GETTING FOUND: An Alternative to Social Media marketing
In this blog, I am challenging the very idea that regular posting to social media is necessary to run a successful online business.
The TLDR? It isn’t.
For a long time, running an online service business has come with an unspoken rule:
“You have to be visible on social media to get leads.”
Keep showing up. Because if you stop, goodbye enquiries. For many people, this has created a quiet kind of resignation.
“I don’t really like being online, but I suppose I have to.”
“I know social media works, but I just hate it.”
There’s usually a sigh behind those sentences from my clients. A sense that they have to just get on with it. That building an online business means accepting ‘should’ and ‘have to’ with Instagram algorithm hackery.
I see the energy drain from clients eyes uttering these words and it makes me sad.
The fact is, the way people actually look for help online has changed and it’s happening more privately than we acknowledge.
The alternative channel to socials.
More and more, people are turning to tools like ChatGPT as a thinking partner.
Brain dumping their half formed, misspelt queries and exploring ideas they would NEVER post publicly. (Probably not even with their business coach.)
If someone saw your ChatGPT threads, they’d see a very different version of how decisions get made (and likely question your mental state?)
And while we can talk about the dangers of outsourcing our thinking to AI… most of us are divulging our deepest thoughts to this toxically positive pesudo-therapist.
It’s true: People are using ChatGPT to seek solutions to their problems.
While we quietly indulge in this secret relationship with AI, it’s interesting how often we’re asking it the same thing: how can I market my business in a way that feels lighter?
Maybe we’ve been sitting on the answer in plain sight.
Because while we use ChatGPT to generate the ‘foolproof’ launch plans, the copy, the captions… have you ever thought about ChatGPT as a marketing channel.
Too good to be true? No no, and I have receipts.
Instagram isn’t the the only path to being found.
Right now, there’s a lot of content insisting that regular social media posting is non-negotiable and for some business models, it genuinely is a powerful ‘free’ tool.
But it feels like pressure. I don’t like that.
There are people who thrive there, build incredible communities and put the success of their business down to it.
But I am here to tell you, it isn’t the only way business owners can get leads, build trust + connect with their ideal clients.
Treating one channel as universally required flattens the reality of just how many marketing options we have available to us.
And we can choose ways to market that do not zap every ounce of energy from our soul.
Some of us are wired for high interaction and heavy output. Others are wired for depth and longer stretches of quiet.
And call me a radical, but I think our marketing systems needs to be aligned with our preferences, if we want to actually sustain it.
case in point: I get 70% of my business leads from search.
What’s shifting now is how people search.
Increasingly, discovery is happening through search led, intent driven behaviour.
The internet is noisy and cluttered and we feel that. People are scrolling yes, absolutely they stumble across your hilarious Reels.
But so many are actively asking questions… in search engines, on YouTube, in podcasts, in ChatGPT and I suppose yess.. Even TikTok (it’s the first place I go for restaurant + travel research)
We are looking for the clearest voice. The answer to our questions.
And with ChatGPT delivering completely tailored, personalised answers, can you imagine if the answer it spat out… was you?
I don’t need to imagine this.
Because I get leads every week from people telling me on my booking form that they discovered me on ChatGPT.
Leaning on search (getting found) relies on being useful when someone is actively looking.
That usefulness often lends itself to long form content. Work that doesn’t disappear after 24 hours.
Writing, video, audio. Resources that can be found and sales pages that are realllllly well structured to match the words people are searching for.
So you might notice I don’t have many blogs (yet) but I still get found.
So, SEO tactics don’t mean you have to churn out essay length blogs twice a week.
You don’t need to be more disciplined with social media.
When social media feels too heavy and we ‘ghost the grid’, the advice often focuses on working smarter not harder.
A better strategy. Try batching. More boundaries. Outsource parts of it even.
Maybe we need to reframe our thinking? I mean sure, it would help.
But a systems solution to your social media malaise probably isn’t a better posting schedule. Trying harder… being more disciplined *I shudder*.
It might be shifting your focus slowly to… getting found where people are actively looking for you.
There’s something so spacious and freeing about a marketing engine that doesn’t rely on constant performance.
One that makes daily social media posting optional.
But I hear the push back now, it is true… the ‘getting found’ route is no instant success story.
Social media feels quick and instantly gratifying because of the highly visible feedback loop. The likes, the DMs, the comments (or lack of…)
But social media is still a long game really, it just pretends not to be.
Getting more eyes, without performing.
For those craving a deeper, less draining way of getting their work seen, another path is available.
A system of longer form content creation + a website structured for search that allows people to find you when they are already looking for what you help with.
This doesn’t mean social media has no role.
But its role can shift.
Instead of being the main stage, it becomes a doorway. A place to connect lightly, think out loud occasionally and point people towards a more intimate space which allows for connection and trust building to happen.
No algorithm co-dependency required.
Think your email list. Your podcast. Your blogs.
This approach creates space… not just in your calendar, but in your mind + nervous system.
And I am allll about that.
And it’s worth saying if you are relationally built business (think referral heavy) you might not even need to BE online that often creating content.
But most of my clients are online businesses - we need to.
Content was never optional, Performance was.
As online business owners if we want people to trust us, connect, understand our work, and choose us, our thinking does need to exist somewhere outside our head.
That’s always been true. Content is queen.
What isn’t required is the constant performance we’ve come to associate with “content creation”. The daily output. The sense that we are our marketing.
It is just one route.
If you are reading this, you are probably a service provider not a content creator.
As in, you don’t get paid to create content. That is not your business model.
Therefore your content has a job to do: Create awareness, connect, build trust and move people towards your paid solutions (AKA the answer to their problems).
Search based marketing can offer this.
I think it’s very easy to forget this in the influencer landscape.
Creating space with our marketing systems.
For me, this shift in my own marketing towards ‘getting found’ is part of my wider mission: creating space with systems. For myself, for my clients.
A business that requires constant visibility to survive is a business that never really lets us rest. It doesn’t give me August off with daughter.
You are allowed to design a way of getting more eyes on your work, that doesn’t rely on you living inside a feed.
Getting found on Google and ChatGPT recommending you, is an option available to you. And there’s so many more.
I don’t discount the powerful role of social media but I tend to prefer it not playing the main part.
For those of you would don’t actually enjoy being online all the time, this alternative route ‘Getting Found’ can feel like a big fat exhale.
But how do we do ittttt?
Blog coming soon, because I have done it by myself, for myself and I think you can too.
I will be writing a follow up post blog, my process for how I actually get found on ChatGPT and the steps I take to be as ‘findable’ as possible with each new publish.
Join my email list ‘The Goss’ now, I will keep you posted.
And if you are interested in my work, my focus is on tech + systems builds currently.
CRMS, courses + email marketing. I teach + do it for you. Check out my Services Page.