Social Media Doesn't Work for My Business Model (And Other Lies You Tell Yourself)

We have a client that had no digital footprint. They have been in business for 20+ years and didn't use social media, didn't have an active Google page, and users thought they were closed. How we took them from having nothing digitally to scaling their online presence in just 6 months.

Have you ever thought, "I don't think that social media marketing works for my business model. We have tried it and realized that it's not for us"? That question can have high credibility, especially if your approach wasn't a well-thought-out or strategic one.

It's not that it doesn't work for you; it's how can I use it for my business. Most business owners that I have had conversations with believe that they do not need to build out a strategy because they sometimes see it as a generational thing. We don't need to do TikTok dances or have any influencers to sell our product. We are just not in that space.

That thought is the same thought that is going to halt your ability to use social media to bring awareness to your business.

To give you some clear insights, Meta reported in July 2025 that they had 3.48 billion daily active users (DAU), and TikTok followed with 1.08 billion DAU.

Having a digital footprint is more important now than ever due to the fact that AI is taking over and people are missing the real touch of human interaction and human implementation on social media. AI is being used for content creation, heavy copywriting, and is being used by humans to benefit themselves, but the paradox in this is that it's creating a real disconnect between what is real and what is fake. Your brand needs to have a human touch, specifically your touch, or it's going to sound like everyone else.

Now, this is going to lead to my next discussion on how social media can be used in your business effectively. Your business is most likely in the commercial or residential space, but the truth is, it doesn't matter. You can be in any vertical, and social media can benefit your business.

Here is my approach to this, and I want to help you have a new perspective on your business model and how to benefit from social media.

Posting Daily or Weekly

‍If you are not trying to go viral, then don't try to go viral. It's that simple. Your goal for your business isn't to go viral. Viral doesn't equal sales.Your posts should have some type of inspiration along with the values your business brings, like:

• Customer testimonials
• Employee testimonials
• Job deliverables
• Project scopes—if you have a price tag, put it on
• Stories that create relevance and highlight them so the viewer can see more inside the business

Social Advertising Awareness campaigns

‍Awareness isn't designed to build lead gen, but to help the viewer understand who you are and what you provide. This is like television or radio ads—it's to prove a point and keep your brand top of mind.

Engagement campaigns

‍This is perfect if you are trying to see if your copy has strong credibility, if your hook is strong, or even if it will generate responses like comments and likes. If you want to see how a campaign will perform well, this is where you can test it. Both awareness and engagement are cheap.

Sales/Clicks/Lead Gen Campaigns

‍This is where you have tested your waters in awareness/engagement and you are comfortable with running your campaign with spending a little bit more money to generate leads based on data that you were given.

We discussed how social media can benefit your business model in which way. Remember, your business will operate and look differently, but don't rule it out because you had the wrong approach. You may not need to generate sales from social media, but you can build a new relationship with someone who may need what you offer and they found your credibility through social media.

Let me show you exactly how this strategy worked with our 20-year client.

We started with this client in the beginning of 2025; it took about a year for them to sign up (our relationship started in 2024) with us, and we had to prove we know what we are doing.

Out of the gates, nothing worked. Why? Google showed they were closed. Yelp showed they were closed. They didn't have any social media content, and they had nothing to show for their business. It was like we were starting from scratch with a startup company.

So what did we do? We started building out their marketing strategy system. We got them on Google Local Service Ads, we built them a beautiful website, we started posting on social media to build up brand equity. It wasn't until month 6 that we actually started building tangible results that helped them build a sales funnel.

Why did it take six months to build? Every month we had an approach. That approach was creating more content, getting videos to present project scopes, and to use in social media and on the website. What it did was help the prospective client see real activity and real-world work. They were able to build out a trust factor for the person on the other side looking in to see that they were who they said they were and they did what they said they would do. This human touch—real people doing real work—is exactly what stands out in a world of AI-generated content.

After months of working and building that section of marketing strategy out, we knew it was time to spend money that was going to bring actionable results. So we had a team meeting and discussed what that would look like, what was needed, and how that campaign approach should work and what we expected from it.

The moment we launched that ad, we crafted a clean video and had copy that was relevant to the video. We utilized Meta's Advantage+ (their AI-powered targeting system) and pointed the ad to a lead gen funnel we created using Typeform (an interactive form builder) with image selection and questions they needed to type out to have a stronger opt-in.

This campaign generated over 60 leads at a cost per lead of $6.

Most Meta lead gens are cheap and inexpensive; most of the time the reasoning is because it's utilizing Meta's lead gen, which people don't have to fill out, and Meta fills it out for them. From us moving away from that, we had high-quality leads that answered their phones, and they ended up closing sales at a low cost. When people take the time to manually fill out forms, it shows genuine interest and intent—they're not just clicking a button.

To summarize this message, your business can benefit from social media; it's just the approach in how you do it.

My name is Daniel Rochin, and I am the CMO at Active Digital Marketing. With over 18 years of digital marketing experience, my goal in these letters is to help you and your business thrive through these times utilizing AI and the integration of these platforms to scale your business.

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