Owned vs rented online presence

Social media has been getting loads of attention in recent years. And deservedly so. It attracts more and more people. Over 75% of the online population is present on social networks such as Facebook, Twitter, Google+, LinkedIN, Pinterest, or Instagram.

Nevertheless, you should beware of putting all your eggs in one basket. Don’t rely only on one social platform as an online presence, as I see many companies and people do. As solid as it may seem, the platform may disappear and, with it, the content you worked so hard to create.

Facebook is, nowadays, one of the places to be. With over 2 billion users, it’s the biggest online platform out there. But Facebook is like a “rented” space. You don’t own it, so you don’t set the rules. The rules may change, and there’s nothing you’ll be able to do about it. This was painfully visible when the organic reach of pages decreased significantly some time ago. If you want more reach, it’s very easy. Just pay for it. Facebook will thank you.

The same can be said of Instagram, the new cool place for artists, influencers, and people in general who want to be active on social media. By all means be active there, but don’t depend on it exclusively.

The solution I propose is to always have a website/blog as your main content hub, and direct people to it from the other platforms. You set the rules on your website, because you own it. You won’t be dependent on some third party site changing them.

So, have your own presence online, and then take as much advantage as you can of the other players by sharing content there and linking back to your site.

PS – This doesn’t mean you shouldn’t create content specifically for the social platforms. You should, but don’t rely only on them. They are valuable, and you should respect them. Remember: Different platforms mean different contexts. Some things make more sense on Twitter, some on Facebook, and some on Instagram. But that’s a whole different post.

Do you currently do this with your online presence? Share your experience in the comments.

(Photo by Nathan Dumlao)