054 Pick One Platform, Rule Them All
Tired of social media burnout? Here's how focusing on just one platform can actually move the needle in your business.
Quick Quiz Time 🥳
What should be the first priority in your online marketing?
A: Creating viral content
B: Social media engagement
C: Your website
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Answer: C: Your website - Where your home is, is where you have full control 😉
054 Pick One Platform, Rule Them All
Trying to be everywhere online can leave you feeling like a headless chook. In this episode, we unpack why honing in on one social media platform is a smarter, saner move for small business owners looking to market with meaning and still have a life.
Social media marketing often feels like a treadmill set to sprint, especially when you're trying to be on every single platform. The truth is, most of us simply don’t have the time, team, or emotional energy for that—and we shouldn’t feel guilty about it. The core message of this episode is to question the value each platform actually brings and ditch the pressure to show up everywhere just because your competitors are.
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By focusing your efforts on just one social media platform—the one where your actual clients are—you’re not only saving time, but you're also creating better content, building genuine engagement, and reducing overwhelm. Your website should always be your home base, with email marketing as your next best friend. Social media? It's the loud, needy third cousin. Good to have at the party, but not the one running the show.
The best part? You don't have to delete your other profiles. Just pick one to focus your energy on and let everything else feed into it. Keep showing that you're in business, repurpose your content with scheduling tools, and stop feeling guilty about not doing all the things. If you’re ready to simplify your marketing game and want support finding your “one” platform, it’s time to work with Zoë at the Video Confidence Coach—because you can market like a boss without burning out.
What Was Discussed This Episode + Timecodes:
00:00 – The reality of social media overwhelm and why it feels like a slog for business owners.
06:00 – A real-life convo with a new business owner drowning in too many platforms.
12:00 – The golden hierarchy: Website first, email list second, social media last.
18:00 – Finding the one platform where your ideal clients actually hang out.
24:00 – Setting a bare minimum for social media presence and using automation wisely.
30:21 – Wrapping up with a reminder: you owe no loyalty to any social platform.
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Zoë Wood 00:00
Unless you are marketing your business as a hobby, like you're doing it on the side, social media can seem like an absolute slog. If you're tired of the old cookie cutter marketing advice and want to take your personal brand to the next level with bold, actionable strategies that truly reflect you, you're in the right place. Let's untangle your marketing mayhem with zo the video confidence coach on the unboring your brand podcast, unborn your brand was recorded on what a rung land, focusing on one social media platform. Now I'm sure you may have heard of this from other podcast YouTubers or other platforms out there that you consume as well as us. I would like to thank you for listening to our podcast today or watching us if you're watching us on Spotify or on YouTube. I'm going to compile myself a bit here when it comes to social media, very much when it first launched, I was in school, and it very much took over, because it was this new, interesting, engaging thing, and had progressively gotten more ubiquitous over time. Now social media has become gotten to the point where people are stepping away from it, are instinctively not spending their time there. And of course, these big behemoths of companies, these social media platforms, are panicking and doing their best to try and keep people on the platform so they can advertise more. They're going to do their best to try and keep everyone on. And when it comes to your work as a business owner, unless marketing your business is a hobby for you, it can feel like a slog. So using social media to promote your business, and that is the goal when it comes to the work that you're doing while you're on social media in the first place. Yes. There is the connection that you get from interacting with fans or with potential customers. There is the opportunities as a business to advertise and reach those potentially new clients, or maybe people who have heard of you, or even people who you've worked with in the past, or who have purchased from you in the past. They can be reminded of your existence and go, Oh, yeah, I really weren't liked. You know what? I bought from them, my services from them? Oh, I should hire them again. All right, I'll look into it. That prompt, that acknowledgement. But when it comes to using these social media platforms to organically reach people, that has become less and less achievable over time just because of the amount of the amount of stuff that is on these platforms, because it is what a lot of people see, especially who are starting out in business as a free marketing tool. And that's because it is like