Quitting Facebook – What does that mean?

It was inevitable, what goes up, must come down. People are leaving Facebook… doesn’t matter why, they just are. In the news and on the web, articles about quitting Facebook – and tutorials on how to do it – are cropping up all over.

This isn’t a post about who or why – more of a warning for people that used Facebook business pages in lieu of creating their own websites.

*Disclaimer – I own and operate My Vanity Website – a web / marketing company. I have also warned for many years that putting all your eggs in one basket (I don’t need a website, I market on Facebook) was a poor decision.

How does it affect business?

If you put all your efforts into one social channel, you will start to see a decline in response rates. This is like advertising in the yellow pages. – Great “IF” your clients are the ones that are still there… not so great when trying to reach new / potential clients – if they do not use THAT social channel.

If you need to move to another social channel Facebook does not make it easy. The data you post on any social channel becomes the property of that company – not yours. Once you hit publish you give up the rights to your data. Pretty scary – yet we willingly do it, all the time. Here is a link to the Facebook Privacy Policy – Enjoy!

If you have a WordPress website it is very easy to “plug in” a new social channel, publish your content once, and feed multiple social networks. I do this all the time..  🙂 People that have been working with me see it in action. Write once, post many. Really a time saver.

More than just people

Facebook is also changing their algorithms to post less business page postings in people’s news feeds – unless they are paid. Yup, if you want your information in front of people you need to pay to get it there.

This is nothing new – they have been reducing the organic reach of business page posts over time. 2012 – Used to be able to reach 15% + of your followers. 2015 you would be lucky to reach 2 – 3 % organically. Now a days, it is less.

Want to reach people? Need to pony up some $$$

Data Mining Companies

I have shared this previously – the big social networks are really data mining companies. They extract data from you, legally, and leverage that data to feed you content to keep you on their site longer, so they can feed you more ads, so they make more money – simple. This is the bottom line.

How do they get your data? – Easy – you agree to share it with them!

Read the terms of service. Read the terms of apps you install (computer, phone and online). It is all right there… in black and white. You give up your rights to privacy and control of your data in exchange for posting pics of what you had for dinner, and don’t forget the pics of the puppy too!

They use the data to control our emotions YouTube Video. This goes on totally unregulated. Remember the days of Microsoft becoming a monopoly and the government stepping all over them? When will that start happening with the big data companies?

Just another reason to support local / small business!

Next up?

There are a few new social networks that I am looking into. What is nice – I just plug into my process and let my WordPress Blog push to the network – write once – post many. There will always be the next big thing. Putting all your efforts into just one is short-sighted.

Facebook isn’t going anywhere soon. Business’ need to start looking on how to best leverage their data – for their benefit. Time to take control and not be controlled by the big data mining companies!

Need help? Let me know…

Peace, Love & Success!
-Dennis