This transcript was generated from the episode audio and may contain minor errors.
Social media advice can be confusing and contradictory. Today we've got a question from a bootstrapped side hustler, somebody who doesn't have a lot of money to spend, which is a big part of our audience. Or even if you have money to spend, you don't necessarily need to spend money on your side hustle. That is a key point of our podcast. Start lean, don't invest until you know your project is going to work. So we've got this
guy. He doesn't have the bandwidth to film TikToks, design, carousel posts, craft LinkedIn, think pieces all at once, sub stack, you know, everything else, every other platform that's out there these days. The solution of course, isn't work harder. It is work where the payoff is highest. So Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, all these other ones, how do you choose posting everywhere spreads you thin posting in the right place compounds momentum. So let's give this side
hustler, his name is Diego. We're going to give him a litmus test and hopefully this will be helpful to our listeners as well. I'm going to help you choose a home base that matches your brand and buyer behavior. Don't waste your time on social media, spend it effectively detailed question and my answer coming right up. Hey, Chris, this is Diego from Bakersfield, California. I'm launching a custom leather wallet brand on a shoestring budget. Conventional wisdom
says be everywhere. Instagram reels, TikTok trends, LinkedIn founder posts, but trying to post daily on three platforms already feels like a full time job. How do I choose the single best channel to pour my limited time into and what criteria, audience demographics, algorithm reach content style should drive that choice. Thanks in advance for any advice. When people make these decisions, sometimes they think, well, which social network do I like? And for a lot of things, that's totally
fine. But I do think for a side hustle, if you're like my business, you know, my purpose of this business is to grow the business and to make money. I think it's actually more helpful to say, you know, where are my buyers? Like, where are my buyers, my potential customers or clients? Where do they hang out? Where am I most likely to reach them? And then not just where am I most likely to
reach them, but where am I most likely to influence their purchasing decisions? And I think this is what people skip all the time and end up wasting a lot of time than on social media. So where do people let's see this business is what leather wallets, where do leather wallet buyers hang out? You know, Instagram could be good, maybe even Instagram ads could be good at a certain point once we've established, you know, a pretty good conversion rate for people who come to the website, see the products, etc. But then also think which platform favors the kind of content you can consistently create? Like, are you doing great videos? Can you shoot polished macro shots
of your stitching? Do you want to talk a lot about the product? Well, maybe TikTok is better for that. LinkedIn prefers like founder stories, you know, like text based stories. And so like leather crafts, making things might feel out of context there, it's much more of a B2B kind of space. But then to focus on the monetization path, you can ask how quickly can the platform move a
follower toward purchase? Well, Instagram has built in shop and product tagging, like the people, you know, your customer sees the ad, they tap a button, the wallet is in their cart, they check out. I mean, that's great, right? TikTok also allows shops, but the adoption is a little bit early, is very much focused on, you know, larger ad budgets. LinkedIn is terrible at this, at least at the time I'm recording, they don't really have a great post to check out. So honestly,
your fastest route to revenue could be Instagram. So based on all of that, without knowing more, I tend to think in this case, the fastest route to revenue is likely Instagram. Run that by your skills, your ability to make videos, what you feel most comfortable doing. But I think if all things are equal, that's where I would go. And overall, if you're not making leather wallets, you just want to make this decision for something else, choose the platform where your buyers are already scrolling, where your native content style shines, and the path to purchase is shortest.
Don't forget that one. All right. Listeners, I know this is a burden for a lot of people, social media, they feel really burdened by it. So I do encourage you, you know, don't worry about trying to post everywhere. Even if you try posting somewhere for a while and you get sick of it, it's okay, right? It's okay. Like it's good to be consistent. But if something isn't working,
it's also okay to let it go for a while and do something different. I do feel like there's a lot of fatigue in the social media world these days, as it continues to evolve as well. So take care of yourself first. There's more than one way to win in this world. If you have a comment or question, sidehustleschool.com more episodes there as well. 3200 plus available for download
or streaming all free. New episodes out every day. Thanks for tuning in. My name is Chris Guillebeau. This is Side Hustle School. From the Onward Project.
