Don't Depend on Social Media

So yesterday, while Facebook and Instagram were both experiencing outages and many people were having trouble accessing the sites or seeing their feeds, it got me thinking again about social media as a whole, and how much we've come to rely on it. See, I think Blanche DuBois got it wrong. We can't rely on the kindness of strangers - not when it comes to business.

More and more small businesses are choosing to forego having a website of their own in favor of putting all their eggs in the social media basket. The problem with this idea, of course, is that you don't have any control over what Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, or the others choose to do. If they change their platform, it messes up your business in the search results. If they decide to start showing their own ads on your page, or redirecting traffic to competing companies, or jack up the price of making your own ads, or even hold your business page hostage unless you pay them fees for the right to be displayed, you have absolutely no recourse. It's their court, their ball, their rules.

We've become too dependent on other people's platforms and the access it gives us to potential customers. But a lot of us are just shouting into the void, hoping someone hears us. Of course, Facebook is happy to take your money and constantly pushes you to boost posts and create ad campaigns with them - but they don't care if you succeed or not, all they want is your (and everyone else's) money. I think it's important that small businesses make use of these platforms, because they really can help you find an audience if you use them right. But it's important that we don't depend on them. You have to be self-sufficient; to have your own voice, your own platform, your own landing page. If you don't, you'll always run the risk of having your audience stripped away without warning.

So by all means, take advantage of social media. But don't let it take advantage of you. Make your own space on the internet, and make sure your customers can find you there, even if social media fails.


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