Feeling pressured by social media?

General

Social media marketing is one of those hats that you never planned on wearing until you started running your own business. And let’s be honest, it’s quite a heavy hat that comes with a lot of expectations. Sometimes the pressure gets to you, sometimes the constant work becomes too much, and constantly trying to be in the spotlight becomes overwhelming. It’s OK to admit that – and that doesn’t mean you’ve failed!

If that pressure is getting to you and you feel like hiding away, here’s your three-step plan to get back in the saddle.

Focus on ‘social’

The pressure often comes when you feel like you aren’t posting enough, like your posts should be better quality, or like you’re constantly battling the algorithm. The natural instinct in this situation is to pull away, hide away and do less. We tell ourselves we aren’t good enough, and we convince ourselves to stop. Then, we’re doing even less, and the pressure gets worse.

We’re going to lean into that but with a completely different mindset. We’re going to do less, not because we aren’t good enough, but because it’s part of the plan. It’s simply a necessary next step.

STEP 1.

Give yourself permission to not post and instead focus on the social side of social media. Join conversations and engage with your audience.

Focus on ‘media’

After a few days of reconnecting with your audience, it’s time to start reconnecting with your posts. I believe this is such an important step – and one that many small business owners skip.

Social media comes with a lot of rules, recommendations, best practices and hacks, and that can be really exhausting. Sometimes you need to just throw the rule book out of the window and have some fun.

STEP 2.

Give yourself permission to post when and how you want to. Forget about the algorithm, forget about trying to sell, forget about what you ‘should’ post.

Focus on ‘marketing’

And now that we’ve got past that pressure that was overwhelming us, it’s time to start building a marketing strategy. I don’t just mean that it’s time to go and bring that poor rule book back inside; I mean it’s time to start making a plan so that the pressure doesn’t sneak back up on us in a few days.

Essentially, you want to have a strategy and plan in place that allows you to have a few focus sessions to create the content that actually converts so that your day-to-day can still be chatting with your audience and having some fun with your posts.

STEP 3

Plan, create, and maybe even schedule your core posts so that everything that has to be said gets said and you can go back to enjoying Step 1 & 2.

Need a hand with Step 3?

Nicola Mansfield of Film Your Face and I have created the CORE CONTENT KIT for this exact purpose. This Kit will guide you through defining your intentions, creating impactful content, and creating a plan. Although it’s designed to help you with the last seven weeks of 2026, what you’ll learn will continue helping you well past that.