Sometimes I like to talk to other small business owners about how they do what they do. How do you get X done? Have you ever dealt with Y? I overcame Z by doing… that sort of thing. A back and forth. What I don’t like – and I just figured this out – is business advice by someone who’s business is giving advice. For the longest time I thought maybe I just didn’t get what business advisers were telling me, like maybe I was too thick to understand, but what I’ve come to realize is that for the most part, when evaluating/advising a small one-person craft business run at home, those people are full of shit.
Here are some recent article titles I’ve been advised to read….
12 Ways to Improve Your Social Media Profiles in One Hour or Less
– I got through the first paragraph of this one which chided the reader for having a blurry contact photo, an old email address, and a previously-held title or job description. Seriously, are we children? If you want me to read your article don’t start out with a lecture, I’m not a three year old. Also, who would use a blurry picture of themselves when representing their company IN THE FIRST PLACE? Ugh.
5 Easy Ways to Refresh Your LinkedIn Profile
– … people use LinkedIn?
The Facebook Algorithm: What You Need to Know to Boost Organic Reach
– I’m so, so tired of being told that Facebook is the best way to reach people but in the same breath that it’s impossible to reach people on Facebook so here’s how to game the system.
7 Creative Snapchat Tips to Improve Your Stories
– I don’t use Snapchat. I’m one person, already using a personal and a work Facebook account, a personal and a work Google + account, a personal and a work Twitter account, a personal and a work blog, and Instagram, and Pinterest, and Ravelry. Out of those I’ve pretty much stopped using Twitter, I’ve fallen behind in blogging, and Pinterest gives me a headache. Snapchat? Just, no.
The Best Time to Post on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram in 2016
– because it changes from year to year and like a tiger chasing its tail, I should run around posting to all these different places at different times of the day, catering to the elusive “like” or “heart”? When am I supposed to get any WORK done?!
18 of the Best Google Chrome Extensions for Social Media Marketers
– so, in other words, eighteen more things I need to check in a day? Ugh. No thank you.
Do you see a trend, here? All these articles are about how to share on social media, how to get views on social media, how to work social media to the best of your business’s advantage. Not a single thing here is about how to juggle home and work responsibilities when you work where you live. No articles about how to incorporate time to work out kinks in new products when you need to be selling perfect things all the time. Nothing on what to do with your online shop and/or how to keep in touch with customers when you also need to take a week’s vacation and travel. Absolutely zip on sales tax and how to figure it and what to do if you figure it wrong.
In other words, no USEFUL articles. Just everyone parroting the same things other people have already said and perhaps changing the number of bullet points but still giving it a click-baity title. I’m tired of clickbait. I’m tired of articles being pushed on me that start off by telling me what I’m doing wrong, what I’m not doing enough of, what I can do better.
Do you know what I can do better? Know my business. Know my heart. Know my customer base and where they go and then go there and communicate with them as if they were actual human beings.
Ugh. This rant brought to you by an early morning, too much email, not enough coffee, and a lot of work that needs to be done.