You’re posting. You’re using the hashtags. You’re doing all the things somebody on a webinar told you to do. And nothing’s happening. A couple of likes off your mum and the woman you went to school with.
I get asked about this a lot, so here’s where I’d look first.
Have a read back through your last ten posts and ask yourself who they were for. If they’d make sense coming from any business on earth, they’re too vague. “Need help with your marketing? Get in touch” doesn’t stop anybody. “Salon quiet in January? Here are three things I’d try this week” stops the person it’s meant for, because they know it’s about them.
Then look at what you did after you posted. If you scheduled it and walked off, that’s worth changing before you change anything else. It’s social media. Somebody comments, you reply. Somebody asks a question, you answer it like a person rather than sending them a link. It’s meant to be a conversation.
Have a think about whether you’re even in the right place. Not every business needs Instagram. If the people who buy from you are women in their fifties, they might well be on Facebook and nowhere near TikTok. One platform done regularly will do more for you than four done badly, and you can always add another one later when the first one’s ticking over.
It might also be working fine and you gave up too early. Social media takes a while. People need to see you a few times before they buy anything, and if you posted solidly for three weeks in March and then stopped, that’s not really a fair test.
And whatever you do on social media, get people onto your email list while you’re doing it. Your followers belong to whoever owns the app. Your subscribers belong to you.