Strength In Business

When You Hand Your Power Over to Social Media Tech Giants


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Putting all your eggs in one

basket can be disastrous. Handing over your entire marketing power to a handful
of social media platforms can very well ruin your business. On the other hand,
scattering your energy, money, time and other resources all over the place
isn’t the smartest strategy either.

The world seems upside down

these days. Businesses driven mainly by offline only activities are forced to
look into different ways and strategies to quickly move into the online realm
so that they can preserve their livelihoods.

Then you have those who were

able to pivot quickly and intensify their online efforts thus enabling them to
do well and even thrive in this challenging environment. However, not all of the
online marketing efforts were equivalent to the icing on the cake.

Some ecommerce businesses

were forced to open new online stores using Shopify, WooCommerce, Magenta etc.
and move significant chunks of their sales away from Amazon, as Seattle’s big
tech giant wasn’t able to fulfill and deliver orders on time which had a
negative impact on the entire business. Many saw not just their sales drop but
also their reputation partially destroyed.

While ecomm business owners were awakening to their over-dependency on Amazon, certain service and information providers were experiencing troublesome restrictions on major social media platforms. It came to me as a big, unpleasant surprise, to find out that Brian Rose’s high quality podcast show LondonReal was banned from Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vimeo, Dropbox and other social platforms.

Brian has been streaming and

delivering top notch interviews with high-caliber guests such as Dan Pena, Robert
Kiyosaki, Grant Cardone, Dr. Joe Dispenza, Marianne Williamson, Gary
Vaynerchuk, Marisa Peer, Teeka Tiwari just to name a few of them – for over
nine consecutive years. And then, one day, he did this interview with David
Icke, who btw was a recurring guest on the show and got banned without prior
notice and without being informed about what he did wrong, from all of the
above-mentioned social media channels.

When You Turn Your Power Over to
Social Media Networks

What does this behavior from

FAAMG signal to you and me?

For those of you, who’re not familiar with the FAAMG term: it’s an abbreviation coined by Goldman Sachs and it stands for the top five tech companies Facebook, Amazon, Apple, Microsoft, and Alphabet’s Google. [Source: Investopedia]

To me, this behavior is not

entirely new. Those of you who’ve been following me or maybe attended one of my
workshops or live events, know that I’ve been running Facebook ads since 2011.
To say that running ads on Facebook’s platforms (including Instagram and
Messenger) for all these years has been a crazy ride would be an
understatement.

I’m very familiar with the

fact that Facebook can disapprove and disable your ads anytime, totally out of
the blue or even ban your advertising account anyway they see fit. They do it
without prior notice, even if you’ve been partnering up with them for several
years and spending large amounts of money to not only put your valuable information
and products in front of your ideal audience but also provide the Silicon
Valley tech giant with revenue.

Facebook has long forgotten

the fact that they were built on the backbone of small business owners.
Corporations were last to join the advertising party. I vividly remember while
working at Coca-Cola a decade ago that Facebook was considered a no name and
deemed non-essential for business and even ridiculed for their advertising
product.

Facebook, Amazon, Google,

Apple, Twitter, Pinterest, you name it, have gained tremendous power over the
last few years. People like us have given them a lot of power by using these
apps day in and day out. Business owners have poured vast amounts of money,
time and energy into these channels thus enabling them to dominate way beyond
the marketing space. Today, these tech giants control almost everything that we
do, as scary as this may sound.

What should you do next if

you realize that you’ve become over-dependent and over-reliant on these social
media channels?

Just like I highlighted in my article Multiple Beats One: Never Rely On One Marketing Channel, I encourage you to step up your game and regain control over your marketing activities as fast as possible.

This

translates into you activating other marketing channels, whether they are
online or offline. The richer your marketing bouquet, the better you’ll be
equipped for tough times. Plus you never know, when Zuckerberg & Co. decide
to ban you from their platform for whatever ridiculous reason. It’s their right
as it’s their platform.

Remember

to never build your house on somebody else’s land.

And if for whatever reason,

you have your entire business generating income from social media alone, you
might want to consider building a new foundation, one that you control. One
that you can move and restructure anytime you choose fit.

Don’t Let Facebook, YouTube, Twitter
& Co. Dictate And Control Your Business

Just to be clear, I’m not

against using social media to promote your valuable products and services. What
I consider dangerous though is over-relying on these tech companies, their
platforms and policies.

I think the new emerging

blockchain technologies will enable business owners to host their websites,
upload videos and stream live TV shows on decentralized entities that give us
control back. Until this evolution hits mainstream, we’ll need to diversify and
use as many marketing channels as possible to interact with our ideal audience,
build communities and form strong human connections.

It’s never been more important to create independent environments where we can navigate more freely and creatively to build meaningful relationships. LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter & Co. used to be interesting places for people to connect, however, as we evolve and become more awaken and conscious to what’s really happening behind the curtains, it’s time to embrace a new reality and conquer new emerging digital / non-digital territories with more confidence.

Take back your power. Don’t allow circumstances or a handful of social media platforms drain your time, money and energy.

Image: FunkyFocus / Pixabay.com

The post When You Hand Your Power Over to Social Media Tech Giants appeared first on StrengthInBusiness.

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Strength In BusinessBy Krisz Rokk

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