By: Michael Beiter

I wrote this to my personal Facebook feed and will store it here too.
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For years, I've used my profile to market my business. I learned a strategy called top-of-mind marketing, which suggested I post daily on social media about fitness and nutrition.

That was when I could expect about 11% of my friends list to see whatever I posted.

I could damn near guarantee I'd show up in someone's feed by starting a FB Messenger conversation with them because Facebook looked at people who talked in Messenger as closer and therefore bumped my posts.

A recent social media study of 933,200 posts found that the organic reach on Instagram and Facebook has plummeted in the last two years.

In fact, Instagram's current organic reach is 4.2%, while Facebook's reach is a measly 1.9%.

So a post to a 2,000-friend profile will hit 40 feeds rather than the 200+ it did years ago. And those 40 people might not even be interested in what I say.

That type of reach isn't worth the ball and chain of daily social media use. So I'm switching from using social to staying top of mind via Email.

You may be thinking, "Email? What is this 2003?"

I did, too, until I looked at the numbers.

99% of email users check their inboxes daily, and 58% do it first thing in the morning.

46% of smartphone users prefer to be contacted by businesses via Email.

The average employee spends 4.1 hours reading, writing, and managing emails daily. That's more than half of their workday.

43% of white-collar workers in the U.S. shared that they check their work email every few hours outside their regular work hours.

Lastly, 20% of Email users check them as soon as they receive them, effectively making Email a real-time communication tool for them, like texting.

In essence, Email is more effective for what I'm after.

Emily Austin writes:

"Social media is itself the outgrowth of its designer's corrosive desires for power and profit, and they designed social media to target our corrosive desires for recognition, status, and acquisition.

When attention is the currency, we do what others want to see and try to become what others want to watch, admire, and envy. Instead of figuring out who we want to be or what we enjoy, we satisfy the desire of others."

Philosophically, social media limits our joy and freedom. People who seek things from strangers for reasons outside their control can't be free. If we want affirmation from strangers, we must relinquish the reigns to our freedom and pride.

I notice social media's long-term effects when I'm enjoying what would otherwise be extravagant experiences or time with friends. I learned to flatten my three-dimensional life experience into a two-dimensional one for the valuing and admiration of others.

Austin concludes her social media analysis in her book, Living for Pleasure: An Epicurean Guide to Life, saying, "Now, it seems the corrosive desires of the digital architects have led young people to construct a prison for themselves and call it friendship and a lifestyle."

She details her time overseas with a group of students and their anxiety over losing thousand-day SnapChat streaks with their friends if they climbed above an elevation with internet reception. They were hiking in the mountains of Europe!

Another student fell asleep for a much-needed multi-hour nap and woke up panicked that she missed her time at the Mediterranian beach. Mrs. Austin tried calming the student by saying she could go there now. "It's not about being at the beach; I missed the pictures!" The picture is more important than the experience for these people. Yikes, no thanks.

I'll still use Facebook groups and business page features, but I will no longer use my page to try and stay at the top of your mind.

I've been practicing stepping back from social for a while, and I have to tell you, there are some interesting withdrawal effects.

I'm grateful only to have to unwire daily Facebook use from my behavior. Fortunately, I listened to some guys far wiser than me then who said, "Don't fall for the shiny object syndrome of social media. Pick one of them and use it til it stops working."

That was when Instagram and Twitter were exploding. Snapchat and TikTok came soon after, and I dodged all of them.

Organic reach doesn't work anymore on social; only paid does. I last spent money acquiring clients over six years ago and am not about to do that again.

The same guys I listened to years ago said Email was the single best marketing tool for what I was trying to do. I didn't listen then, but I am now. Better late than never.

I will try building my marketing in my backyard now instead of Zuck's, and I would be delighted to have you.

I'll regularly send the latest health, fitness, and nutrition science, business happenings, and blogs.

To tag along, join my list at PCSNutrition.com. I'll send you a guide on the toxic health effects of energy drinks immediately.

If not, no big.

Love,

Mike

Saying no to social allows me to say yes to more of this: