How To Quit Social Media As An Entrepreneur (My Experience)
3 years ago, I quit social media.
I deleted all of my accounts -- Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.
And I did this even though I run an online business that got its start on social media. I literally landed my first five long-term clients from a Facebook post.
In this article, I'm going to share with you exactly what happened to my business after I left social media, including actual numbers. Because that's what I would have wanted to see.
And honestly, the results weren't what I expected.
But before we get to that, I want to explain why I left social media in the first place...
What Social Media Does To Our Brains
Okay, so maybe that's a bit extreme.
But we do know that social media impacts our mental health.
A 5,208 person study in the American Journal of Epidemiology found that increased Facebook use was correlated with a decline in well-being and mental health.
Facebook started when I was in middle school. At that time, it was called TheFacebook, which is kind of weird. Anyway, I made a profile in high school. Here was one of my first profile pictures:
I checked Facebook all the time in high school. I remember posting something and just refreshing the screen, hoping that my crush would like it.
This is what makes social media so addictive, even as we get older. It's engineered to give us hits of dopamine in an unpredictable way so we keep coming back. And that addictive quality makes it hard to focus, delay gratification, and get things done in the real world.
But weirdly, that's not why I decided to quit.
Why I Finally Decided To Leave Social Media
Fast forward 15 years and I'm running my online coaching business full time.
At this point, I want to leave social media but I'm not sure that I can.
Occasionally, I'll meet someone who isn't on social media and feel a bit jealous. But I don't see examples of other entrepreneurs who quit.
At the time, it just didn't seem realistic. I was still running ads and getting clients on Facebook and Instagram.
So instead of quitting, I tried a bunch of things to limit my usage.
First, I turned notifications off. Then I took the apps off of my phone. I even started blocking the websites on my computer at certain times and disabling the newsfeed.
These things helped. But there was still something bothering me...
I felt like I was giving my power away to these companies. I didn't like that I had to be on social media.
One day, I came across this post from Alexandra Franzen. Finally, a fellow entrepreneur that had successfully quit social media! Something in the article really hit me. She said:
I did some math and realized that if I spent about an hour a day on social media, that's over 15 days every year. And I started thinking about other ways I could use that time. I could be out in nature, spending time with my wife, working out, or writing.
That's when I decided to leave social media for good. I deleted all of my profiles so that I wasn't ever tempted to log back in.
Before I quit, I did one key thing to protect my business. I'll share that in a bit.
First, let's take a look at how quitting social media impacted my business...
Here's What Happened After I Left Social Media
I officially left social media three years ago, in February of 2021, and deleted my accounts in March.
2020, the year before I quit, had been my best year of business to date. I generated $210,057.01 in revenue and $104,375.45 in profit.
I'm not sharing these stats to brag. My business isn't that big. I just want to give you real numbers that you can use to make your own decision.
The year I left social media, 2021, my business experienced a dip. I only generated $166,420.79 in revenue and $90,157.57 in profit. That's when I started to wonder: had I made a huge mistake?
Here's where I have to rewind, though. Because I didn't just delete my accounts without a plan. I wanted to make sure that I had a source of leads outside of social media first.
For me, that was SEO blogging. I'd publish these really detailed articles based on certain keywords that my ideal clients were searching for. Over the years, more and more of my clients and customers started coming from those articles.
When I decided to quit, I learned everything I could about SEO so that I could replace my social media leads. Of course, there was still a transition phase. I didn't make up 100% of what I had lost from social media right away. That's one reason why my revenue was lower in 2021, the year I left social media.
But hang on, because the story isn't over yet. I knew that this transition wasn't going to happen overnight, and so I stayed the course.
The next year, 2022, was actually a record year in the business. I generated $275,291.44 in revenue and $123,389.8 in profit. This is what really proved to me that I would never have to go back to social media.
So if you decide to leave social media, you have to play the long game. You can't just look at what happens to your business the year you quit.
