Winning at Social Media Without Beating Competitors

Most solopreneurs say they “want to win” on social media. More followers. More leads. More sales.

But the truth is closer to Seth Godin’s point: what everybody wants is what they want. When you look at your own behavior—what you post, what you avoid, what you measure, what you’re willing to repeat—you’ll usually find you don’t actually want the same “win” you say you want.

This matters in the Small Business Social Media USA world because the platforms reward clarity and consistency. If your definition of winning is fuzzy, your marketing becomes a string of random attempts. If your definition is precise, your content starts compounding.

“Everybody wants to win” is usually false in business

“Everybody wants to win” works as a sports line because games have a scoreboard. Social media for small business owners doesn’t.

On Instagram, LinkedIn, TikTok, YouTube, and even email, there’s no universal “score.” There are trade-offs—and you’re making them every week.

Your real definition of winning shows up in your choices

If you say you want leads, but you only post polished brand photos and never make an offer, you’re not trying to win leads. You’re trying to win approval.

If you say you want authority, but you avoid having a point of view because you don’t want pushback, you’re not trying to win authority. You’re trying to win comfort.

If you say you want growth, but you keep restarting strategies every two weeks, you’re not trying to win growth. You’re trying to win novelty.

A sentence I come back to often is this: Your strategy is what you do repeatedly, not what you write in a doc.

“All things being equal” never applies to solopreneurs

Seth’s post points out something leaders often ignore: even committed professionals don’t have equal circumstances.

For solopreneurs, that gap is even bigger:

• You’re the strategist and the executor.
• You’re doing client work while trying to market.
• You might be managing childcare, health issues, or a second job.
• You’re operating without a team to keep momentum.

So the right question isn’t “How do I beat everyone?” It’s: What kind of winning is realistic, sustainable, and worth the cost for me right now?

A better way to “win”: build an audience you don’t have to fight for

If you’re competing head-to-head in a crowded market, social media starts to feel like a daily tryout.

There’s a better approach: win by being meaningfully different, then build an audience around that difference.

Differentiation beats competition for one-person businesses

A solopreneur rarely wins by outspending, outposting, or outproducing bigger brands. You win by:

• choosing a narrower promise
• speaking to a clearer “who”
• showing your process and point of view
• making it obvious why your approach is not generic

One strong positioning line can save you months of content confusion.

Here’s a practical example:

• Generic: “I do social media management for small businesses.”
• Different: “I help US-based home service businesses book jobs from Instagram without daily posting.”

The second one isn’t “better” because it’s more clever. It’s better because it gives your content a spine. Now you know what to talk about, what to ignore, and what a win looks like.

Social media “winning” is usually about problem-solving, not performing

Platforms reward content that helps people do something:

• decide
• avoid a mistake
• get a result faster
• feel understood
• learn a repeatable method

If you want a durable audience, don’t focus on “going viral.” Focus on being useful to a specific group, every week.

A snippet-worthy rule: Virality is a lottery ticket; usefulness is a retirement account.

Set your scoreboard: the 3 metrics that actually matter

The fastest way to burn out is to chase a scoreboard you didn’t choose.

For the Small Business Social Media USA series, I push readers toward a simple model: one metric for reach, one for trust, one for revenue. Three numbers max.

1) Reach metric: “Are the right people seeing me?”

Pick one:

• average views per short-form video
• impressions per post
• profile visits per week
• email list growth from social

This isn’t vanity if it’s tied to the right audience.

Target to start: grow this by 10–20% over 30 days. That’s ambitious but doable without magical thinking.

2) Trust metric: “Do they come back and engage?”

Pick one:

• saves + shares per post (often a better signal than likes)
• replies in DMs
• comments that show intent (“I needed this,” “How do I do this?”)
• repeat viewers on video

If you want leads, you need evidence that people see you as a guide, not a billboard.

3) Revenue metric: “Does content create conversations?”

