How to market a business without using social media
Founders bootstrapping a new company often lack the camera confidence, outgoing personality, or extra budget needed to hire an external agency. This forces them to handle all promotion alone while feeling terrified of being perceived as awkward, which stops them from putting themselves out there effectively.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1blocking people you know on social media to reduce anxietyDid this help you?
- 2focusing on blogging and SEO instead of video contentDid this help you?
- 3documenting product processes instead of acting as an online personalityDid this help you?
- 4bootstrapping marketing efforts entirely on one's own without a teamDid this help you?
- 5Treating selling like another task on the list rather than relying on natural talentDid this help you?
- 6Hiring someone else to handle sales and marketing using business capitalDid this help you?
- 7Talking to five potential customers to validate the idea before investing savingsDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“I’ve been thinking about starting a small business for a while now, but honestly i’ve never considered myself a business person”source ↗
“I’m not naturally good at selling, negotiating, networking, or even talking about money lol. I’m more comfortable just doing the actual work”source ↗
“I have an idea that i genuinely think could work, and i keep coming back to it even after talking myself out of it a bunch of times”source ↗
“I am not a social media person by any means, and seeing trends now and how socials are handled, I have no idea how to go about putting myself out there and I'm honestly terrified. Im not photogenic, I'm awkward, and not super outgoing.”source ↗
“I tried to find a social media person that might help, but I'm even struggling to find someone to hold me hand.”source ↗
“I'm bootstrapping myself right now so everything has to be done by me. It might be easier if I was a natural in front of the camera, but I'm not.”source ↗
“I'm worried aboit being awkward or weird, or just posting and no one cares.”source ↗
“Most of my funding is going into to vendor setups, legal registrations, and things like samples, product lab testing, etc. I don't that big of a budget to have a whole team, so it's just my manufacturer and whatever I can do alone to start.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 3Are social media marketing tools actually good enough for professional use?
- 8How to get business clients without word of mouth
- 5Why does posting daily on social media not bring in customers?
- 9Why is my new social media account getting zero views?
- 28How to get first paying customers without an audience
- 9How to launch a physical product with zero audience