How to Navigate Social Media Marketing: 5 Key Strategies for Entrepreneurs

In the world of entrepreneurship, social media marketing is a double-edged sword. While it presents vast opportunities for connection and growth, it often brings anxiety and confusion about how to effectively engage audiences. In this post, we’ll explore five key strategies that can help you navigate the complexities of social media marketing, ensuring you present your brand authentically and effectively.

Understanding Your Audience: The Foundation of Social Media Success

To effectively market on social media, you must first understand your audience. This begins with creating a detailed customer avatar.

- How It Matters: Knowing your audience allows you to tailor your content to meet their needs and preferences, increasing engagement.

- How to Do It: Break down your ideal customer based on demographics, interests, and online behaviors. For instance, if your target audience is mothers planning vacations, consider their typical age, interests, and even specific needs, like dietary restrictions.

- Common Mistake: A common pitfall is trying to appeal to everyone. Focus on your core audience to create more meaningful connections.

Choosing the Right Platforms: Where to Focus Your Efforts

With so many social media platforms available, it’s crucial to choose the right ones for your business.

- How It Matters: Not all platforms will suit your audience or business model. Focusing on a few can yield better results than spreading yourself too thin.

- How to Do It: Research where your target audience spends their time. For example, mothers may gravitate towards Instagram for travel inspiration, while professionals might prefer LinkedIn.

- Common Mistake: Entrepreneurs often feel pressured to be present on every platform, leading to burnout and ineffective marketing strategies.

Authentic Storytelling: Connecting with Your Audience

Authenticity is key in today’s social media landscape. Your audience wants to connect with real people, not brands.

- How It Matters: Authentic storytelling fosters trust and loyalty among your followers.

- How to Do It: Share your personal journey, challenges, and successes in a relatable manner. Use storytelling to illustrate the values behind your brand.

- Common Mistake: Avoid overly polished content that feels inauthentic. Instead, embrace vulnerability and transparency.

The Power of Delegation: Building a Supportive Team

As your business grows, so does the need for a team to help manage your social media efforts.

- How It Matters: Delegating tasks allows you to focus on core business activities while ensuring your marketing remains consistent and effective.

- How to Do It: Hire individuals who understand your brand’s voice and values. For example, a marketing strategist can help streamline your social media efforts.

- Common Mistake: Many entrepreneurs hesitate to delegate, fearing that no one can do it as well as they can. Trusting the right team member can lead to new insights and strategies.

Continuous Learning: Adapting to Changes in Social Media

The social media landscape is always evolving, making continuous learning essential for success.

- How It Matters: Staying updated on the latest trends ensures your marketing remains relevant.

- How to Do It: Regularly engage with industry webinars, podcasts, and articles. This will help you adjust your strategies based on current best practices.

- Common Mistake: Many entrepreneurs become complacent, relying on outdated strategies that no longer yield results.

Conclusion

Navigating social media marketing can be challenging, but armed with these five strategies, you can effectively connect with your audience and grow your brand. Remember to understand your audience, choose the right platforms, tell your story authentically, delegate tasks wisely, and commit to continuous learning. Embrace the journey and watch your social media presence flourish.

Frequently Asked Questions

What should I prioritize on social media as an entrepreneur?

Prioritize understanding your audience and telling your authentic story. This will create meaningful connections and engagement.

How can I determine which social media platforms are right for my business?

Research your target audience’s online behavior and preferences to identify where they spend their time.

How is storytelling important in social media marketing?

Storytelling builds trust and connection, making your brand more relatable to your audience.

How do I manage my social media without getting overwhelmed?

Consider delegating social media tasks to a team member or hiring a marketing strategist to streamline your efforts.

What resources can help me stay updated on social media trends?

Engage with industry webinars, podcasts, and articles to keep your strategies current and effective.

