Running a small business may seem like a great escape from a 9-to-5, but it actually just turns into a 24-7. It's romanticized on social media, seeing owners pack orders and getting lots of orders. But the truth is that it isn't always sunshine and rainbows. Social media like Instagram and TikTok are crucial to marketing your small business and getting your name out there. People can't and won't find your products if you're not showing them anywhere. Welcome to my rant.
Social Media Issues
Social media is the key nowadays. However, with social media comes algorithms deciding what content to show people and at what times. With a bunch of content being created and posted everyday, it becomes harder and harder to be found. Hashtags feel like a joke, you have to comment on a lot of other people's posts, stories are only shown if the follower views yours everyday or else it gets shoved to the end of the line.
Conspiracy?
At first it was a small biz conspiracy that the algorithm was not showing certain people's content to their own followers, but it's been real for months. To show how crazy the algorithm is, here is a screenshot of my reels views:
As you can see, it seems like every other video gets a decent amount of views. One video will get hundreds of views, the next one will get thousands of views, and the pattern continues. How ridiculous! It shouldn't be so hard to get exposure as a small biz, and yet this kind of stuff happens. It's consistently inconsistent.
Mentally Draining
Not only is it affecting your insights and statistics, but it becomes mentally draining when you're constantly working hard and the algorithm just decides to not show your hard work. I'd have my launches and shop updates, but lately I've been getting only 30ish people viewing my story out of 1300 followers, which is insanely low. I post about it, share stories daily, use hashtags, and yet it feels like I'm not growing. I know pretty much all other small businesses have been through or are facing the same issue.
Sadly, there is no solution that I can share at the moment for this huge problem. Feel free to share this blog post if you feel the same way.
