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A Moment of (Hard) Truths
- If it's not your site, it's not your audience. You don't own the people you pay to put ads in front of, nor the ones with whom you share content organically. You are renting their attention.
- You can be kicked off a third-party platform at any time without warning or a just cause. Your booting can be due to an outage, an algorithm change, an updated Terms of Service agreement, because the site said so, or entirely by accident.
Renting eyeballs is profitable and terrific until the very moment it is not. Here's how you can protect your business.
Diversify Your Marketing Mix
Let's be honest -- if you own a business or market one, you probably advertise through Facebook. I mean, of course, you do. Facebook offers a massive, engaged audience with highly detailed and granular targeting options.
The sky is not falling. You do not need to stop advertising on Facebook or other third-party sites. In fact, squeeze every valuable morsel from them that you can.
Yet, this outage and the arrival of Q4 presents an excellent moment to examine your total marketing mix to determine if you are allocating too many resources to any one channel. Putting all your eggs in one basket--whatever that basket might be--is never a good idea.
Instead, look to:
Be known for more than what you do. Differentiate. Add value. Having a strong brand makes you less reliant on outside sources because your customer isn't looking for a product or service like yours. They are looking for you. Measure brand strength through KPIs like direct traffic, branded queries, share of voice, and high CTRs on content assets. Consider adding a public relations or influencer campaign to brand build and balance out more product- or service-focused messaging.
Your website. Your blog. Your newsletter. Your podcast. These are vital (I'd say your MOST vital) marketing channels because they represent platforms you own and control. Invest in making them stronger and getting them to work better for you.
How can you improve your website to better showcase your value to the end-user?
What's a great content piece you can close out Q4 with and repurpose in a dozen different ways?
HECK YEAH, put that content on TikTok. Advertise on Spotify. Be where your audience is, and then make sure that content connects back to your home base in some way.
- Build your lists & ownable touchpoints.
RSS was once the pre-eminent channel for owning eyeballs without requiring a website visit. Now we have email marketing and SMS and automation to serve as a direct line to our customers, but only if you actively collect this information. Build your lists--again, lists you will own--to ensure you are not bound to someone else's traffic, terms of service, or data. Create your own connections so that if an unforeseen situation arises, you can pivot quickly.
- Build a diverse paid strategy.
This isn't about abandoning Facebook or paid advertising, as both can be crucial to growth. But be aware of what your paid mix looks like and seek opportunities to create more balance if it feels heavy in any one direction. You can use the data you have from Facebook to build well-targeted audiences on other platforms. Identify new platforms that may capture different, unexpected attention (we're big on native advertising). Use paid to strengthen organic and your home base.
A Final Hard Truth
💡 Facebook doesn't care about you or your business.
The same is true for Google, Instagram, Twitter, Bing, TikTok, and any other site you want to throw into the mix.
Each has a business of its own to worry about-- one where you are the product. These sites can change how they work and the tools offered to you at the drop of a hat. The data you've relied on can suddenly go away.
Your job is to cement a presence stronger than that, so as the platforms change, your content and brand are findable all on their very own.
Build your brand.
Leverage the channels that work for you.
Stay open to new opportunities and ways to diversify.
Build a business on land you own.
This week was not a "Facebook is canceled" moment, just a reminder that relying on any single channel is a recipe for disaster.
