Increasingly U.S. users of social media are considering leaving social media platforms . Your clients and customers might be among those who want to leave—or actually do. Social media use has steadily declined since 2022 , with Gen Z and millennials leading the charge. You yourself might want to leave as well, but what happens to a small business quitting social media? Will your business survive?

I started my mentoring business in late 2018, took it online in 2020 and used Instagram and Facebook from the beginning. And in 2021, I left social media and never looked back.

In October 2021 I planned a two-week social media break, which meant a break from Instagram, since I’d been phasing out Facebook already. A mental health crisis extended my break: by the time I was back on my feet in the spring of 2022, I realised that I had no desire to return to social media, and that my business didn’t require it either. What’s more, as I reviewed my marketing, my accidental choice became a strategic choice.

In my conversations with small business owners, many of them share their struggles with social media. They feel that their efforts to market on social media are never enough, and resent having to constantly feed the algorithm. But they also feel like they can’t really leave.

Leaving social media is often seen as only available to those businesses that have a large following elsewhere, or have built up so much brand awareness they pretty much can’t fail—like the cosmetics company Lush in 2021 (although it has since returned to social media in the form of Bluesky in July 2026 ).

My business wasn’t big in any way in late 2021. I had less than 500 followers on Instagram, a smallish newsletter list (less than 250 subscribers), and while I was making some sales, my business was in its early stages.

So how do new clients and customers find me if I don’t use social media?

How New Clients Find Me Without Social Media

In 2023, my newsletter list grew from 265 to over 800 subscribers within 2 months. Previously, it had taken me over 3 years to get to 250 subscribers. The source of all of these new subscribers was a single podcast interview. Over 3 years on, this interview continues to bring in new readers, and new clients and customers explicitly name it as the reason they decided to work with me.

Outreach, such as guest posts or podcast interviews, can be a valuable way of growing your audience. But in order for that audience to actually convert, they need more. In a podcast interview, listeners discover you and get to know you some. Before people are ready to spend money, especially on high ticket items, they need to get to know you better. A newsletter is a great way to do that. Looking back over the past couple of years, it’s rare that a new client isn’t a newsletter subscriber first.

Moving Away From Social Media

Social media can be great if you enjoy it—but if you’re a one-person business, keeping up with a variety of social media channels daily can be costly.

Instead, think about the ways of marketing that suit your business and you better. How can new people discover your business, get to know your business, and begin to trust it? Which forms of marketing come easier to you? And don’t forget about SEO, GEO and AEO : powerful ways of being findable without needing to be online all the time.

Social media isn’t the be-all and end-all of small business marketing. The most sustainable marketing is the kind you can keep up with, and that fits your business and your way of working first and foremost.