I quit instagram for my business for a year (and it was fine)

It feels like online business educators tell you that you need to be on instagram every single day of your life. I felt this pressure too, until I decided to quit Instagram for my business for a full year. Here’s what happened.

Now, don’t get me wrong – I do believe that having an instagram presence is important.

I teach my students to setup an account for their business and to share valuable content on it just like everyone else.

I think the fault in this “be on instagram stories all day every day” messaging we’re fed is that it’s required that you’re there. No matter what stage you’re at in your business or whether or not it’s actually giving you a return.

So I believe that it’s time that we change our thinking around the platform that makes us feel like we need to be on it at all waking hours of the day.

Why use instagram for business?

Before I go more into my decision to quit Instagram for business, I want to talk about why we’re all there in the first place.

We as Virtual Assistants market our services on Instagram and use it as a strategy to connect with potential clients in a natural and organic way. Many of our ideal clients are there already. So it makes sense to share about the value of working with a VA in the hopes of getting booked up.

Instagram is one of the best platforms to share you and your personality – not just your business. You can give your potential clients an inside look into your life and what you do every day in a way that no other platform allows.

Since your potential clients can cultivate that closer connection with you, it’s a fabulous way to build the like, know, trust factor (LKT). The LKT factor is marketing lingo for the stages that your potential client or customer goes through before they invest or purchase. They meet you, start to like you, then they feel like they get to know you, and then they trust you enough to invest in you.

Clients will instantly feel that much more confident about hiring you when they decide to dive in if they have that connection with you from Instagram.

I know that you’re thinking… So what on god’s green earth made me leave then?!

What drove me to take a break on instagram

I decided to step away from instagram after being told for years that I needed to show up there to be successful online and forcing myself to do it. I even had my team member do regular engagement, posting, and sharing on my behalf because I never wanted to do it.

It never felt natural to me to outsource my instagram account management, despite my team member doing a fab job with it.

But when I tried to do it myself consistently, I would always be left feeling emotionally drained. I’d also feel exhausted or hating on myself completely after comparing my business to everyone else’s. (I know I’m not the only one on this!)

Then came my big entrepreneurial burnout of 2020. This is when I really started to question the “why” behind everything I was doing and whether or not it was truly supporting my business. I didn’t have the energy to do anything extra during this time, so I looked through absolutely everything we had going on. Then I intentionally cut out everything that wasn’t directly driving revenue.

I looked through my previous year’s worth of client inquiries and where they came from. Because I knew that if my business was gaining clients from the platform, it had to stay.

I found that a whopping zero clients came directly from my instagram marketing efforts.

Oh, the things you learn from your mistakes in business. haha!

I also took a little bit of time to look through the instagram accounts of other business owners that I really admire. I was surprised when I found that only a select few appeared to put any sort of real effort into their instagram strategy.

So, I took all of this as my universal sign that it was time for a break from instagram. I put a “I’m on a social media hiatus” note in my bio and asked people to contact me via email instead of DM’s. Then I deleted the app off my phone in Summer 2020.

One disclaimer here: At this point in my VA business, I already had a full client roster. So I don’t want this messaging to come off as though this is my recommended course of action for newbie business owners. I was in a different place in my business when I made this decision. 🙂

What I focused on instead in my business

Over the next year as I recovered from burnout and started working on things other than just the bare necessities, I started to dedicate the time we spent on instagram to other things.

We refocused our energy on our current clients and their businesses to see how we could give them an even stronger client experience with us. I quit worrying about where my next client was coming from, especially since I realized that I didn’t even want or need any more. *eye rolls at past self*

I also spent more time writing evergreen blog content on a consistent basis so that we could grow our organic website traffic and email list of aspiring Virtual Assistants.

This also led me to recenter my thoughts and goals around Virtual Assistant education. I brainstormed the best ways to support others in growing their online businesses. It eventually helped me conceptualize and outline our signature course, The Virtual Assistant Blueprint.

What happened as a result of quitting instagram

It turns out, ditching the hype around being on instagram every damn day was worth it.

Here’s a few of the things that my team and I accomplished with the extra time, intention and energy we had during the course of the year:

• Grew my email list to 1,300 subscribers organically (thanks, google!)
• Created + beta-launched our signature course (to make over $5K in a week)
• Developed free online workshop trainings for VAs
• Grew my organic website traffic to 4,000+ sessions a month
• Turned my online course evergreen so I can make sales 24/7
• Booked more premium level clients + raised my service rates

So needless to say, it was successful!

Would I have accomplished this much wasting time doomsday scrolling on instagram? Probably not.

What I’ve learned as a result of my instagram break

So, what are my takeaways after a year without the almighty Zuckerburg photo app?

Honor what feels good to you in your business (Even if it’s not “normal”)

From the very beginning of my business, I never felt like instagram was a platform that I resonated with. I always pushed myself to be there and show up, but never truly enjoyed it.

After I stepped away, I reconnected with the marketing strategies I enjoyed and found even more success. So it just goes to show, that doing what everyone else is doing (or tells you to do) isn’t always the best choice for you and your business.

Follow your heart and what feels good.

Stay laser focused on your goals to make them happen

I wanted to launch our signature course for two years before I finally made it happen.

Why? Because I was distracted by everything else I thought I should be doing. Instagram was one of them.

After this experience, I’ve learned that when you truly turn your blinders on and hone in on what you want – It becomes a lot easier to make it happen.

Make Data Driven Decisions

Honestly, I already knew this. I just wasn’t staying true to it.

When I finally looked at instagram and realized I hadn’t landed any clients from the platform, I knew it wasn’t going to hurt my business to leave. Why wouldn’t I take the time and money I was spending on instagram and put it towards something that was actually working for me?

I make it a point now to review all of my data, revenue, and recurring tasks on a quarterly basis. It helps to make sure that everything we’re doing is actually driving movement for Byte Bodega. I refuse to get caught up in doing shit that’s a waste of time again!

Will I ever go back to instagram?

I have slowly started to make my way back onto the ‘gram as of January 2022.

This time though, we’re mainly sharing tips and tricks for Virtual Assistants to grow our community of aspiring Online Service Providers. We’re not looking to expand our client roster with our efforts there.

It’s made it way more fun and exciting to me to show up there as a result. Why? I’m not really sure other than the fact that I legit get so excited about sharing virtual assistance with literally anyone. ha!

I’ve also made a very conscious decision to not show up on stories every day. I’ll just never be a “Here’s what I’m doing today during breakfast, lunch, dinner, and in between” kind of person. I’m too introverted to be able to energetically do that every day and feel passionate about it.

I’ve started playing with reels (and to my surprise, found them really fun!), sharing tips we repurpose from our blog for our VA community and some student wins from our course.

However, I’m still planning to put 90% of my energy into blogging and creating evergreen content so that I can provide the highest level of value I possibly can. It supports the stability of my business so much more and I can offer our community members more when we do it directly through our own channels.

So there you have it!

Taking a year off of Instagram was a surprisingly educational and enlightening experience for me and I’m so genuinely grateful I decided to do it.