Grab the quiz here: https://socialtonic.us/marketing-pop-quiz/

Follow Shawn at https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnteasley/
Watch her at https://www.youtube.com/@socialtonic-us
And get more info at https://socialtonic.us/

Transcript

Shawn Teasley (00:00)

the idea of adding more gratitude right now in the way that you are spotlighting your team, spotlighting how you serve customers and just up leveling the, I don't know, just like the tone.

and the way that you're talking about yourself and the people around you, that's gonna come across so much better right now, especially when the feed is so full of negativity.

Amanda Kaufman (00:25)

Well, hey, hey, welcome back to the Amanda Kaufman show and we're going to talk social media. It is the topic that every entrepreneur loves to hate talking about. Unless of course you're really good at it. Like my guest, Shawn Teasley. Shawn and I met through our networks and I was really blown away with her genuine

way that she just connects, but there's also a bit of a system behind it. Let me tell you a little bit about Shawn. She's, she's a marketing and social media strategist and she is passionate about digital marketing. She loves storytelling using social media and most especially LinkedIn these days. She's loving it. she's the owner of social tonic. She consults, trains and mentors teams, helping businesses streamline their marketing. She will do it for you.

Or she will train your team to do it for you She's dedicated to supporting startups and entrepreneurs and she offers strategic advice and creative solutions She loves helping brands establish their presence and grow with confidence her approach makes marketing strategic I like strategies. That's fun sustainable. Yes, please and low stress and if there's one topic that is guaranteed to this

raise some hackles at a business networking event, it's gonna be the shoulds around social media. So hey Shawn, welcome to the show.

Shawn Teasley (01:51)

Hi Amanda, thank you. Yes, there's so many shoulds on social media for entrepreneurs specifically.

Amanda Kaufman (01:57)

my gosh, well, what's the truth?

Yeah, well, tell us about it. Like, what do you think is driving, you know, A, all the shoulds and like, should there be shoulds?

Shawn Teasley (02:09)

You know, I think if you think about how you want to present yourself on social media, just your whole digital presence and release the shoulds completely, it just gives you freedom to be who you are and to tell your story, your founding story, your entrepreneurial journey, all of it in a tone that just matches the pace.

in the vibe that's behind your company. And so I have so many discovery calls that are, I know I should be doing it this way, or I know I should be on Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, and Facebook. Wow, that's a lot. Do you really think that all of your clients are in all of those places? And let's just pick like one, maybe two.

that are the primary platforms for you. So a lot of times the shoulds just come across like, I need to be everywhere and that's just not true. Like we need to think about where your avatar, your ideal customer is actually spending time and where they want to meet you online as well and be there.

Amanda Kaufman (03:12)

That's interesting. So how do you know that? How can you find out where your person is most likely hanging out? And also, what makes that so important?

Shawn Teasley (03:21)

Well, so let's scroll back to building your customer avatar. So when in that process, like I love this one example of we work with a lot of travel brands. And so when we're trying to get into the mindset of the ideal person who's going to be booking a vacation, a lot of times it's the woman, the mother of the family.

And she's taking into consideration that like on average, she might have two kids, she's got one dog, there's at least one gluten allergy in the family, and they need somebody to care for their plants where they're gone. Their plants. And so there's a lot that goes into that, and so you put yourself in that person's shoes. And in this case, this mom is 45.

and she lives in Tennessee, you you break it down to all of the really nitty gritty specifics and then you put yourself there. Okay, this person is likely on Instagram, but is she looking for travel opportunities and travel inspiration on Instagram? Yeah, she is. Versus, is she doing that over on LinkedIn? Maybe not. You know, that's not probably where she's looking for that. So it's really...

Diving in and this is way before we even really think about social media and all of the aspects of marketing in general But who is this person and there actually might be three they're like creating these customer avatars you could have multiples like especially if we're thinking through like a We work with a lot of software companies and there might be three decision makers. There's the engineer There's a CFO and there's also the CEO that's involved in it. And so we have to think it through

those avatars and where those people spending time and expecting to hear from you and see your storytelling about your business.

