How Social Media Can Destroy Your Business & Make Your Personal Life Stressful

📌 What if as of today, Facebook and Instagram were no more❓
📌 How many great photos and memories would be gone forever❓
📌 How many friends and family members would be disconnected from your life, with no way to connect with them❓
📌 How would your business suffer if you couldn’t reach your customers❓

If you haven’t seen or heard for yourself, Facebook, Instagram WhatsApp, and Messenger went offline across the globe after being hit by one of its longest outages.

“The outage came the morning after “60 Minutes” aired a segment in which Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen claimed the company is aware of how its platforms are used to spread hate, violence, and misinformation, and that Facebook has tried to hide that evidence. Facebook has pushed back on those claims.”
(Source: CNN. Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp go down. (n.d.). Retrieved October 4, 2021, from https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/04/tech/facebook-instagram-whatsapp-outage/index.html.)

Today was an eye-opener for so many; especially, entrepreneurs and business owners! If the social media outage today didn’t make you think twice about how much you depend on these platforms for your business, then maybe it made you think about how much you depend on it to connect with your family and friends.

As a business coach, I often emphasize to my coaching clients the importance of diversifying their marketing strategy and taking ownership of their customer information (i.e. email addresses, phone numbers, etc.). The reason for this is that if Facebook, Instagram, or another platform goes away or experiences a temporary, or much worse, permanent outage, then unfortunately your audience, customers, and ultimately your business goes right along with it.

Many small business owners and entrepreneurs have come to solely depend on social media platforms as their only or primary way of connecting with their customers and promoting their business and products. However, although social media can be a great way to grow your customer base and create traffic to your business, there are several downfalls to putting so much trust in social media.

Unfortunately, today is a perfect example of how putting your business or life completely in the hands of social media is not the way to go. Unfortunately, the outage of these platforms has put an immediate halt on the business operations of many entrepreneurs and is costing some of them major losses in profit and sales.

I can hear you now saying, “DeJuan, I’m still not convinced that social media as my primary marketing strategy isn’t the best strategy.” Well, let me present my case by giving you a few reasons why I stand by my advice to diversify your advertising and marketing channels, as well as customer/personal relationship management.

Don’t Lose Precious Memories And Personal Connections.

So many people depend on social media to connect with their family and friends, as well as compile their awesome family photos and memories. However, these are things that you shouldn’t depend on social media platforms to preserve. Make sure that you have backed up significant photos and that you have contact information for family and friends that you would miss if you lost contact. Make it a point to connect with the people you treasure outside of the digital world. There is nothing more special than connecting face-to-face, over a video call, or over the phone. It helps build stronger, deeper, and long-lasting connections.

You Don’t Own Your Content.

If you post it, they own it. Whenever you post content on a social media platform, the platform takes ownership and can redistribute your content for their financial gain without your knowledge or permission. Yes, even if you consider it proprietary.

You Have No Control Of Customer Information.

If the platform goes away, you have no way of reaching out to your audience or customers on the platform. How many times have we seen people’s pages get hacked and they lose thousands or millions of followers? Losing that type of audience and having to start a whole new page can be extremely frustrating, as well as cost you your business if your followers and customers can no longer find you.

Just Because You Post It Doesn’t Mean We See It.

You have no control over who sees your post or when they see it. We have to solely depend on the platform to make it visible to our followers. Even if you are boosting or paying for ads, you still have no control over how it is placed. Oftentimes, the platforms prioritize bigger companies with deeper pockets and higher spend budgets over us smaller entrepreneurs and business owners.

The Algorithms And Interfaces Change Constantly.

One thing I catch myself saying often is, “Why do they keep changing stuff?” As soon as I learn the interface and features of the platform, here they come making changes and now I have to learn how to navigate the platform all over again. Also, since the algorithms are constantly changing, your efforts to create a strategy that increases the likelihood of your posts being seen today, may not work tomorrow. I don’t know about you but it seems like what I consider to be some of my best posts, gets lost in the mix and gets the least amount of engagement or views.

I could go on, but I will rest my case at this time. My closing argument and last pieces of personal and professional advice are this:

Always provide your audience with an option to provide their email address. However, be sure to make sure it’s something in it for them. Offer a discount, provide a valuable resource that requires them to enter their email address to access it, etc.