Pick one:

• consult calls booked from social
• qualified inbound DMs
• email subscribers who click to an offer
• purchases attributed to a campaign

A lot of solopreneurs get stuck because they won’t track this. They say they want sales, but what they really want is to avoid the discomfort of asking.

Make it measurable anyway.

Social media is not your business model. It’s your distribution system.

Create conditions that make “winning” more likely (without hype)

Seth’s point about culture and systems translates cleanly to solopreneurs: you need a personal marketing system that respects your constraints.

Here are the conditions that make winning more likely—especially in February, when motivation dips and Q1 goals start feeling heavier.

Build a content system that works on low-energy weeks

If your plan only works when you feel inspired, it’s not a plan.

Try this structure:

• One “pillar” post/week (a detailed LinkedIn post, a YouTube video, or a blog post)
• Three “support” posts/week (clips, carousels, quotes, before/after examples)
• One direct offer/week (yes, weekly)

That’s five posts. For many one-person businesses, it’s the sweet spot: enough repetition to build recognition, not so much that you collapse.

Decide your “no’s” upfront

Most small business owners don’t fail because they’re lazy. They fail because they try to win every game at once.

Write down three no’s for the next 60 days:

• “No new platforms.”
• “No trend-chasing unless it fits my promise.”
• “No posting without a call-to-action at least once a week.”

Constraints create consistency.

Script your CTAs so you don’t avoid selling

If you wait to “feel natural” making an offer, you’ll postpone it forever.

Use simple, repeatable CTAs:

• “If you want my checklist, comment ‘CHECKLIST’ and I’ll DM it.”
• “If you’re hiring for this, message me ‘HIRE’ and I’ll send details.”
• “If you want me to look at your profile, book a 15-minute fit call.”

You can rotate these without turning your feed into an infomercial.

Common solopreneur scenarios (and what winning looks like)

A lot of advice collapses because it ignores circumstance. Here’s what I’ve found works when you define winning by season of life and business stage.

Scenario A: You’re fully booked and secretly don’t want more leads

If you’re at capacity, you don’t need “more leads.” You need better leads or higher prices.

Winning looks like:

• fewer inquiries, higher fit
• content that repels the wrong clients
• a waitlist

Social media strategy: publish behind-the-scenes thinking, your standards, and your “who this is not for.”

Scenario B: You need cash in the next 30–60 days

Winning looks like:

• booked calls
• DMs from qualified buyers
• a simple offer people understand quickly

Social media strategy: more direct CTAs, more proof, fewer abstract posts. You’re not building a museum; you’re building a pipeline.

Scenario C: You’re starting from zero and consistency is the battle

Winning looks like:

• posting on schedule for 6 straight weeks
• collecting 25–100 email subscribers
• getting the first 5–10 “real” conversations

Social media strategy: keep the format simple, repeat topics, and focus on clarity over creativity.

People also ask: “How do I win on social media as a small business?”

Answer: Choose a narrow audience, define one measurable outcome, and post consistently using a repeatable system that includes weekly offers.

If you want a tighter checklist, here’s a clean order of operations:

1. Pick one platform where your buyers already pay attention (LinkedIn for B2B, Instagram/TikTok for local consumer attention, YouTube for intent-based search).
2. Define winning in one sentence (example: “Win = 8 qualified consult calls/month from social”).
3. Create 3–5 repeatable content topics tied to that outcome.
4. Publish a weekly offer people can act on.
5. Review metrics weekly (reach, trust, revenue) and adjust one variable at a time.

Your next step: pick a win you’ll actually pay for

Most companies—and most solopreneurs—get “winning” wrong because they treat it like a universal goal instead of a personal commitment.

If you’re building a one-person business in the US, your advantage isn’t volume. It’s focus. It’s being specific. It’s building an audience that chooses you because your message sounds like it was written for them.

This week, write down your real definition of winning for social media: What result, for whom, by when—and what are you willing to stop doing to make that result more likely?