There is danger in letting any vendor have too much control over your life. That warning applies doubly so to software and re-doubled for social media.
Don’t let your marketing be controlled by Facebook or MySpace or anyone else that can wipe you out with a rule change or by fading away.
Many businesses build their entire marketing campaign on Facebook. I even made that suggestion. Nonprofits can do the same.
One rule change can wipe out years of marketing.
Mark Schaefer explains the risk in his post, A cautionary tale: Putting your business in the hands of Facebook.
He visited with the owner of restaurant he likes a lot. They don’t have a website. All their marketing effort went into Facebook.
The conversation:
“Why waste time and money on building a website when you can do everything for free on Facebook ?”
I frowned.
“Because you don’t want to put all of your eggs in one basket … and a basket that you don’t own.”
A few weeks later Facebook announced a change to the “promote your posts” feature which wiped out their publicity.
Whether we think of Facebook, Amazon, LinkedIn, MySpace, Google+, Pinterest or any other platform that is widely popular but I don’t know about, always remember that it is their platform and you don’t own or control anything there.
Build your business and marketing campaign accordingly.
Mr. Schaefer’s conclusion:
Placing your bet on an outlet you don’t own is the riskiest and dumbest thing you can do. Treat them for what they really are – marketing tools that attract visitors to your own online real estate where you’ll turn them into subscribers or even paying clients.
Check out the full post. It is great.
Fading away
What happens when Facebook fades away? Will all your marketing effort disappear?
Don’t think that will ever happen? Got a question for you. Who uses MySpace today?
Next post – 5 warnings on how technology can trap you.
If you are going to take the risk of putting your eggs in a particular basket, at least make sure that the basket values your eggs. Steve Ballmer (the boss of a mutual friend of ours) has been ridiculed for his over-the-top “Developers!” speech, but at least developers know that Ballmer has clearly demonstrated that he is concerned about them. Other companies are not so developer-friendly (there are many horror stories about people who built their business plans on Twitter).
Thanks for your thoughts. If someone want to take those risks, then one should be very aware of the dangers.