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00:00:01
You Don’t Hate Social Media — You Need Better Boundaries
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Episode Summary:
In this honest and eye-opening episode, I’m unpacking something I hear all the time from photographers: “I hate social media.” But do you really? Or do you just hate how you’re using it?
After a powerful Q&A inside my Course Creation and Autopilot Sales class, I realized this conversation needed to be shared more widely. In this episode, we talk about boundaries, marketing clarity, and why social media isn’t actually your most important business tool, but it does require intention. If you feel drained, frustrated, or resistant when it comes to showing up online, this episode will help you shift your mindset and create a healthier, more strategic relationship with social media.
📌 Key Takeaways:
- Social media is not the most effective marketing tool, email marketing and SEO often convert better.
- The real issue usually isn’t “hate” it’s lack of boundaries and intentional use.
- Doom scrolling, comparison, and procrastination create resentment toward social media.
- Scheduling content and using social media with purpose gives you your time (and power) back.
- The true goal of social media marketing should be converting followers into email subscribers.
- School photography and SEO can grow your email list more effectively than relying solely on Instagram.
Links & Resources:
📩 Download my FREE Guide to Starting & Growing Your Email List
📸 Learn more about adding School Photography to your business
💬 Connect with me on Instagram @elenasblair_photography
Subscribe & Review:
If you loved this episode, make sure to subscribe and leave a review! We just celebrated 20,000 downloads, and your support helps the podcast reach more photographers like you. 💛
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Transcript
Introduction and Inspiration
00:00:01
Elena Blair
What is up, empowered photographer? I am back at you today with something that came up in Q&A call. in my course creation and autopilot sales class. And it was such a juicy conversation that I wanted to bring it to the podcast. So welcome. If you're new here, I give short, sweet, bite-sized information. When I do my solo episodes, I keep them so that you can have very real actionable tips that you take away immediately. And I also have inspired conversations, inspired coaching sessions, and are empowered, excuse me. And I'm just so glad that you're here.
00:00:41
Elena Blair
A lot is happening behind the scenes here at the podcast. Big things are happening for my little podcast. So if you're listening, make sure that you give us a five-star review.
Social Media vs SEO and Email Marketing
00:00:49
Elena Blair
All right. So let's talk about your relationship with social media.
00:00:53
Elena Blair
Now, here's something I hear when I'm teaching about marketing. all the time. Now, the truth is that for your photography business, I actually believe that social media is really the least effective marketing strategy that there is. it just isn't necessary. You can market your business with search engine optimization and email more effectively.
00:01:13
Elena Blair
But you do need somewhat of a social media presence. You definitely do. But when you step into the educator world and you want to create a class and you want to create influence and impact in our industry, you are going have to show up on social media. And what some of my students will say, or a lot of people will say, is I hate social media.
00:01:36
Elena Blair
And i would really want you to have a very real conversation with yourself. Do you hate social media or do you just not know how to effectively use it to market your photography business or your education platform?
00:01:53
Elena Blair
And if you still say you hate it, i want you to do another thing. And I want you to look at the time that you spent on Instagram, on Facebook, excuse me, on Pinterest, on TikTok, whichever is your favorite.
00:02:10
Elena Blair
Go check and see how many hours you spent on those apps yesterday, today, last week. And the truth is you're going to do that and you're going to probably find that you spent a significant amount of time there. So the problem is not that you hate social media.
Managing Social Media Usage
00:02:28
Elena Blair
The problem is, is that you do not have boundaries with it. I have been using social media to market my education business for many years, a decade.
00:02:39
Elena Blair
And so I am there, i do spend time there, but I have very real work boundaries with my social media use. I schedule every piece of content that you see, unless it is a direct to story.
00:02:56
Elena Blair
um like I'm talking to a story, it's all scheduled. It is all intentional and it all has a real purpose. And that purpose is to drive revenue to my business by converting my Instagram followers to email lists, subscribers. And if I show up,
00:03:14
Elena Blair
but As a photographer on social media for my photography business, the purpose is still the same. I want to convert those followers into email list subscribers so that I can get them on my calendar effectively.
00:03:28
Elena Blair
That's it. Now, if you feel like you don't like social media, it might be that you have a boundary issue with it. that you are using it in a toxic way to doom scroll, to procrastinate, to compare yourself to other photographers in a way that is not healthy, not just to get inspiration, but to compare yourself.
00:03:51
Elena Blair
And so I want to ask you very to make a very honest assessment of your social media use because I actually love Instagram. And it's because I'm really good at creating boundaries there. And when I go on it for fun, hey, I'm totally guilty of doom scrolling and procrastinating there.
00:04:09
Elena Blair
I don't claim to hate it. I take ownership of my use of
Building an Email List
00:04:13
Elena Blair
it. And I know that everything that I have scheduled is working so effectively for me that I don't have to feel bad for that time that I just wasted on social media.
00:04:23
Elena Blair
So if you truly want to learn how to market your business without social media, I will leave a link to my um guide to getting started with an email list because that is the most valuable asset in my business. If you've been listening to the podcast, you've heard me talk about that before. So that's something that I would really encourage you to download to get started on growing your email list. And don't tell me you don't have any subscribers.
00:04:47
Elena Blair
We all started at zero. and Do I use Instagram to grow my email list? I do, but I grow my email list mostly from my school photography segment of my business.
Leveraging School Photography
00:04:58
Elena Blair
for my photography business and my search engine optimization my school photography segment alone puts thousands of subscribers on my email list that turn into family and newborn and maternity clients so if this is the first that you have heard about school photography i will leave a link about getting started with school photography in the show notes as well because that is also an extremely effective way to market your business even one school 20 children Now you have 20 people that you can ask to opt into your email list and become those people that you can email to invite to get on your calendar. Now it is a in-depth strategy that I'm not going to go to completely into here, but if you don't want to use social media for your business, there are actually more
Mastermind Class Insights
00:05:47
Elena Blair
effective ways. But I just wanted to do this really casual, candid strategy.
00:05:52
Elena Blair
episode to have you really do a gut check. Is it that you don't like social media or that you don't know how to effectively use it to market your business? And if you don't truly understand marketing, brand clarity and messaging, well, then it's going to be very hard to use any marketing platform to market your business. But that's for another episode. And that is what we go into in my mastermind in depth.
00:06:16
Elena Blair
So just check yourself. Social media does not have to be this terrible thing. And if it is that for you, then it's probably that you're spending too much time on it. But if you learn how to create effective marketing strategies on any platform, then you won't hate it
Conclusion and Reflection
00:06:33
Elena Blair
anymore. And if you learn how to schedule and get your time back,
00:06:37
Elena Blair
You won't hate it anymore. So this is just a real talk situation. I just wanted to come at you with that. You don't hate social media. You probably just have boundary issues and totally possible to change your usage.
00:06:52
Elena Blair
All right, everyone. Thanks a lot, empowered listeners. I'll see you in the next episode.