you're not giving up any money up front. You're not paying for a billboard, you're not paying for leaflets. You're not paying to acquire email subscribers just yet, it's a fairly easy, straightforward. You could set up a page from your account or set up a profile, usually within five minutes. They make the process relatively straightforward. But as I mentioned before, unless you are marketing your business as a hobby, like you're doing it on the side, social media can seem like an absolute slog. And I was talking to a fellow business owner, a new business owner this week, who launched a couple of months ago, and she saw that I did digital marketing, the podcasting and the live streaming, and we had a chat about social media and just how over it she already is, despite the fact that she launched her business a couple of months ago, and she divulged to me that she was kind of already On the way out when it came to social media in general. And I don't want to bring you on a downer, if you are working on social media and it is working for you, like you have processes in place, you have the way of thinking about it, you have a consistent posting schedule, like you've got all these things in place, probably from years of trial and error. Congratulations. If it's working for you, awesome, great. Keep up the good work. But if you are starting new it can be very much a sisyphic physi and task of pushing that boulder up a hill, please be it's please let it be Sisyphus, pushing that boulder up a hill just to have it rolled back down again, and you to just brush yourself off and do it again. It can feel very much like a hard slog. And as I was talking with her, it was becoming very clear that she had signed up to all the social media platforms that she could think of, and then didn't really have any way of man. Finishing them and also being consistent with them. So my after our chat, my objective asked my objective question to her was, why do you need all of these social media platforms? Oh, because all the competitors are on them. But why do you need to be on all these platforms? Because people are looking for all of my stuff on all of these platforms. Sure, like, again, I'm not denying any of these responses to my questions, but I'm asking for you in all of the work that you're doing, the amount of time and energy, and, you know, money that you're putting into getting posts created and generated and putting into these feeds for these social media giants, just to have them be gobbled up and be seen by like 345, people, and looking at her stuff, it wasn't a case the content was bad. She was learning really fast on ways to incorporate video to really stand out in her particular niche that she was doing, and what she was she is doing, and the thing that she focuses on, she had a really clear idea of her custom market. She had a really clear idea of, like, who these people were and why they were there. And I said, marketing is not a one and done thing. Marketing is something that takes a hell of a lot of time, and there's a reason that it's a section of your business, like there are many facets to what you do in your business. Marketing, getting people into your funnel, into your business, to be aware of what you do and purchase from you, and trust you enough to purchase from you. I should say that is that is a section of your business that is part of your business. These platforms are going to do their best to accumulate as much data as they can, and with the work and effort that you're putting into it. I ask, what is the social media doing for you? And I ask you, as the listener or watcher of this podcast, what is your social media doing for you, and then subsequently, what is the priority for you when it comes to social media? How right? And what I see when I what I mean by priority is not just, oh, what platform, or what type of content are you doing, or what are you talking about? And I'm not talking about the minutia of that. I'm talking about when it comes to social media and your priority for it, where does it sit? And my recommendation for every single business out there, no matter what you do, no matter how much lead traction, or maybe even money that you get from people signing up via social media platforms, your website should be your top priority. Your website is the platform that you can control, and everything feeds into it. Everything that is your platform, that is your consistency, that enables you to say and do whatever you you know, whatever your business is about, and there's very little repercussions, because it is your website. My second recommendation for not every business, but most businesses, especially the ones that I work with, who are coaches, personal brand speakers, and essentially, a lot of people who have a mission for what they do, that's who I work with. My second recommendation is that very closely underneath that is your email list, is email marketing, because you own that list. You are constantly going to you are constantly engaging with these people on a weekly, fortnightly, maybe monthly basis. And these are people who are genuinely shown interest in the work that you do, to the point where they give you their email address like they've already said, I like what you do. Here is my email address. You know, give give me all the