Social media gets treated like a non-negotiable for every business. Mel’s not buying it. In episode eight of Raising The Bar, Mel Strutt and Mon unpack the difference between organic and paid social, when social media is worth the effort, and when it’s just a time sink dressed up as strategy.
They dig into audience fit, platform choice, the reality of tracking results, and why so many businesses keep posting out of guilt instead of logic. If you’ve ever wondered whether your business actually needs social media, this episode gives you the blunt answer.
Takeaways:
- Not every business needs organic social media. A lot of businesses are wasting time posting for no real return.
- Know the difference between organic and paid social. They do completely different jobs.
- Start with your audience. If your audience isn’t on the platform or doesn’t care about your content, stop forcing it.
- Channel matters, but mindset matters too. People use LinkedIn, Facebook, Instagram and TikTok in very different ways.
- Paid social works best as push marketing. It puts your product or service in front of people who weren’t actively searching for it.
- Organic social is usually more about consistency, credibility and brand presence than direct lead generation.
- Virality means nothing if it reaches the wrong audience. Attention is not the same as commercial value.
- Social media is not set and forget. Good paid social needs testing, tracking and constant refinement.
- Track properly. Social can convert in-platform, on your website, or somewhere messy in the middle. You need to ask where the lead really came from.
- If social isn’t right for your business, that’s fine. Save the time, money and effort and use the right channel instead.
