Terry the Tortoise and the Utterly Unsexy Secret to Social Media Success

Deep thoughts with a dandelion. Just Terry, his sunglasses and the meaning of life. 🌿😎

Meet Terry.

Terry is a tortoise. Not an Instagram-famous tortoise. Not a tortoise with a lucrative brand partnership selling organic lettuce to millennials. Just… a bog-standard, plodding, no-frills tortoise who spends most of his day walking incredibly slowly towards a dandelion.

And yet, Terry is a marketing genius.

Why? Because Terry understands the one thing most businesses completely ignore when it comes to social media: consistency always wins. Always.

Meanwhile, the Hares of the Business World Are Losing Their Minds

We all know the fable. Hare dashes off at 100mph, gets overconfident, gets distracted (probably by TikTok), takes a nap, and loses to a creature moving at the speed of drying paint.

Hares, in the business world, are the ones who:

• Post five times in one week, declare themselves “content kings,” then vanish for six months.

• Panic-post a blurry product photo with BUY NOW!!! in the caption.

• Reappear three months later with a “We’ve been quiet, but we’re back!” post that nobody noticed was missing.

The problem? They have no staying power.

They sprint, they burn out, and they quit—usually just before things would have started working.

Just like a hostage negotiator, the key to successful customer relationships is building trust and rapport before making any demands.

Meanwhile, Terry Just Keeps Going. And That’s Why He Wins.

Terry doesn’t overthink. He doesn’t panic. He doesn’t have a viral content strategy involving a hastily edited reel of him pointing at captions.

He just takes one step after another, relentlessly, unglamorously, unstoppably—and eventually, he gets to where he’s going.

And that’s exactly how you grow a brand on social media.

Terry the Tortoise: slower than WiFi in the countryside but twice as cool. 🐢😎

How to Be Like Terry (And Not Like a Business-Hare Having a Breakdown)

1️⃣ Show Up Regularly (Even If Nobody’s Cheering Yet)

If you post sporadically, people forget you exist. It’s like running a café but only opening on days when you feel like it. People will stop checking if the lights are on.

✅ Post on a schedule you can actually keep (2-4 times a week is great).
✅ SEO win: Regular posting signals to algorithms that your business is alive, improving reach.
✅ Terry tip: He doesn’t wake up and decide, “Nah, not crawling today.” Neither should you.

2️⃣ Post Like You Actually Care (Not Like You’ve Been Kidnapped)

We’ve all seen them: the “It’s Monday!” posts. The “Happy Friday!” with a stock photo of a coffee cup. The blurry picture of a product with “DM us for details.”

These posts exist solely to fill space, which means they do absolutely nothing.

Instead, focus on:
✅ Giving value (share something people actually want to read).
✅ Being relevant (does this post make sense for your brand?).
✅ Telling a story (because stories build trust, and trust builds sales).

Terry doesn’t waste energy. He moves with purpose. Do the same.

Happy Friday! ☕ (But let’s be real—if this is your whole post, Terry the Tortoise is shaking his head in disappointment.)

3️⃣ Social Media Isn’t a Billboard – Stop Shouting, Start Talking

Hares use social media like a megaphone. They shout about their business and expect people to care.

Terry, however, engages. He:

✅ Replies to comments like a real human.
✅ Asks questions in captions.
✅ Supports other businesses instead of ignoring them.

Imagine going to a party and only talking about yourself. That’s what ignoring your audience looks like.

Terry wouldn’t do that. Be like Terry.

4️⃣ The Instant Noodle Lie: Why Social Media Takes Time

One of the biggest reasons businesses give up? Impatience.

Somewhere along the way, we all got convinced that social media is a magic money-printing machine, and if you’re not getting thousands of followers overnight, it’s “not working.”

Here’s what actually happens:

✅ You show up, consistently.
✅ People start to recognise your brand.
✅ People start to trust you.
✅ Trust leads to sales.

📈 SEO bonus: Long-term social activity strengthens your brand’s credibility in search rankings.

This takes weeks, months, years—not days. If Terry wanted fast results, he’d have given up walking in 1986. Instead, he just keeps going.

5️⃣ The Only Reason Most Businesses Fail? They Stop.

Most businesses don’t fail at social media because their content is bad. They fail because they quit before it works.

• They don’t see instant engagement, so they stop.

• They think nobody’s paying attention, so they stop.

• They get bored, so they stop.

But while they’re quitting, Terry is still moving.

And that’s why, when all the hares are burned out and muttering about how “social media doesn’t work,” Terry is crossing the finish line.

Most businesses fail not because their content isn’t good, but because they quit too soon.

The Utterly Unsexy Secret to Winning

Social media is not about speed. It’s not about trends. It’s not about trying to go viral.

It’s about trust. And trust isn’t built overnight.

So if you’re feeling overwhelmed, wondering why your posts aren’t “working,” or tempted to give up—just take a breath. And be like Terry.

Need help getting there? We’ll be your social media support crew—minus the lettuce.

Drop us a message and let’s make your content actually work.