details and information about you, and then maybe then your social media should come third, because, again, as I've as I've mentioned in other previous podcasts. Feel free to listen to those or check out on the website, VCC, dot training, slash podcast. You can find out more just by searching regarding social media. When it comes to that social media is rented land, the these platforms are designed to hold attention and make money. That is their prerogative, and as the small business owner, trying your best to be seen by the people who are going to like you, trust you, know you, and then eventually buy from you. To be seen on these platforms is very. Where they go on your website, and then that's pretty much a whole entire other funnel, but to get people onto your website so then you can track who they are depending, of course, there is a lot of there's a lot of data issues at the moment, so tracking might be slightly an issue. But to get people to your website where, again, you have full control. And then from there, getting them to buy from you. And out of everything that I've just described, that entire process social media is one tiny little blip at the top of the tippy, tippy top. So as I was, you know, talking with this woman, and we discussed like, it's really it's clearly causing you stress, it's clearly causing you overwhelm. And if you know your customer so well, and I say this with all sincerity, why do you need to be on those other platforms? What is the platform that they are going to be the most active on? Therefore you should be active on there too. For example, the people that I work with, I put a lot more of my effort into my LinkedIn presence. Why? Because, when people are looking for marketing and branding of the calibre and scale of the people that I work with, LinkedIn is the place that they go. They you know, lurk. For example, LinkedIn is notorious for people who lurk in the background, people who just look at posts. They watch them all the way through. They watch your videos all the way through. But they don't like they don't, you know, whatever those other emojis are. They don't comment, they don't share, they don't tag, they don't they don't do any of that, but they are definitely engaged in what you do, and when you see them out and about in email lists on other podcasts, again, wherever you come across them, again, they will remember and recognise you, because again, they have worked in the background. So for example, with the work and the clientele that I work with, LinkedIn is my priority. LinkedIn is the work that I do. So that entails everything else that I do regarding social media. I build everything for LinkedIn, and then everything else follows. I use tools to schedule my social media so I don't have to do a lot of the legwork. And again, I build my platform, I build my content, I build my descriptions, I build my wording for a LinkedIn audience I am moving into all of their additional features, like newsletters and articles and all of these other things where previously, I wasn't really engaging with before, but because I'm getting actual leads, hot leads and tractionable leads from LinkedIn, that's where my focus is going to be. I still have other platforms, which may seem quite hypocritical coming from me for this podcast episode, but because I'm not starting out, I have been in business in my life for 15 years so far, and I've been running this business for about eight years. I'm at a point where it's not overwhelming stressing me to have other social media platforms, but I still use my strategies to focus on LinkedIn first and then everything else followed, following and for her, we did. We broke down. We had a bit more of a discussion about who her type of target market is, where she gets the most traction, where she gets the most bang for her buck, and where she should put her focus in, not necessarily that she needs to delete these other platforms, not that she needs to get rid of these other social media platforms. I do not want to stress do not delete these other platforms because you need to secure the name that you have for your brand. But point people to your website. Point people to your platform. And in her case, Instagram was the best place for her. Point people to your Instagram. There's you'll have no idea how many tiktoks I've come across that point people directly to their Instagram and say, Hey, if you want to watch more of me, follow me on Instagram. If you want to engage more with my content, follow me on Instagram. There are so many people that I follow on YouTube, who, again, point people to their Instagram as a way of collecting the followers and keeping them engaged. Now, if you've got that follow intact, I would definitely recommend pushing more towards your website if you've got that follow account. But some people, you know, when they go onto a website, there is an element of risk and like, I don't exactly know what I'm going to get, and if there's no way to keep in contact with you very easily and seamlessly, especially when they go to the front page of your website. So, for example, joining an email list, they're not really going to do it. And again, having that option for people who I want to be aware of you and can see you using a social media platform, especially one that you're