In fact, let's compare the three years before I quit social media to the three years after I quit. There was actually a 49% increase in revenue after I quit. Out of the total $1,141,804 in revenue during that six year period, $684,625.62 of it happened after leaving social media.
So, is it possible to build a business without social media? Yes.
But you need to go about it the right way...
How To Quit Social Media Without Destroying Your Business
Here are three steps I'd recommend:
1. Get clear on why you want to quit
The big motivator for me was to get back control of my time. But you might have a different reason for wanting to leave social media. As with any change, it helps to start with a clear intention. You'll also need to work through your excuses for not quitting. For example, how are you going to stay in touch with friends and family without social media? Once you've answered these questions, you'll have the fuel you need for Step 2...
2. Build an alternative source of leads
The only thing you need to do to quit social media is delete your profiles. But if you run a business, things are more complicated. Especially if you're reliant on social media for clients and customers. Fortunately, there are a lot of other marketing channels you can use. Live events, ads, referral partnerships, content marketing, speaking. Choose one that fits your personality and start to build that up on the side before quitting.
If you want to figure out what the best marketing strategy is for you, I have a quick quiz you can take at gregfaxon.com/quiz.
3. Decide how hardcore you want to be
I decided to delete my profiles completely because I didn't want to rely on willpower. If you do decide to quit cold turkey, you may want to save your posts and pictures before deleting your profile. But you don't have to quit completely like I did. You could just delete the apps from your phone, or limit your usage to certain hours using an app like Freedom. The more you limit your use of social media, the more reliant you'll be on an alternative source of leads.
Why I Went Back on Social Media Last Year
So I have a confession to make. Technically, I'm still on one social media platform: YouTube.
I'm still off of the platforms I left -- Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn. But I've really been enjoying making and watching long form videos on YouTube. I'll even pop into YouTube shorts occasionally, though I try to limit my usage since it's pretty addictive.
Quitting really allowed me to come back to social media with a blank slate, and see which platforms resonated with me. For example, I created a TikTok account at one point and didn't like how it made me feel, so I didn't continue with it.
Quitting social media forever isn't necessarily the goal. The goal is to become a more conscious and intentional user of these tools. That way, you can engage with them in a way that adds to your life instead of detracts from it.
Even if you just go on a 30 day social media fast, I think you'll come back with more intentionality. You may decide to stay off of certain platforms for good, while coming back to others that you enjoy or that make a real impact on your business.
3 Years After Quitting: What I've Learned
I read an article years ago that always stuck with me. It was about Paul Miller, a journalist who quit the internet for one year. Not just social media, but email, websites, everything.
He was hoping that not using the internet would change his life. That he'd somehow become a different version of himself. But what he found was that he just distracted himself with other things instead. And by the end, he felt a lot less connected to other people.
I think a lot of us have these fantasies about leaving our addictions behind. Whether that's social media, drinking, video games. We create this narrative that without those addictions, we'll become totally different people. And sometimes that's true. But in my case, life didn't change that much.
My business continued to grow, but I still needed to market myself in other ways.
I got a little time and focus back, but I still felt anxious and depressed sometimes.
I stayed connected to my friends and family, but it still took intentional effort to stay in touch.
And in some ways, that was my goal. I wanted things to stay the same, just without spending so much time on social media. If those are your expectations, I think they’re very achievable.
I saved all my pictures and posts in a Dropbox folder when I quit social media. And I don't think I've gone back into that folder once. And I don't miss the platforms that I left.
If there's one piece of advice I can give, it's to make a plan for what you're going to do instead of social media.
Deleting your profiles is easy. It's what happens afterwards that you need a plan for. And not just business-wise, but life-wise too. Otherwise, you'll fill that space with other distractions and addictions.
If you want to make a plan together, apply for a complimentary strategy session with me at gregfaxon.com/apply. On the call, we can talk through what it might look like for you and your business to go off of social media.
