Social Media Growth is like Your Fitness Resolution - You’re in it for the LONG GAME!

Back in the middle of November, I, perhaps unwisely, committed to the 75 Hard Challenge. If you’ve never heard of this before it was created by Andy Frisella and is basically a 75-day mental and fitness challenge. Every day I have to drink a gallon of water, take a progress pic, stick to the diet of my choice (which must include no cheat meals and no alcohol), read 10 pages of a non-fiction book, and complete two 45-minute workouts (one of which must be outside). If you miss one of the daily essentials, you have to start your 75-day count all over again!

Yes! It is as crazy as it sounds. But I’m always up for a good challenge - so I committed knowing that would mean no celebratory drink at midnight on New Years, and not the tiniest morsel of a Christmas cookie or Thanksgiving pie.

Like I said, I love a good challenge.

Thanks to the challenge I’ve been spending a lot more time walking outdoors these weeks, which means I’ve spent a lot more time pondering stuff. One of the recent conclusions I came to: social media growth is a lot like trying to reach fitness goals. AKA Hella hard, and often seemingly a practice in disappointment.

When I started the challenge I had high hopes of losing the weight I put on during shelter in place last year. I figure that would be easy. I’m eating right and working out twice a day! The pounds should just melt away - especially since I hadn’t been super consistent with either up until that point.

And then I got on the scale two weeks into the challenge… barely a change!

Two more weeks went by. I hopped on that scale again. Surely, after a month of not drinking a single beer and never touching a dessert the number would have dropped significantly. Nope. A couple pounds gone.

And this, is where the progress pics come in!

True. The scale hasn’t moved much, but the results are visible in the progress pics. Side by side comparison of the latest pictures to the first round and it is more than clear that I am slimming down and toning up!

Why do I tell you all of this on a social media marketing blog? 

Because social media growth is pretty similar! 

You put in the work and you expect to see immediate results. What do you see? A slight change but nothing to get you too excited.

You keep at it. You keep showing up. You keep trying to find the inner motivation because the numbers certainly aren’t motivating you. You keep at it. You keep showing up!

And then one day, you’re able to look back at your stats from the beginning of the year and the change is apparent. Your account is growing. It is becoming more robust. It is seeing greater engagement. It is gaining followers from your ideal audience. It is become less of a burden and more of an enjoyable task. 

The point is… you have to put in the work.

So, make your own version of 75 Hard for your social media accounts. And commit to doing each of the tasks every day for the next 75 days. The results will come. 

If you aren’t sure what that should look like, try something like this: Every day for the next 75 days commit to - 20 minutes of intentional engagement (including engaging with at least 10 accounts that do not follow you but are your ideal client), showing your face on Stories, responding to any comment or DM left that day.