investing your time in, is a good idea and a good, straightforward plan going forward again, to limit the amount of work that you have to do when it comes to marketing your brand. So breaking it down when it comes to finding out and I want to stress I. When figuring out that one social media platform, do not just go with the one that you have the most followers on, because it could be the case that maybe your Facebook book, your Facebook has the most, you know, followers or likes, for example, but you've been on the that is the platform you've been on the longest, and it is getting like very little traction now. So what do you do? Well, first of all, you think about who exactly you're wanting to target, and actually think about where are they found? Where are they interacting, where are they communicating? Where are you going to find these ravenous fans, people who are going to love what you do, and then give you so much word of mouth. Where are these people located? So then from there, when it comes to social medias, then being able to go, okay, and then look at your analytics so your insights, you can find these in the Settings page, usually on on any of the social media platforms that you're looking at. And look over the past month, look over the past couple of months, and see what has been the most popular type of content, but also just regularly see how many people actually engage with what you do. Not necessarily see what you do, but actually comment, actually post. Oh yeah, the last thing I forgot to mention was that what platform has actually generated you leads, and if this does not apply to you, that's okay. You're working through it. What actually, what platform has actually given you leads when you've worked or when people are purchased from you, what have you make sure that you have at the checkout stage a simple questionnaire like less than two seconds of Where did you find us? Here is our top five places where you would find us. Click Done, submit, and you will have that data to be able to use, to be able to understand whether or not the work that you're doing is worth it. And say, for example, if it gets to say, you know, you decide, okay, I'm going to focus on LinkedIn, because that's where my people are, and that's the work that I'm going to do. I'm going to invest my time with putting LinkedIn first. And if I've got the time and energy to post on other platforms, I will, but I will link everyone to my LinkedIn. That's what I'm going to do. So you do that for six months, you got to see what happens. You're going to make sure that you're actively commenting and engaging. You're responding to posts or comments or groups that are related to what you do. You're actively engaging on the platform. And then you're going to see results. I guarantee, like you're putting in that effort and energy that you were spreading across 510, different platforms, you're now centering in on one, and you've given yourself a really clear metric in the sense of, you know, I want to give myself six months, and if I do not get at least two leads, at least one that I can convert, then I'm going to re evaluate, get to that point and then say, for example, okay, it's been six months. I've gotten maybe four leads, but none of them have been hot. Okay, let's look at the analytics. Okay, the analytics for the amount of work and time and effort that I'm putting into this platform is not really giving me the return that I need. I've also six months in a business, can also change quite a lot. All right, let me re evaluate. And then from there, if you want to move to one of your other platforms as your focus, then do it again. Make sure that you let people know. Hey, you know LinkedIn people. Hey, we're going to be doing a lot more posts on Instagram. If you want to keep up to date, make sure to follow us on Instagram. You know, follow but again, the amount of effort that you're putting across many will be more beneficial if you focus on one. And one thing that I do want to stress before we finish today's podcast episode is what keep this in mind when you work on the marketing for your social media platform. You do not owe loyalty to a social media platform. You do not owe loyalty to any one social media platform. You can post the same piece of content across every platform, and that is where your focus should be, because if something is not working for you, you pivot, you change. And when it comes to social media, as I mentioned before, envisioning that funnel, visualising it in your mind, the tippy top, the little point down the bottom and the wide part at the top, social media is a tiny little blip at the very top of that funnel. It is good to be present. It is good to engage with your community. It is good to answer questions. On social media and post, I would say minimum once a week, because, and I'm going to say this now, for a lot of businesses that I work with, the social media is used, ultimately, as proof that you're still in business, that you're still working. People check your Google and Bing listings to make to check out your open hours. But also, and this is not just for I want to stress, not just for actual brick and mortar stores. I want to stress this is for all businesses. People want to check that you're still in business and you're still doing your