At the end of last year, I decided to take a short break from social media over the holiday season like I usually do. This time however, once January came around, I decided to extend that break for about a month as an experiment...which has since turned into an indefinite hiatus for the past six months.
I mostly decided to take a break for mental health reasons--I found myself scrolling on Tiktok for far more time than felt personally healthy, and I really struggled with comparison when I was using Instagram for my business. I wasn't sure how quitting a primary source of marketing for my livelihood would impact my business, but I figured it would be worth an experiment. So here's what happened.
Revenue
After I made the social media change, from January 1st to June 14th Yardia's revenue increased by a whopping 31% compared to the same period in 2022. For reference, the prior increase in that same period from 2021 to 2022 had been 10%, so that was a significant change.
Because I'd gained time that would had been previously spent scrolling on social media, photographing products or recording videos, writing copy, scheduling posts and responding to dm's and comments, I now was able to make some changes to how I ran Yardia that made a far greater impact on the health and long-term sustainability of the business than Instagram was ever able to do.
What I did instead
So here's what I did instead of social media. In business, I spent more targeted time focusing on wholesale outreach and took on a few leadership roles, while also taking more time off for a bit of work-life harmony.
In business, I:
- Sent cold outreach emails to 882 stores I was interested in working with
- Set up systems and automations for follow up with current wholesale customers
- Took a course on overseas manufacturing
- Developed two new product lines
- Volunteered on committees for Noted Expo, Noted@Noted Awards, and the Makers of Color Pitch Program through the Greeting Card Association
- Served as a Louies Awards judge
- Took on a contract job as a community leader in the Proof to Product Labs community
- Reorganized my inventory storage system
- Made updates to SEO and back-end changes in my wholesale and ecommerce online platforms
- Created and launched my Q2 collection, and began to design the Q3 collection
Plus, I:
- Read and listened to more books than I read the entirety of last year
- Repaired, painted and redesigned my home's mud room, guest bathroom and a utility closet
- Planted a spring garden
- Visited botanical gardens every month
- Adopted and raised new chicks for the backyard flock
- Took at least a half day off every Friday
The past six months have been so rewarding that my social media hiatus will continue for the time being. Although I might return someday, for now the best way to stay up to date on Yardia releases, events and updates is by signing up for my weekly email newsletter.