Social Media: 6 Steps to Making Your Way

When I first wrote this article in 2016, social media felt simpler in some ways and more chaotic in others.

There were fewer platforms competing for attention, but businesses were still trying to figure out where they belonged, what they should post, how often they should show up, and whether any of it was actually working.

Ten years later, those questions have not disappeared. If anything, there are more of them.

The difference is that I am less interested now in giving businesses a neat formula.

There are fundamentals that matter, but the right approach depends on the business, the audience, the resources available, and what social media is actually supposed to accomplish.

Start with the part that is easiest to skip

Before deciding what to post or where to post it, it helps to know who you are trying to reach and why you want to reach them.

That sounds obvious, but it is surprisingly easy to skip.

Businesses often start with the platform because the platform is visible. They hear that they should be on LinkedIn, Instagram, TikTok, Facebook, or whatever happens to be getting attention at the moment.

The harder question is what role that platform is supposed to play.

Are you trying to build awareness? Create conversation? Generate leads? Support existing customers? Strengthen a reputation?

Those goals can overlap, but they are not interchangeable.

Being everywhere usually solves the wrong problem

One of the most persistent ideas in social media is that a business needs to be everywhere.

It does not.

Every platform adds another place to create content, respond to people, monitor activity, and maintain some level of consistency.

That can be worth it if the audience and opportunity are there. It can also become a lot of activity that looks productive without producing much.

I would rather see a business maintain a smaller number of channels with some intention than stretch itself across five platforms because someone said it should.

Your profile is part of the experience

We spend so much time talking about content that it is easy to overlook the place people land after they see it.

A social profile should make it clear who you are, what you do, and where someone can go next if they want to learn more.

The basics matter more than they seem.

A strong post can get someone’s attention, but if the profile they click into is outdated, unclear, or disconnected from the business, some of that momentum disappears.

Posting and participating are different things

This is probably one of the biggest distinctions I wish more businesses understood.

Publishing content is only one part of social media.

The other part is paying attention.

It is noticing when someone comments. It is responding when a customer asks a question. It is participating in conversations where you actually have something useful to contribute.

That does not mean forcing engagement or leaving generic comments everywhere just to stay visible. It means remembering that social media is still social.

Consistency matters, but not in the way people think

I used to give more specific guidance around how much time businesses should spend each day on social media.

I do not think that kind of prescription is especially useful anymore.

Ten minutes may be enough for one business and nowhere near enough for another. Posting three times a week may work beautifully for one brand and make no sense for another.

Consistency is less about hitting an arbitrary number and more about creating a rhythm you can actually sustain.

That includes publishing, responding, reviewing what is working, and adjusting when something is not.

Results need context

Social media gives us more data than ever, but that does not automatically make interpretation easier.

Follower growth, reach, engagement, website traffic, inquiries, and leads can all matter. The question is which of those things matter for the goal you started with.

A post can have modest engagement and still generate a valuable inquiry. Another can get thousands of views and do almost nothing for the business.

Numbers need context before they become useful.

When I look back at the six steps I originally outlined, I do not think the fundamentals were wrong.

Know who you are trying to reach. Choose your platforms deliberately. Make sure your profiles are doing their job. Participate instead of only publishing. Build a process you can sustain. Pay attention to what the results are telling you.

What has changed is my confidence that those things can be turned into a simple formula.

They are less like steps and more like decisions you keep revisiting as the business, the audience, and the platforms change.

That feels closer to what social media actually is.