Unless you live under a rock, you are probably well aware that Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp all shut down a few weeks ago. And, the saga continues with Facebook sitting in some pretty hot water for some of their business practices. But, you may be wondering - eek what would happen if social media shut down for more than a few hours. Then what?
One of the most often questions Second Act Entrepreneurs ask is “what should I be posting on social media?”
In this week’s episode discover that answer and more.
If you’ve been listening to the podcast for a while - the best answer to a question usually comes in the form of another question. In this case, I would typically ask “where do you want people to go next after they’ve interacted with you on social media?” Most of the time that question leads to a lot of hemming and hawing and a deer in the headlights look.
But, you don’t know what you don’t know - here are the facts.
Social media is a business. Owned by business owners who only want one thing - to make money.
They don’t really care if you’ve built a channel of a bazillion youtube subscribers - what they care about is how that makes them money. So they change the rules to ensure that they are making as much as possible at all times. Because, I repeat, they own a business.
It’s very similar to people who start blogs and deliver free information again and again and again and then realize one day, “hey this is a lot of work and I’m not getting paid for it.” Ultimately, they either give up or figure out a way to make money. You can only leave the open sign of a store open for so long without charging before you have nothing left to sell.
As social media aligns its priorities with profitability you will see ad prices increase, rules change, and monetization policies shift. All in the name of what you and I would do similarly in our businesses. You aren’t going to run a business on popularity - or if you do - you won’t be in business long.
Here are two tried and true rules to follow to ensure that you have profitability at the center of your business:
- Don’t build your business on social media. Move people offline and onto your email list as soon as possible. Especially with all of the privacy rule changes that are happening, this puts the ball in your court to find out what more about your audience, stay in front of them in their inbox and move forward with solving their problems with your stuff sooner.
- Don’t put your financial fate in the hands of other people. I was checking out different YouTube channels the other day, and so many of these channels don’t have a way to move subscribers to an offline platform. Many of them are running their entire business from that platform. What happens when YouTube starts charging you to use their platform? What happens if YouTube goes down permanently? What happens to your business when they change the rules to benefit them without any concern about your channel or your business?
Instead, wouldn’t it be better to focus your energy and intention on moving your audience in a new direction and off the platform, so you aren’t surprised by businesses making business decisions?
One of the best ways to do that and to take control of your audience is through email marketing. Email marketing is one of the best ways to stay in front of and sell to your audience. But so many people struggle with how. This is why I’ve created my upcoming free training Own Your Audience - so you know exactly what to do to harness your audience through the power email. Enabling you to stay in front of your ideal people, create conversations, and swiftly turn more subscribers into sales.
Registration for this free event is open now. Visit alisaconner.com/ownyouraudience and join me as I share my proven step-by-step system to take control of your marketing, time, and energy and forget what Facebook, Youtube, LinkedIn, or Instagram are doing today, tomorrow, or next week.
