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Facebook is cool. I think I’ll just hang out there.
I don’t have a lot of time for social media and Twitter only takes me 10 minutes a day.
I’ve built a huge network on LinkedIn and it’s my main marketing strategy.
As a blogger and content marketing specialist, I hear this all the time.
Writers, authors and small biz owners love the ease of social media sites. They don’t have to spend tons of time (although sometimes they do). And that frees up more minutes and hours for what’s important: writing that book, developing that product, selling those services.
I get that.
I really do.
After all, if you don’t do the hard work, your book—or your business—will die.
Social media is the new marketing
Social media tools have made promoting our work easier. We don’t have to go out into the world as much because the world comes to us. We can pop into Facebook or Twitter for a few minutes every day and our marketing takes care of itself, right?
Well, yes, but it comes with some risks.
Other social media platforms are just that. Other people’s platforms. If you make Facebook or Twitter the home base of your operations, you are giving up some control of your marketing message.
And that’s not always a good thing.
5 Reasons You Shouldn’t Make Facebook or Twitter Your Home Base
Your platform is where it all takes place. It’s where you talk about your work, whether it’s your products, your services or your book. It’s where you collect and engage readers—and build a loyal fan base.
To make that work, you need a hub—a home base.
A place to put your content that is your own. A place to connect with readers and develop a subscriber list so you can continue to communicate with them.
Here are just 5 of the reasons why Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn may not be the best home base.
1. You don’t have full control over the delivery of your content.
Though Facebook and Twitter don’t actually own your content, they own access to it. If you place your content on someone else’s platform, you are giving them control over who sees it and when.
In its Terms of Service, Facebook tells us that they have a “non-exclusive, transferable, royalty-free, worldwide license” to use any content we post. Add the fact that Facebook and Twitter have the right to (and often do) change their fine print policies and you have a potentially troublesome situation.
What’s the answer?
Make sure you are not posting your full content solely on a platform like Facebook. And be sure you are not hosting your blog in someone else’s space (WordPress.com. Blogger, etc.). because they have the power to make all your posts disappear at the flick of a switch.
I was having a conversation with some readers of the Writer Unboxed blog not too long ago and that very same day, Blogger failed—was offline for an entire day—and the readers who were blogging on that platform were worried (there were rumors that it was going to be permanent).
It was okay and back up by the next day, but you never know.
2. You lose your brand identity.
You may be the one talking on Facebook or Twitter but the brand is theirs, not yours. People remember the Facebook name and logo better than they retain your name as an author or business owner.
Is that what you want them to remember when they read your stuff?
A blog or website is an effective way to build your brand. To get your personality out there. To create a look, style and tone that is uniquely yours.
3. Your network of followers is not really yours.
This one is huge.
Whether you have an account on Facebook or Twitter or somewhere else, the people you are building relationships with—and their email connections—belong to that platform, not to you. If Facebook decides to close your account, or if you choose to leave, you don’t have a way to communicate with those people anymore.
One of my colleagues built a network of more than 1,000 rabid followers on a popular business networking site. He lost all those contacts when they accused him of violating their terms of service and closed his account.
Tough lesson to learn. Better to post excerpts of your content on these sites but direct people back to your blog or website and build your list there, where you have more control.
4. You have limited messaging space.
With their word count limitations, Facebook and Twitter work much better to point readers to your full content. I use them to post brief tips and teasers to draw people to my content.
Where is that content? On my home base, of course.
On my blog.
5. You don’t have anywhere to send the traffic and convert readers into fans.
One of the main benefits of a social media presence is to cultivate a following. To do that, you need to lead them back to your own space—to your blog or website—and ask them to do something.
You might want them to sign up for a webinar or study group, subscribe to your e-newsletter, opt in for electronic delievery of your blog posts or something else. The point, of course, is to be able to contact your readers, which they give you permission to do when they give you their email addresses.
What about you?
Do you only use Facebook or Twitter to promote or do you have a blog or other home base, too?
How is your plan working for you? Anything to add here?
This post was revised from a post CatsEyeWriter originally published on the Writer Unboxed blog on May 10, 2011.
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I so, so so agree Judy! Besides all of the ‘fantastic five’ reasons you’ve given, given the popularity (and general acceptance of them both, which means they are in the ‘hard’ part of their lifecyle and no longer cool and edgy), there is I’m sure another juggernaut about to hit that will replace them as the ‘IT’ thing. Then all that work done on them is somewhat diluted. That is not the case if you make your site/blog you home base.There is a huge amount of white noise in the facebook-twitter sphere that is just that, noise. The two platforms should be used to ‘amplify’ what you are dong on your website, blog and other marketing platforms. Not replace it. They are just a speaking tool (kinda like your post pic) to help get to even the deafest. But they should not form the basis or take control of your total campaign.
Great advice Judy. You’re right about the branding element. Nobody says “did you see that thing on the page by xxx on Facebook” they say did you see that thing on Facebook?” And when one asks where it is, the person sends you a link and you don’t care whose page it’s on, you just want to see the funny joke or cartoon or video; and afterwards you don’t notice whose page you have been on.
Great advice Judy. You’re right about the branding element. Nobody says “did you see that thing on the page by xxx on Facebook” they say did you see that thing on Facebook?” And when one asks where it is, the person sends you a link and you don’t care whose page it’s on, you just want to see the funny joke or cartoon or video; and afterwards you don’t notice whose page you have been on.
