A Warning About Social Media for Small Business Owners

Social media has been around for a long time. One could argue that the America Online of the 1990s was a social media platform, with its chat rooms and instant messaging. Since then, many social media platforms have come and gone or morphed into unrecognizable and rarely-frequented virtual venues.

There have been plenty of articles and documentaries about the dangers of social media, from digital addictions to online bullying and social pressure. We, as a society, are still learning how to integrate social media into our lives in a healthy, balanced way. When you consider how long we’ve been gathering around campfires and dinner tables compared to how long we’ve been interacting online, it’s almost stunning just how new it is.

But there’s another danger to social media that often goes unmentioned, and that’s the danger it poses to small businesses.

Let me pause here to say that I’m a fan of social media. I love the idea of connecting with people from all over the world with shared interests and common values. Social media is a way to express ourselves, learn new things, connect with others, and yes — promote our brands and businesses. I’ve used and enjoyed social media plenty over the years, both personally and professionally.

Sudden Change

It keeps happening. A hot new social media platform emerges. Everyone rushes to join. People spend hours learning the intricacies of using the platform, building a following, and developing content to share. It’s all the buzz! For a few years, anyway. But eventually, most of these platforms fade into the background. Some totally destroy themselves (whatever happened to AOL or MySpace?). Others ease back into a niche (Pinterest isn’t on the tip of everyone’s tongues these days, but they’ve still got a solid platform packed with regular users).

What happens if your business invests a lot of time and money into social-media marketing only to see the platform become obscure? This can happen slowly or suddenly. That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t use social media to promote your business, but it’s a good reason to use it thoughtfully and to allocate your resources accordingly.

When Twitter fell under new ownership, the platform underwent radical changes in a matter of months. It was always difficult for a new account to get seen by other users, which is necessary for building a following. Now we’re learning that if you don’t pay a monthly fee, your tweets simply won’t be seen by anyone who isn’t already following you. Maybe it’s worth it to pay Twitter so your account can be seen by other users, but there’s really no guarantee. Even when it was free to be seen, it required a lot of time and effort to build a following. Now you can add fees to that. Meanwhile, you’re creating content to share on this platform. Usually content creators get paid. If Twitter were a magazine, this would be like having the writers and photographers pay to have their work featured, while also charging advertisers.

For business owners who spent a lot of time and resources building a presence on a social media platform and creating content for it, sudden changes like these can be discouraging and detrimental. In some cases, devastating.

There have been stories of people who built entire businesses around their Facebook pages, only to suddenly have the pages deactivated or even deleted by Facebook. Maybe these businesses violated Facebook’s terms and conditions. Maybe they didn’t. But one thing is certain: building your business to be dependent on another business or platform that we don’t own or control — when doing so is unnecessary — is a poor business decision.

As businesses, we are all somewhat reliant on other providers. Usually, with vendors and suppliers, we have options. If one turns out to provide low-quality products or services, we can switch to one of their competitors. But completely building a business on a social media site rather than establishing one’s own website will put the business in a weak position and at a severe disadvantage. The ownership and control over your business online is of utmost importance.

A Balanced Approach

Does this mean social media should be avoided? No, not at all. The best practices for doing business online and particularly with social media, remain steadfast and true: your website is always your online headquarters, and your marketing efforts should be diversified, which means posting your ads and marketing materials in a variety of online locations.

It’s simple, really. Just follow the old adage of not putting all your eggs on one basket, and make sure you own and control a basket of your own.

This has always been the recommended best practice. It’s based on the simple fact that you own and control your website. You don’t have any control over social media platforms, or third-party marketplaces for that matter. On a moment’s notice, these other businesses, platforms, and marketplaces can change their rules and operating procedures in a way that squeezes you out or drains your wallet.

But if you’ve set up a balanced, healthy online marketing ecosystem that isn’t overly reliant on any one source of traffic, changes in these platforms will be nothing more than a bump in the road.

Moving On

My clients often ask me if they should be on social media, and that has become a question that must be answered on a case-by-case basis. It works well for some industries and not others. Some platforms are a better match for a business than others. Some businesses excel at building effective social media campaigns, while others struggle to stay afloat in the social-media landscape. Quite a few invest heavily in social marketing only to later discover that these platforms aren’t sending any traffic or business their way, even if engagement on the sites seems pretty good. Many use social media as a convenient outpost where they can share content but without a lot of reliance on it for sales.

As social media ages, we are learning that there are many ways to use it, personally and professionally. It’s important to ask whether our business belongs on social media, what benefits we can expect, if any, and how much of our resources we should invest in it.

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