Hate social media marketing? Try this instead

In the September 2025 edition:

• Focus less on marketing and more on visibility 🕵

• “The rise of AI's ‘thinking’ machines is not the problem. The decline of thinking people is.”

• I love an apple cider donut as much as the next person, but this month’s treat is about disconnecting to reconnect 🤝

SOMETHING USEFUL

Marketing? Meh. Visibility? Hell yeah.

In our extremely online world, “marketing” has become synonymous with social media. Between all the platforms, algorithms, and content types (not to mention the clickbait, disinformation, and trolls) it’s no wonder that so many of us hate marketing even while knowing it’s critical to our business’ survival.

I want to offer some alternatives to social media marketing based on what I’ve seen work for my clients. While I don’t advocate for abandoning social media completely (unless you feel it’s harmful) I believe it needs to be put in its place as just one marketing tool among many options.

The goal of marketing is to make our businesses more visible to potential customers. Social media isn't the only way to do that, and usually it’s not even the best way. Here’s what I suggest instead:

1. Working on business development instead of social media marketing, and

2. Collaborating with like-minded peers or outlets to reach more of the right people.

Keep reading for specific strategies and tactics to make these methods work for you.

Make direct connections by focusing on business development

A key difference between marketing and business development is that marketing is often passive and indirect (shouting into the void on social media and hoping someone sees it) while business development is active and direct (getting in touch with potential customers and sharing information about your business.)

Business development only works if you have specific people or organizations in mind that you believe could become your customers. This means you have to do the work of identifying your target customer groups, knowing why they would buy from you, understanding the value you provide to them, and figuring out how and where to reach them.

This works best if your target customers are highly specific; for instance, “WNY-based gift shops that buy wholesale products from local makers” or “Millennial athletes who need injury prevention care as they age.”

Get super detailed with demographics, location, lifestyle details, and the energy/”vibe” of your target customers. The better you know them, the better you can serve them. Once you know who they are, go to them—send them an email or print postcard, attend a conference or event to meet them, or use social media to nurture a relationship with them.

If you’re selling business-to-business (B2B), it’s totally normal and expected to reach out directly with a thoughtful, personal message to introduce yourself and what you do. Remember that people are busy, and it’s ok to follow up once or twice. I recommend building a pipeline of specific B2B prospective clients and keeping track of your discussions with them, so you remember what you’ve talked about and when to follow up.

If this sounds nerve-wracking to you, I agree. It’s not at all easy to reach out directly to potential customers, and you will experience rejection and unresponsiveness (sorry 😬). But braving the vulnerability to create real connections is a much faster route to building your customer base than a “post and hope” social media approach.

Find more of your people by “borrowing” related audiences

This tactic is relevant for everyone, whether your business serves a niche customer or you have a very wide potential customer base. And much of this can happen on social media, so it’s an opportunity to feed two birds with one feeder (I just made that saying up, but we’re not about killing birds with stones here at Catbird Consulting.)

This is a community-building strategy where you seek out peer collaborators and partners who serve similar target customers as you do. Once you know who they are, it’s your responsibility to come up with mutually-beneficial ways to introduce yourself to their audience, and them to yours. “Audience” can refer to a social media following, email newsletter subscribers, podcast listeners, community members, etc.

The key is to do the heavy lifting instead of putting the burden on your collaborator. If you want to be a guest on someone’s newsletter or podcast, brainstorm topic ideas so they don’t have to figure it out for you. If you want to do a shared Instagram post, create the post yourself (after agreeing on the topic/visuals) and just have them sign off.

Be clear about what you can contribute and how it benefits the person you’re collaborating with and their audience.

In addition to collaborating with peers, find opportunities in regional media outlets. Local magazines, TV programs, and radio stations are always looking for an interesting story and they have a built-in audience. Learning a bit about PR and how to pitch a compelling narrative about your business can open the door to broader and more diverse audiences.

Know your community, grow your community

The fundamental concept that brings these strategies together is that you need to know exactly who your customer is and how to communicate directly with them to become visible in their world. It’s more challenging and more vulnerable than typical social media marketing, but it’s also more rewarding because you’ll create the genuine connections that social media just doesn’t provide.

And that’s what will truly bring you long-lasting stability and success—deep relationships within your peer and customer communities.

SOMETHING NEAT

Derek Thompson: The End of Thinking

So many of us are trying to figure out how, or if, AI should be a part of our work. On the one hand, there are serious ethical issues—passing off AI’s work as our own, the environmental impact—and on the other hand, we as solo business owners need all the time-saving tools we can get our hands on.

The “right” amount or type of AI use is different for everyone. But Derek Thompson’s latest essay, The End of Thinking, makes a crucial cautionary point. While we may benefit from delegating research or small administrative tasks to Claude or ChatGPT, we should beware of delegating our thinking to them.

For one thing, they’re simply not good enough (yet?) to think as creatively as humans can. But what’s more troubling is that we may find that our analytical and creative cognitive capabilities are use-it-or-lose-it. And in the long run, losing our ability to think will hurt us much more than AI can help us.

A LITTLE TREAT

This is the time of year when my favorite treats start popping up. Apple cider donuts, pumpkin soft serve, the colada morada from Ernie’s Pop Shop at the Elmwood-Bidwell farmer’s market (October & November only!)

But the biggest treat of all—the only thing that’s proven to improve your life and make you at least 10 times happier*—is available any time of year. All you have to do is this:

Put your phone down. Close your laptop. Stop looking at the news and start looking at a tree that’s turning red. Once your brain reboots, think of a way you can help people in your community, and then do it.

Here’s one idea: Next time you’re at the grocery store, buy a couple extra things and bring them to a local food pantry or community fridge. Everyone needs to eat, and I’m sad to say it’s not getting easier for those who are already struggling. You can put food on your neighbor’s table, and that’s making a real difference.

*Not a real statistic, but probably accurate.

WORK WITH ME

This newsletter is for everyone, but a one-on-one consulting engagement is tailored to you and your business. Here’s how I can support you:

• Strategic Action Planning—For solo business owners with a lot to do, and never enough time. We’ll refine, prioritize, and organize your goals, and I’ll create a road map for you to get them done. (My most popular service—now scheduling for late October/early November.)

• Resilience Jumpstart—Turn analysis paralysis into decisive action with affordable 1:1 support to get you moving in the right direction, fast.

• Operations Analysis—Is your business built on a strong foundation? An operations deep dive will tell you exactly what to do to make your business work better from the inside out.

• General Consulting—Get expert support with business challenges like workload sustainability, financial fundamentals, pricing, client communication, and more.

When you’re ready, schedule a free 30 minute intro call with me.

Thanks for reading—see you next month. If you have a business owner friend who would find this newsletter useful, please share it with them!