Platforms or Megaphones: The Use-cases of Social Media for Business

The Client:

Derek runs a rather successful social media marketing company and has done work for brands like Dan Martell and Gary Vaynerchuk. His strengths lie in the precision of his team operations, his talent for coaching clients to shine on camera, his ability to craft effective content strategies for business growth, and his heart-warming charisma.

The Problem:

Despite his success, many prospects came in hoping to boost follower counts. Naturally, Derek assumed they were trying to build influencer-style pages, which is not part of his offerings because it doesn’t make much sense to hire out a large firm to make the kind of authentic, self-made content that you would usually implement for such things. So, his initial thought was to reject those customers because he couldn’t serve them properly.

But the issue wasn’t the clients—it was their understanding of social media marketing, itself.

The Answer:

These clients were simply operating on false assumptions—namely, that growing a follower count directly correlates with increased sales. This is a common misnomer, especially among newbies to social media marketing.

Most people’s understanding of how brand growth on social media works comes from watching influencer brands since their strategy is the one that’s the most visible—gain a reliable audience, and get them to keep watching your content over and over again. So, when many newcomers dive into content marketing, they default to follower growth as the primary performance indicator.

But follower count only tells you how many people enjoy your content enough to subscribe to more. It doesn’t tell you if they like your product. It reflects charisma, not conversion.

If your goal is direct sales, your strategy needs to optimize for different metrics entirely: engagement 🤓, watch time ⌛, saves 📚, shares 🔂, and the kinds of comments that signal intent 💸 or interest 🤩—exactly what Derek’s company is built to do.

When used for business, social media should be seen less as a stage for popularity and more as a platform for free message distribution—an amplifier for content that educates, excites, or converts, with the bonus that the algorithm will carry your content to more people if it's exciting.

Our Solution:

An educated client is one that knows enough to know what they want. Derek doesn’t need to change who he serves—he needs to change how he sells and onboards them. Educating these clients early about his process and the real use-cases of social media for business is what is going to make the difference in how easy his onboarding will be—and what prospects' expectations will be when they show up to the discovery call.