Are You Putting Too Much Trust in Social Media including Facebook and Instagram - Video

It's been a fascinating journey to watch as social media has risen from Myspace, to college students using The Facebook, to mainstream (and Main Street) adoption.

We've previously explained how Facebook is No Longer a Free Network for Businesses (and, now this is largely true of Instagram too), why blogging is so important - and misunderstood, and the right way to post and promote/distribute content.

This short video is meant to address some common mistakes people are now making with their business or nonprofit as it relates to putting too much hope, emphasis, and energy into social media.

Video Transcript

Five, six years ago there was a large percentage of local businesses that couldn't be bothered with social media.

Why do people care what I had for breakfast

They just did not understand the power that social media has. And then social media grew and became incredibly mainstream, so much to the point that it's too much in most cases.

Now, an interesting phenomenon has happened - they flipped to the other side.

Well, you know, how do I get more Facebook Likes?

Do you really want Facebook Likes or you want more customers? Do you really want to grow your reach or you want more customers? While sometimes there's a correlation often, especially the way local businesses do this, there's no.

More than that, Facebook has changed Instagram is changing. The value to businesses that these platforms bring is going down. And you can pay but the return is going down.

This is a channel, this is a tool in your toolbox and the tool is becoming less valuable.

There's still value but it's becoming less valuable and now what we're seeing is instead of people trying to improve the longevity of their business and the sustainability of their marketing they're focusing on the tool instead of what that tool should help build.

So, if you're trying to create a destination - a literal geographical destination with your town your Main Street your Chamber your Visitors Bureau - don't you think you should have a destination that you own and control online?

So you use Facebook to spread the word and to get people to your website. And you use email newsletters to spread the word and get people to your website but you don't invest in a platform that you don't own... on rented land.

Because then as the rules change, all of the investment that you've made disappears.

So, in a perfect world, what you do is you have a solid website - it can be very simple very minimalist, ideally not confusing or complicated, but it's resourceful.

What this resourceful website does is it's something you own that you can refer people to and that your advocates can refer people to, which is great, and Google sees all.

You then rank higher on Google - for more things.

As we always say we want to help you work smarter not harder by making better decisions and by using the right tools to reach your goals and communicate what makes you unique and valuable.

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