Amanda Kaufman (05:06)

So good. It's really understanding what are those underlying behaviors, you know. Another avatar that came to mind as you were talking about the mom traveling, I'm like, there's a lot of moms that Pinterest, right? But there's also a lot of moms who don't Pinterest, right? Like, I'm not much of a Pinterester.

Shawn Teasley (05:18)

Mm-hmm, right

Amanda Kaufman (05:22)

personally, but I know a lot of moms just, you know, through the years that they love Pinterest and it's very much like a part of their behavior and their routines, but their life circumstances are also very different. So their preferences are informed very differently. You know, lot of the moms that I know, for example, are not entrepreneurs. So, you know, as an entrepreneur, I spend a bunch of time on LinkedIn, right? Or, or Facebook. I'm always on Facebook connecting with other entrepreneurs. But again, like

Shawn Teasley (05:23)

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (05:50)

Those behaviors of this mom might be very different than the behaviors of another mom that's preparing for a similar trip And you know what's funny is is like I still in my case is less so plants more so cats But still need like this things taken care of right so it's so good like when you when you really do understand the avatar You know

Thinking about avatars and social media and creating content, one of the things I've noticed when I'm talking to entrepreneurs about this is they seem to get a lot of anxiety about even getting the avatar right. They're second guessing, like, have I really got this nailed? Am I offering them the right thing? Am I having the right conversation? What would you say to that person who maybe is hesitant to just buckle down and choose?

Shawn Teasley (06:35)

Well, I think one of the easy, it's not easy actually, but a go-to place is to do some customer interviews, to dive in and maybe it's not you, maybe you are using a marketing person to help do some of this research where they can ask about who these people are and get into a thorough questionnaire about understanding their behaviors, their values.

and how they make decisions, that would really guide you in a way. And also, I mean, it's kind of a two for one. When you conduct an interview like that, it actually can turn into great case study material for your website as well. You can just say, Amanda Kay, and put that as the client, and you don't have to go into the huge amount of details, but it's kind of a double whammy in the sense of like,

you're getting all of this really great information through this in-depth interview and you sit down and really think about the questions that you want to be asking to get. And then also it can turn into repurposing all of that for social media, for your case study, for your SEO, all kinds of things.

Amanda Kaufman (07:46)

Hmm, you know it really is like that domino action, you know if you pull this domino of having this clear avatar that you're speaking to then everything that happens downstream Becomes clearer and I really appreciated you calling out It's not easy because I mean if it was everybody would do it right and it would be a no-brainer, but

A lot of people, like I said, they're hesitant to commit. They're struggling with the perfectionism of what if I get this wrong? So yeah, I love that. Let's talk a little bit about social media.

What do you think is the main reason that most entrepreneurs think they have to do everything themselves perfectly rather than hiring somebody to do it? What do you think is the biggest reason?

Shawn Teasley (08:27)

Okay,

this is an overarching conception in general. So many times we have clients that come to us and they're like, we want to outsource our social media because we don't have the time and the energy and we don't want to truck along with the algorithms and the changes and things. And so in just the idea of like outsourcing social media versus outsourcing any of these marketing tasks is that the misconception is nobody's gonna do it as good as you.

Amanda Kaufman (08:55)

Mm.

Shawn Teasley (08:55)

But

I challenge you on that is when you find somebody who gets your industry, who listens and like witnesses what you are doing and truly tracks, you can release that control. It might take you a few interviews finding the right person. For instance, we had this client that was in the travel industry. It was a sober travel retreat center in Guatemala. Very specific. And they found us.

Two of our team members have been to Antigua, Guatemala. I don't drink. We service the travel industries. It was just kind of like click, click, click, click. All of the things where she, as a therapist and an entrepreneur, felt very secure in knowing that we get it and that we can work on her behalf. So it's really...

Asking around because if you are in a collaborative network of people, you can ask, hey, who have you resourced in this way? But really making sure that it's somebody that understands you because they can carry it forward and releasing just the misconception that nobody is gonna do it as good as you. They aren't going to do it exactly the way that you're going to do it. However, they might bring some extra things

and they will get it done and you will get the information that you need.