Great advice Judy. You’re right about the branding element. Nobody says “did you see that thing on the page by xxx on Facebook” they say did you see that thing on Facebook?” And when one asks where it is, the person sends you a link and you don’t care whose page it’s on, you just want to see the funny joke or cartoon or video; and afterwards you don’t notice whose page you have been on.
Great advice Judy. You’re right about the branding element. Nobody says “did you see that thing on the page by xxx on Facebook” they say did you see that thing on Facebook?” And when one asks where it is, the person sends you a link and you don’t care whose page it’s on, you just want to see the funny joke or cartoon or video; and afterwards you don’t notice whose page you have been on.
I’ll be sharing your post with a couple of clients shortly. There’s a perception that if they only use Facebook or Twitter they don’t have to have a website/blog. My recommendation is always to have a website or blog because you need a center for your community. If you don’t have that, then like you said if someone pulls the switch, you have to start from scratch. Wondering what you know about Ning for building a branded private social network. Do you run the same risks?
I completely agree with you, Judy, great advice! But you say that hosting your blog on Blogger is not a good idea? That worries me: my blog is…where else? on Blogger! But to migrate somewhere else is a humongous task (I’ve got nearly 200 posts). But what hosting site would you recommend?
Aren’t the same problems likely to arise with a hosting site as they do with Blogger? If not, why not?
Sorry to ask these questions, but I’m really, really interested (and concerned!)
@claudenougat Excellent questions, all. On migrating from Blogger, it depends on a few factors. I’m going to have bob (@bobwp) come in and respond because he has way more knowledge in the tech side of things than I do. : )
@lifesimplified Jennifer, glad you are advising your clients on this. I think it happens because it’s just so darned easy to post things on Facebook. But therein lies the trap. You trade the ease for security in the knowledge that you’ll alway be able to stay in touch with your network. On Ning, not sure I know the answer. (It’s a paid service now, I believe.) I’ve heard some good things about it, but it seems like you are still at their mercy as far as control. I could be wrong about that, though.
@crwills So true. Facebook is a powerful platform but for me, it’s most useful to guide/point people back to my site, which is where I want them to spend their time! : )
@Di Mace | Word Swords Yes. “Amplify” is just the right word. I like “leverage,” too. They are a tool but they shouldn’t be trusted with all your content. Good point about the changing nature of technology. There will always be another shiny object and that’s another reason not to put all your eggs in one basket. Thanks for the insights.
@claudenougat In terms of hosting, when you are on a platform like Blogger, it’s a bit different than a hosting service. They have more control over the content and you are at the mercy of their “Terms of Use” which will be more stringent. In other words, they can take a blog down any time they feel like it. Look at it this way, Blogger is their own platform, they do what they want. At a hosting service you are basically renting space, so you do have the control you don’t have at Blogger.
The other issue is on Blogger you can export your content, but you don’t have access to the actual framework or design of your blog. You cannot back it up ever, only the content. On a hosting service like Bluehost.com, you can back up all your files anytime and have access to those files as well.
As far as migrating over to WordPress, yes, it’s a bit of work, but not because of how many posts you have. It’s more a matter of taking steps to make sure everything works well. You can’t easily move images over as you have to relink them. The best way to do this is leave your blogger blog up and pull in the images from there, this at least gives you some time to relink… at your leisure.
Finally, although I’m biased, WordPress is just a much more powerful blogging software than Blogger. When you have WordPress on a hosting service, you have so much more access to features that will make your blog more robust.
@JudyDunn I’m doing a bit of research this weekend. I also downloaded BuddyPress today to look at that. That I’m able to host. Ning I’m not. You’re post came at a great time as I’m making a decision about this.
@lifesimplified Please do keep us all informed. The thing I love most about blogs and blogging is that we share our collective wisdom. I (am my readers, I am sure) will be most interested in your findings.
Thanks @bobWP That’s very clear! Good idea to keep both and just slowly move the better content from one to the other…
@claudenougat glad I could help : )
I agree with you totally on this blog post and with the ideas that you have presented. You should never just rely all of your effort and energy just on social media sites alone. That’s just like putting all your money in one place and wishing that everything is going to be okay. Your blog or website should be your central platform since that would be the one place you would have the most control over and then use different outlets to expand out on not the other way around.
@Justicewordlaw Thanks, Justice. Good to see that your don’t rely totally on the social media sites, as fun and interesting as they are. Thanks for stopping by and leaving your thoughts.
I love to learning more on this topic if possible, as you gain expertise, will you update your blog with more information?
One of the main reasons for this shift is due to the engagement promised by Twitter and Facebook. Earlier, people might have read your blogs, but they were averse to commenting on it or liking it. But nowadays, content shared on both the platforms are liked, commented, re-shared and re-tweeted in minutes. There is a radical shift from blogging to micro-blogging. Even companies are investing more in social media than in maintaining blogs.
@evelynonline80 You make some valid points here. As a content marketing specialist, I always advise people to build their platforms across multiple social media channels and networks. Just don’t make the space you are “renting” (for instance, Facebook) the only place you share your content.
My point being, that if their rules change (which they can do in the blink of an eye), if your account is closed or they decide to change the ways you are able to push your message out, you risk losing the audience you have worked so hard to cultivate. And if you are a business, a blog allows you to develop (and control) your own list, so you have a way to communicate with your followers, regardless of any changes Twitter or Facebook may make to their Terms of Service. Hope that makes sense.
Thanks for weighing in here. : )
Nice post. I learn something totally new and challenging on websites I stumbleupon everyday. It’s always exciting to read articles from other authors and use a little something from other websites.