If you are a renter, landlords can be tough work at times. No picture hooks in the walls, forever dealing with that leaking tap and certainly no pets. It can be tough when they hold all the cards.
In a business sense, the social media giants little like landlords at times. That’s right – Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn are the landlords of your social media presence.
I get some clients saying to “We don’t need a website, we have Facebook”. This is a dangerous mindset. Almost like putting solar onto your rental property, you never know when the owners will change the rules.
We recently found this out the hard way. Despite +20 glowing reviews and recommendations on our Facebook page, our rating suddenly began showing as 0.
Our guess is that Facebook has changed the rules (algorithms) and we are now at the mercy of the helpdesk until our ticket gets resolved.
But this illustrates a great point – never build your online reputation solely on someone else’s property. They hold the power and change the rules whenever they feel like it.
Whilst important to your overall digital footprint, social media accounts should really only be an ingredient in the cake, not the whole cake itself. You need to own your space.
A website is 100% controlled by you, you own it and can dictate what is shown. The social giants can change the goalposts ‘til the cows come home, but if you have your own space that you can direct and curate for your own business goals, you have a massive leg up on your competitors.
