The Social Media Long Game

Melanie Jayjack • June 9, 2025

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Why Social Media is Worth it for Small Businesses

As a creative person, I’ve been offered to be “paid in exposure” more times than I can count. You probably know the type—someone who loves your work but doesn’t have a budget, so they offer to “shout you out” or “tag you on Instagram” in exchange for your time and talent.


It's turned into a bit of a meme: “Exposure doesn’t pay the bills.” And while the memes are hilarious and make a very good point about supporting people, it's not entirely true...


Yes, getting more exposure will not put food on the table...  At least, not today.


But I can tell you from experience that those early moments of exposure—when consistent and intentional—do lead to referrals, recognition, and future sales if you're offering a good product. And that brings us to the topic most small business owners dread: social media.

Playing the Social Media Long Game

Posting on social media as a business often feels like shouting into the void—especially when you’re pouring time and energy into posts that don’t instantly translate into calls and customers. That’s understandable. In a world driven by fast results, it’s easy to dismiss social media as a waste of time.


But here’s the truth:  Social media is a long game.


Think of each post as a drop of water in a glass. Each post, comment, story, or share is a small investment in visibility (aka exposure). Filling a glass drop-by-drop may sound like a waste of time, but if you keep at it, you cup will literally runneth over. You’re not likely to go viral overnight, but you are steadily building a digital presence that helps people recognize, remember, and eventually choose your brand.

What Consistency Really Does

When you show up regularly on social media, even just a few times a month, you’re doing more than just posting for the sake of it:


✅ Building Trust – An active feed shows you’re open, operating, and engaged.


✅ Boosting Credibility – A professional presence reassures potential customers that you're legit. This is especially important with the rise of A.I. generated scam content hitting the web!


✅ Telling Your Story – Social gives you control over your brand voice and narrative. People want to do business with people they feel like this already know.


✅ Staying Top-of-Mind – People may not need you today, but they will eventually.


Social media helps you earn trust over time. Even if you only have a handle full of followers seeing your content in real-time, building up the history of posts makes a big impression on the people finding you for the first time. A business social media page with nothing on it can be a red flag to people shopping for your services.


Overwhelmed? You're Not Alone

I get it—running a business is already a full-time job. Posting content, finding the right hashtags, creating visuals, and keeping up with algorithm shifts? That’s a whole other job. That’s where Graphic Haven comes in.  Whether you just want a handful of posts you can go to when you're struggling or someone to take the reins entirely, we tailor our social media content services to your needs and your budget. Unlike big marketing agencies, we can keep our prices low because there's less overhead to build into our fees. You can check out our packages here or call to design something that's the perfect fit.


We’re not here to sell you on overnight success. We’re here to build something real, authentic, and sustainable—brick by brick, post by post. So no, you can’t fill your shopping car with exposure today.  But the right kind of exposure can absolutely feed your business tomorrow.


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