thing, and that's what social media does. It's a clarification and check that you're in business, but also gives people an insight into the work that you do to if they should continue researching anymore. Their studies have shown that people research decisions more. And if you, for example, get a recommendation from word of mouth, you say, Yes, awesome. What is one of the first three things that you do besides searching them up online? Two maybe looking at the reviews. Now, these can be reviews on, say, Google reviews, Facebook reviews, you know, any of those particular platforms that have specific review recommendations on board, depending on the industry, of course. And third is you check out those social medias, of course, on your preferred platform of choice and a lot of people, and this is anecdotal now, not study wise, is people check when was the last time you posted? And say, for example, when it comes to my business, I am not exactly an arbiter. When it comes to posting consistently, I do try my best, but sometimes there's like, months where I'm just like, social media is not a priority for me. I'm going to focus on my website. I'm going to focus on my email list, social media. I'll get to it. When I get to it, it's okay. But when it comes to yourself, and you've got the capacity, especially if you're focusing on one platform, to have that consistency for yourself, to have the same post, same message, same description across all your platforms to spread awareness and bonus points. If you can do it using a social media scheduling tool, you go your buffers, your latest your metricals, your Hootsuite, all of these other places where you can just again post the same thing across multiple platforms, not necessarily to get hot leads, just to show people that you are still in business. And for the people that I predominantly focus on, these are your personal brand builders, your coaches, your speakers, your marketers, your women and non binary folks in FinTech is kind of a little bit in the area that I'm in now, but I'm also happy to pivot these people just need to be aware that you're still doing what you're doing, that you still show up online, and to do that, you need to be able to focus. So I hope in today's podcast, I've been able to assuage your fears in not having to be everywhere at once, putting your focus on one platform, and if you've got the capacity to post on other platforms, awesome. Do it if you don't. Again, just funnel people to your website. Funnel people to the platform that you are going to be spending the most time on and if you have no qualms, if you have no energy for social media, then set yourself a bare effing minimum. What is your bare minimum? So for example, my BFM, when it comes to social media, is that, and this is not client work. I want to stress, if you're a client of mine, this is not for you. This is for my social media. I spend 30 minutes a week on my social media. That is my minimum, and that 30 minutes can be spent, you know, LinkedIn, commenting, engaging, checking out with people's work, checking out, you know, whatever I need to do, but that's my minimum. I could do more awesome, but I can also just, can just do my 30 minutes and making sure that I engage with people who are going to be fans of mine, or people who are already fans of mine, making sure that I engage with them and show them support, especially people who are going to give great word of mouth referrals, thank you for listening or watching unloring your brand. You can find detailed show notes with tools offers and episode transcriptions. Just click the first link in the description or go to Vcc dot training slash podcast. Get involved and ask me anything about personal branding, video strategy, or just a friendly Small Business chat via my email, g'day at Vcc dot training, that is G, D, A, y at Vcc dot training, the video confidence coach, would like to acknowledge and pay my respects to the wadawurrung people of the Kulin nation, the traditional. Custodians of the land on which I record my podcast. I pay my respects to their elders, past and present. I stand with the traditional custodians of these lands and working towards a more equal future. Always was, always will be Aboriginal land. Look forward to me chatting at you next week. Superstars.
The above livestream episode description and transcript were generated together human knowledge + ai.
Who is your host?
Feeling stuck trying to build a personal brand that actually turns heads? Women and non-binary super-stars deserve more than just a cookie-cutter approach to their worries. Zoë Wood the Video Confidence Coach untangles your marketing mayhem, helping you own the camera, craft killer video strategies, and connect with your audience like never before. You’ll leave with the tools to show up, stand out, and smash your goals.
Find out more about how to grow your personal brand with the power of video right here on vcc.training
Smashing Your Marketing Mayhem With Killer Video Strategies 🧡
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*Please note that this podcast was previously called THE "Video Confidence Coachcast" and the "Do Video Podcast" previous to 2025. THANK-YOU FOR YOUR UNDERSTANDING AS I TRANSITION THE BRAND TO BE MORE CONSISTANT FOR YOUR LISTENING AND WATCHING PLEASURE.