Call me Captain Obvious, I’ll say it anyway.
Successful businesses existed long before social media.
So, is it me? Or have you noticed people seem brainwashed into thinking social media is the only place to get paying customers?
From the grand scheme, social media is a drop in the ocean. Anti-social media? No. You’ll see why it puts a business at risk and without precautions, how social media can kill a business.
Keep control of your business and access to customers. It’s your success.
1. Think about the millions of businesses over the decades who’ve been successful without social media. Right? And by their own admission, social media companies, use neuroscience intentionally to addict users maybe even brainwash them into believing social media is the only way to achieve success. Huh? That’s like saying the only place you can get oxygen is at Busch Gardens. Oxygen is everywhere. Thinking social media is solely responsible for business success is a disconnect. Success starts in your mind and with a kick ass product. Agree. Lead generation and being in front of potential customers can net sales. But there are countless ways to secure new customers. Should social media disappear tomorrow, would you still have a successful business? Sure. Customers must know about your product in order to buy it. And developing a superior product still works. The market always speaks. If the product is good, people will buy it, via word of mouth, from a sales force, a distribution channel or on an e-commerce website or in a store, without social media.
2. If you have a direct relationship with your customers and a proprietary house list, you own it. No one can take it from you. If your business is one-hundred percent reliant upon social media for customers and your revenue, consider this. The big tech monopolists censor information. If unchecked, suppression could impact business. What Facebook giveth, Facebook taketh away. At any moment and without warning a social media behemoth can and has changed algorithms that can kill a business. So, what’s the upside to outsourcing customer access to a third-party, where you have zero control? Instead, develop an effective growth strategy, where you retain control. Advertise on Facebook, LinkedIn or whatever. The precaution? Have a process to capture names and funnel them into your house-list so your business isn’t held hostage to a third-party. Honestly, there’s no substitute for an independent, direct customer relationship. Because paying customers are to business what oxygen is to lungs.
Businesses came first. Who mandated that social media is required to succeed?
Remember what oxygen and customers have in common. When anyone says the only place, you can get oxygen is at Busch Gardens. That negative twinge signals, not true. It’s everywhere.
When anyone suggests the only place, you can get customers is social media. Not true. They’re everywhere. Brainwashing? It’s only beneficial when it says, you control your own success.
(C) Paula M. Parker 2020
Originally published