Amanda Kaufman (10:13)

Shawn, as a business owner, as an entrepreneur yourself, can you actually share with us, have you always known that or have you experienced for yourself and learned the power of intentional delegation, not willy-nilly, but finding the right people to do the job and give you leverage?

Shawn Teasley (10:31)

So in my entrepreneurial journey, I was a solopreneur for many years. And then when I decided, I'm really ready to build this team, I'm ready to not feel alone, and I love to be able to delegate some things so that not everything is falling to my plate, it took me three times to find the right person for my first right hire.

think similarly to me, but in enough of a different way that it actually brings a lot of extra juiciness to how we operate. And then giving her space and trust to go and do the things. So for instance, I love this question because it highlights a very intimate side of who we are and who I am on social media as well, is that we get this question all the time.

I can never turn over my social media to an agency, to anyone else, because nobody thinks like me. And we were like, okay, how do we prove this in the most authentic way? Well, we had somebody from my team take over my social media and do it for me. And it gave us even a bigger glimpse into this. So we get feedback all the time when we take over somebody's social because we are so thorough in understanding who people are and to...

Amanda Kaufman (11:33)

There it is.

Shawn Teasley (11:44)

have that momentum of their voice moving forward, we'll get things back like, my gosh, one of my biggest compliments was, my gosh, this sounds exactly like me, but maybe actually 10 % better. Like, I love what you're putting out there on social media. But we have so many people that are like, no, you'll just never get it right. And so what we did is we created a social media plan for Shawn having my team support me. And what was so...

interesting about this is that I made the assumption that one of my team members was going to just know exactly how I wanted it and we didn't follow our own process. And the first month I was like, that content is not spot on. Like it's close, but it is not spot on.

Amanda Kaufman (12:26)

That is not spot on. I love how you put that.

Shawn Teasley (12:30)

I literally like stood back in this meeting, because a lot of times I stand up in some of our meetings, and I was like, dang, how did this not go right? And my teammate was like, well, we didn't follow our own process.

my gosh, you're right. So next.

Amanda Kaufman (12:44)

love

when it's very identifiable. It's like, well, darn, you know, like it was, we didn't do it, we didn't do it this time. I love it when it's discoverable like that. I want to loop back to something you said to just because it's just been this niggling open loop in my head. So you said that when you very first went to hire someone, it took you three tries. So was it like, I found three candidates?

Shawn Teasley (12:56)

Yeah.

Mm-hmm.

Amanda Kaufman (13:09)

or was it more like I found a person, I hired that person, I worked with that person, we went through it, and then I realized it wasn't gonna work and I started all freaking over again. Like I have to imagine it was the second one, yeah?

Shawn Teasley (13:16)

Mm-hmm.

Yep, second.

Totally was. Yeah.

Amanda Kaufman (13:26)

Yeah, yeah, and I just wanted

to say that out loud for the listener because you know, I think I think there's a lot of entrepreneurs out there who may be like it's like, okay, well, I'll do like virtual assistant and like they and they underutilize that even the virtual assistant because this what you're talking about is a skill letting go of something.

Shawn Teasley (13:41)

This is it.

Amanda Kaufman (13:46)

but also not over letting go. Because sometimes when you're first starting out, you're just so relieved at the idea that you don't have to be the one all the time, that it can show up as not paying close enough attention and then bad things happen and you blame yourself, right? So that's very normal. And I'm so curious as you went through the three hires, did it get easier?

Shawn Teasley (13:49)

Right.

Mm-hmm.

Mm-hmm. It is.

It did get easier and I've noticed, you know, in my 40s and dating, there's this parallel that's happening where you like, look for this thing that you think is right. And then that one wasn't right. So you go to the other end of the spectrum. Cause you're like, well that didn't work out. So I'm to go over here. So I started with hiring more of a virtual assistant, executive assistant. And I was like, Oh, she didn't have enough marketing skills to hurt. Like I for aesthetic was not there.

