Guest post by Tadeusz Szewczyk

Ever since Facebook became the leading social network online, many people – even business people – have relied on it for their online presence.

 

Being on Facebook is not being online

In other words many Facebook users do not even have a website or completely neglect the one they have. Of course you could argue that

it’s a good thing that Facebook allowed hundreds of millions of people who didn’t have the opportunity to build a website to publish online.

On the other hand Facebook is not the Internet, it’s just a so called “walled garden” type of service. When you’re on Facebook you are not really online, you are rather on Facebook itself.

 

Facebook owns you

In the early years of Facebook’s domination of the social media space (after the demise of its predecessors Friendster and MySpace) many pundits even argued that you don’t even need a website or blog anymore – the hitherto standard ways to get heard online. For a while they had the stats on their side. One day Facebook started to throttle so called “organic reach” to make you pay to reach your actual audience.

What does this mean? Only a small fraction of your Facebook followers will see your updates now. To reach more of them you need to buy Facebook ads. It’s like paying a company to be able to talk to your family and friends!

Facebook is – along with Google and Apple – one of the largest and most powerful gatekeepers on the Web now.

They control access and traffic on their proprietary turf. It’s like in the middle ages. You need to pay to enter the walled garden. You get protected against many of the dangers of the open Web but your just a visitor, not the owner of the place.

Facebook owns your profile, page and even connections.

You can’t even quit Facebook. When you delete your account it will just be hidden from (your) view but they still retain the data. They basically own you.

 

Facebook is not really free – you pay in manifold ways

You could argue that Facebook is free – as in free beer – but you are paying with your private information and content you share as an average user. Facebook sells it to advertisers. Of course the government loves that data as well.

Government agents can view your images, opinions and messages you shared privately whenever they want according to US law (think Patriot Act) which applies to ALL Facebook users globally.

From a business perspective you might ignore the privacy (or rather lack there-of) implications of using Facebook. After all you use it to make money- don’t you – not to plan terrorist attacks or show off naked photos of yourself.

Yet when it comes to renting space online you can’t ignore the fact that you are not owning your Facebook page, profile or data. You have to abide by Facebook’s rules and even adapt to their numerous layout changes.

 

Facebook is fickle

Last but not least Facebook – again like Google – frequently changes its algorithm. Recent changes have for example hurt publishers and businesses in favor of regular users. What does this mean exactly?

People are less and less likely to even see your updates on Facebook.

Compare this state of affairs to a blog – a website you own and publish regular updates on – where people can comment publicly. Ideally you also have a way to reach your audience by mail.

You can use a freemium tools like MailChimp to send regular updates to subscribers but you also can send mail from within WordPress yourself using some third party extensions. In short

you don’t have to pay each time to reach an audience or hope some tiny part of it will miraculously view your updates.

You can send mail messages to your actual subscribers and reach a large portion of them. It of course depends how you convinced them to subscribe and how valuable your messages are but it’s a far better.

 

Do you feed the “king of content”?

Don’t get stuck in the castle of the King of Content. Publish your content on your own terms to your own faithful audience you control the access to and nobody can demand ransom for to speak to.

Facebook is a neat tool for small talk with friends and family who are living far away do that yo will rarely meet them in person. It’s not a business strategy to rely on Facebook for getting clients though. It’s rather a recipe for dependency.

Post short updates on Facebook if you want but always remember that it’s a tool to popularize your own content that resides on your blog or static website. Also it’s not your task to create free content for a billionaire all the time.

Make sure that Facebook users can share and likes your articles, images or videos. Don’t give away ownership of your content assets to a young billionaire who already has more than enough money.

Let others promote you on Facebook. Don’t pay a gatekeeper to access of an audience you can build yourself on a website that is really yours and accessible for everybody not just Facebook members.

 

Your website should be your castle

Sure Facebook is huge and provides you with a potentially massive audience in the rare case when your content manages to spread virally.

Your website should be your castle, though. You own it. When content gets popular on Facebook, Facebook gets popular at the end of the day, not you.

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When you use Facebook to send visitors to your actual website your popularity with stay with you even when Facebook deletes your page.

You decide what’s the topic of your website and you don’t compete with Kim Kardashian’s behind for attention there.

Everybody can view content on your website. Facebook requires a membership and a log in. You can create our own look and feel and have your own brand identity instead of the Facebook blue and its numerous often redundant user interface elements.

That’s probably the scary part: you can do anything you want on your site and you’re responsible – nobody else. Nobody can ban you or demote your updates.

Some people prefer the confines of a rigid system like Facebook.

These are the same people who prefer to have a boss that tells them what to do. On your website you decide everything yourself. So much choice may be overwhelming but as a business person you need one skill: decision making.

Start training your decision making muscle with your website and you will thrive as a business owner as well.