How to improve your relationship with social media

Have you felt like your relationship with social media has changed recently?

Using platforms like Instagram, Facebook and TikTok can have a huge impact on promoting your business, but if you feel like you’re falling out of love then it can be hard to stay motivated. In 2026 with the rise of trends like ‘Analogue year’, going offline and using phone blocker apps it’s easy to see why people are wanting to spend less time online. 

But as business owners, using these platforms is an essential part of our marketing and promoting what we do, so there needs to be a compromise. It is possible to improve your relationship with marketing and show your social media some love this Valentine’s Day so you can enjoy the time you’re spending online.

In this blog I’m going to share 5 ways to bring that old romantic out and woo your chosen platforms so they start to love you back! 

We’ll be using the 5 love languages by Gary Chapman and you might even recognise how these could show up in your other relationships too. 

Physical touch 

The physical touch love language is all about those small (or big!) physical actions like touching, hugs and kisses. 

For small business owners this can often feel like you’ve spent too much time online and miss that in person connection. 

We don’t have to go round hugging and kissing everyone, but the biggest improvement I've seen in my marketing have been the things I've done outside of social media. How can you get out of your bubble and meet someone new?

10 minute task

If you want to improve this part of your business, here’s a quick 10 minute task. Ask yourself what you can do outside of the internet. 

Look for local co-working events, networking or even just going for a walk with a business friend. I often get together with other business owners at a cafe for lunch and co-working and we have so many more ideas when we’re working together. 

Is there a collaboration that would make sense for your business? Maybe there is a local shop you could reach out to that you would love to host an event or be stocked in. There are so many opportunities on our doorstep. Those people are then likely to follow us on social media so it’s a win-win situation! 

Acts of service 

We often do acts of service in our business and relationships without even realising it. These are the things that you do to take care of someone else. 

Making a cup of tea in bed (my personal favourite!) taking out the bins or cooking their favourite meal might be the way you show and receive your love at home. 

So how can we make time to do something for our social media accounts? Does your social media look like and feel like you're taking care of it?

This often shows up as the small things we make a priority in our business. It might seem like updating a page or a link on your website won’t make too much of a difference, but you’d be surprised at the impact it can have if you skip it. 

10 minute task 

Don’t put off those small acts of service that can make a big impact on your customer. 

Set yourself a timer for 10 minutes and look at your social media accounts through the eyes of a potential customer. Be honest! Even if it feels tough. 

Here are some questions you could ask yourself...

• Is it clear what you do? 

• Does your bio need updating? 

• When was the last time you posted? 

• Do you need to change your pinned posts?

• Have you updated your website? 

• Does your sales page link actually work?
  

Make this an act of service you do regularly! When we look after our things they always perform better. It’s a way of showing that you appreciate the platforms we have, aren’t we so lucky that we get to use them for free to promote our businesses? 

Words of affirmation 

The words that you say to yourself, your partner and your social media have an impact. Have you ever noticed that when other people start to talk negatively about social media or the algorithm it impacts how you feel about it too? 

I believe we can really impact how we feel about marketing our businesses with the words we say about it, even if it takes awhile for us to truly believe it. 

If you could say anything about promoting your business right now, what would it be? Now if you said something negative, how can you flip that round to feel like more of an optimistic view of it?

In my membership The Best 90 Days Ever I rarely talk about the algorithm. Who does it benefit for us to complain about it? I encourage all of the members to start seeing social media for what it is, a tool and a chance to connect with other people

10 minute task

Be nice!  How good does it feel when someone says something nice to you? 

This is one of the quickest and easiest things you can do to feel good in your marketing and spread some love to other people. If you feel like you’re missing some connection from your marketing, set your timer for 10 minutes and try some of these! 

• Reply to an email someone sends to let them know you enjoyed reading it 

• Vote in a poll on a story 

• Reply to a story and start a conversation 

• Comment on someone’s Instagram or LinkedIn post 

• Leave a testimonial or review on Google 

• Leave a review about a podcast 

• Write a comment on a blog post 

If we want more engagement we need to be more engaging and also learn how to create that engagement for our platforms too. 

We have the opportunity to build a connection and you're likely to get it back!

Giving and receiving gifts 

Who doesn't love a gift? Some people love to put lots of thought and effort into gift giving and it can be such a powerful love language if you appreciate the time and energy that goes into it. 

Gifts are not just about cost, they can be free things that you know will be valuable. 

Your marketing can be such a gift to your audience and it’s useful to reframe it like that too. If someone signs up to your email list that’s because they want to hear from you. Give them the gift of sharing more and the useful information and knowledge that you have. 

10 minute task 

How can you make your social media a really valuable place to be this month? 

• It might be that you share a really valuable post.

• You could record a video tutorial for your email list

• You could create a new freebie to encourage people to sign up for your email list. 

• You could plan a free workshop or challenge 

How can you create something that makes people think ‘If they’re giving this away for free imagine what it will be like if we pay!’ 

I’ve been trying this by creating lots of smaller freebies to encourage people to join my email list throughout the month. It’s working really well because I use ManyChat to set up an automation so people can just comment something like FEB and they will be sent the link even if I’m not online. 

We often put a lot of pressure on our freebies but taking this approach and making them small, quick and easy has really taken the pressure off but also helped my email list grow quicker! 

Give yourself 10 minutes to think about something valuable you could gift your audience. Write down all the ideas you come up with, nothing is too small or silly!

Quality time  

You don't need to spend a long time on social media, you need to spend quality time. 

One of my goals and aims for this year is to spend less time online. You might feel the same and decide to put in some limits to stop mindless scrolling or pretending to work when you’re at your desk (anyone else or just me?). 

Step away from the laptop and really think about how you can make the most of the time you have. 

10 minute task 

One of the best ways to get the most from the time you’re spending online is by squeezing the juice from your marketing and repurposing your work. 

You’ll have content in your library that can be reused and repurposed, whether it’s a blog post, article, email or even a podcast transcript. 

You could reuse a section of it for a caption, take a few chunks for a carousel post, share part of it as an email or even use that blog post as a script for a podcast. There are so many ways we can get more from the time we’re spending online, use your 10 minutes today to have a go at it!

Show your socials some love 

We are so lucky as small business owners to have access to these tools that make marketing what we do much easier. But sometimes we can forget how to use them, not pay them enough attention or just ghost the relationship completely instead of trying to make things work. 

If you’d like to learn more about how to show your socials some love I’ve created a free 30 minute workshop on all of these points. You can click here to sign up and get access to it straight away! 

I’d love to know which one of these you want to work on in your business first? Pop me a message on Instagram and let me know.