So then I hired a graphic designer who is very artistic and more like painter qualities than graphic design, logo design kind of person. And so I went way, way far from the other ends of the spectrum. And then I came back to the middle and I hired a marketing generalist. And that was the perfect fit is some someone in between like she got

the long form of writing, but she had the aesthetic eye for all of that. And so you kind of just kind of come back and after two hires, that third one landed in the middle.

Amanda Kaufman (15:15)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah, and you you raised such a great point too, you know, when it comes to like the role design things and we'll come back to a little more social media in sec, but just really quick, like when you are still

not a seven figure business or you're not multi seven figures, the temptation can be to get hyper specialized. But with specialization, that does come with a cost. You do have to compensate that person for their speciality, but it also means that you don't have budget available for tactical side, right? And just like the doing doing bit. So yeah, finding that sweet spot. if you're building a social media strategy, coming back to your genius zone,

You

know, that's not negotiable, I would say, in 2026. Like, a business must have presence, you know, at a very minimum presence on social media. What do you wish more businesses just had as like a baseline minimum?

Shawn Teasley (16:15)

Hmm. I think right now there's a lot of complexities of when you're scrolling through on social media, right? And it feels negative and it feels kind of triggering. And so the idea of adding more gratitude right now in the way that you are spotlighting your team, spotlighting how you serve customers and just up leveling the, I don't know, just like the tone.

and the way that you're talking about yourself and the people around you, that's gonna come across so much better right now, especially when the feed is so full of negativity. So that's one thing. I think, you know, there are things that are absolutely private and that shouldn't be on social media, but having somebody to kind of come alongside of you and think like, okay, let's tell a little bit of that story, because that story can go a long way. So divulging enough.

You know, not going to be divulging all of your trade secrets on your social media. However, hey, sneak peek, we're releasing a new roadmap to this software this week or whatever is a way to carry people along on the journey with you. And at the same time, you can do the shout outs to the engineers, to the developers that are really working hard. And then that shows what the vibe of your company is and

the intelligent resources that you have. And so there's this magnetic feel to storytelling in that way.

Amanda Kaufman (17:45)

Mm-hmm. Mm-hmm. I love it. Shawn, what, what, I heard you had a little treat for our listeners. So can you talk a little bit about that?

Shawn Teasley (17:53)

Yeah, so on our website we have put together a quiz to help you understand because we work with clients in a couple of different ways like you said at the start of the episode is that we either can do social media for you, we can train somebody to really take it and have the analytics and the understanding or we can help you adjust with the strategy piece. So when you come over to our website and you go through our quiz it helps you understand like what is your baseline? Where could you use some more help and assistance?

What you were talking about in the hiring piece too is that sometimes when you hire a little bit more of a generalist, then you can resource some of the strategic power partners or consultants as well, and then bring somebody in to just beef up what you have and are doing really well. So anyways, through the quiz, it helps you understand where you're at and then how to move forward.

Amanda Kaufman (18:43)

Super cool. So listener will make sure to have that link in the show notes below Shawn Thank you so much for joining us today

Shawn Teasley (18:51)

Yeah, thanks Amanda for this conversation.

Amanda Kaufman (18:54)

Yes, my pleasure. And dear listener, don't forget to grab that link below. We've also got Shawn's other details below if you'd like to see what she's doing on social media. And don't forget to subscribe. I will keep posting about the episodes coming out on whatever channel you found us on, but you don't want to miss a thing. So make sure you hit subscribe. And if you've been enjoying the show, make sure you stop by and give us a little review. Those 30 seconds help other people decide if they want to spend time with us.

Thank you so much for being here today and I also hope that this is super helpful. You can share the episode with a couple of your entrepreneurial friends who are working on making their social media even better and maybe don't want to spend hours and hours and hours a week doing it. All right, my friends, we'll see you on another episode and until then, do what matters.