have more conversations.

None of those things are particularly sexy.

Some of them won't get any likes at all.

They might, however, make you money.

Here's The Question I'd Ask

Imagine that tomorrow morning Facebook and Instagram disappeared.

Not went down for a few hours.

Gone.

What would be left of your business?

Would you have an email list?

A customer database?

A website people could find through search?

Existing customers you could contact?

A referral network?

A follow-up process?

Repeat business?

A community?

Relationships?

A reputation?

A way of generating enquiries that doesn't require you to publish another post?

Or would your entire marketing strategy disappear with your account?

I'm not asking that because I think social media is going anywhere tomorrow.

I'm asking because the answer tells you whether you're building an asset or renting attention.

And I want you to build the business.

Not just feed the algorithm.

Broadcasting Isn't Bad. Depending On It Is.

Keep posting.

Talk about your products.

Tell people about your services.

Make the Reel.

Write the email.

Build the funnel.

Use automation.

Use AI.

Please use the tools available to you. They can make running a small business enormously easier.

But know what job each of them is supposed to do.

Your social media should create visibility and interest.

Your content should give people reasons to pay attention.

Your systems should help you capture and nurture that interest.

Your sales activity should turn the right opportunities into customers.

Your customer experience should give those customers reasons to stay, return and recommend you.

That's a business.

So perhaps the question isn't:

"What should I post today?"

Perhaps it's:

"What am I building - and where does today's post fit into it?"

Because posting more isn't the answer if all you're doing is broadcasting louder.

And being busy on social media isn't necessarily the same thing as building a business.

Build the business. Let social media help you do it.

That's the difference.

Other resources to help you get started, download my FREE Social Media planner to start planning out your content