Should founders run social media?
Originally written in Chinese. Translated with AI, reviewed by Gary. Read the Chinese original →
Today I watched Boss Not Going Home 2, the episode where Xiao Ma interviews Edmund about Bungkus Kaw Kaw and Ah Cheng Laksa. Xiao Ma's production is first-class, no question. It was my first time getting to know Edmund as a boss. He has real character, and I like him a lot. I used to eat Ah Cheng Laksa back when I worked in a mall, and never imagined there was this kind of story and team behind something I ate all the time. After watching, I understand the brand a bit better. Well worth watching if you're interested.
But what I want to talk about today is a question from a woman in the episode.
Roughly: she runs her own business, the company has only five people, she already has a lot to handle, and on top of that she films videos and runs social media herself, editing until midnight with barely enough time to sleep. She's exhausted. Should she keep doing it?
When I heard that, I figured a lot of founders would be nodding. By day you look after customers, staff and the business; at night you get home and have to think about what content to post tomorrow. Being the boss ends with you being the video editor too.
But I think several questions are mixed up here.
Should the company run social media?
For most SMEs today that need to find customers and build a brand, I'd treat it as a required question.
But should the boss personally build a personal brand?
That, I think, is optional. And whether the filming, editing and copywriting all have to be done by the boss personally is another matter again.
Viewers now hold the remote
Let's zoom out a bit.
When we watched TV, we watched whatever the station showed. When a programme we liked cut to ads halfway through, we often just sat through them, afraid of missing what came next if we switched channels.
Barbershops were the same. I remember as a kid, before Chinese New Year, going to the barbershop near my grandmother's house and sometimes waiting two or three hours. No smartphones, so what did you do? Read magazines, newspapers and Old Master Q comics.
These media made content first, gathered people together, and then sold the ad space in between to businesses. If a brand paid, it got a chance to appear in front of you.
It's still an attention economy today, but viewers have far more choice in their hands.
Open your phone and watch whatever you like. Not interested in this video: swipe. Too long without getting to the point: swipe. An ad that has nothing to do with me: swipe again. How much you spent making it, how many takes the boss did, how late the editing went: viewers don't know. They only need to decide whether to keep watching.
Often they're not even annoyed or particularly put off. They just swipe away.
So where brands used to ask "where should I buy ad space?", now they also have to ask: "why would anyone stop to watch me?"
That's why I think businesses increasingly need to learn to run content. What you sell, what problem you solve, how you differ from others: someone has to say these things out loud. B2C can show customers how the product is used; B2B can show clients how you solve problems, deliver and get things done well. Different businesses suit different platforms and styles, of course, but customers always need some entry point to get to know you.
My warming to these brands after watching the interview today is itself an example. I was already eating the food, but knowing the story behind it changed how I feel about it.
Of course, it doesn't mean companies without social media have no business. Some do very well through repeat customers, referrals and channels. But if you want more strangers to get to know you, you have to answer: where will they discover me? And why should they trust me?
Social media has become a hard place to ignore.
A personal brand is optional
But that's a different thing from the boss having to build a personal brand.
Founders speaking for themselves have a founder's advantages. They know why they started and why they insist on certain things, and they find it easier to express the brand's personality. But not every boss likes being on camera, and not every business needs the boss out in front.
If you sell food, you can film how the food is made. If you sell clothes, you can show outfits, fabrics, and how they look on different body types. If you sell a service, you can share the problems customers often face, how you handle them, and case studies. It can be the team on camera, customers sharing their experience, or no faces at all, explaining things through visuals, voice-over, photos or text.
A boss who's a good talker has an advantage. A beautiful product, a professional team or an interesting process can be advantages too. There's no need to see another boss go viral and assume you must take the same road.
And deciding to appear on camera yourself doesn't mean you have to handle all the work behind it.
It only counts if you can keep it up
What I think that woman should really reconsider is whether her current approach can last. If every video only gets made because the boss stays up all night, then look at which content can be simpler, which steps can be handed off, and what can be dropped for now.
With a five-person company and a limited budget, I understand it isn't solved by just saying "hire someone". But we can start with one platform and one format we can manage. A customer asked a question today, so record the answer. There's a detail in the work worth sharing, so film it while you're at it. It doesn't always need a separate script and hours of editing to make it spectacular.
Don't know how? Learn. Ask AI, study how others express things, try slowly. AI can also help organise ideas, write first drafts and handle subtitles. But the premise is still: what do you actually have that's worth telling customers?
There's another question to remember: what do we want this content to bring?
People watching is nice, of course, but is it attracting the right customers? Are there more enquiries? When customers come to you, do they already understand and trust you more? Some content gets few views but brings the right business. Some content is very lively, and after watching, people still don't know what you sell.
A founder's time is a cost too. We're used to counting how much we spend on ads, but rarely count the hours the boss spends every night.
How the company gets seen, understood and trusted is a question the founder has to answer. Social media is worth doing seriously, a personal brand is optional, and how you execute should be arranged around your own business and resources.
Starting a business is genuinely hard. When the company is small, you have to learn everything and may have to step in for anything.
I get that.
It's just that being responsible for these things as a founder doesn't mean every step must always be done by you.
We run social media to help the company find more opportunities. So as we go, it's worth pausing to ask: is this approach actually helping the business? And can we keep doing it?