How to Avoid Losing Everything to Social Media

What would happen if you woke up tomorrow and heard that the social media platform you use for business is shutting down in two weeks. Would you still have a way to contact your followers in the absence of social media? Don't lose contact with them due to bad planning!

As a small business I would hope that you have taken advantage of social media to reach your target audience and grow your relationship with your customers and clients. However, I also hope you have taken measures to stay connected with that audience off of social media before you lose the chance.

Don't put all your eggs in one basket

Don't put all eggs in one basket, especially if you don't even own the basket. Social media is a great tool, but you. must remember that you do not own it. Many online platforms have been reliable, however, some have not (RIP Vine and is anyone using MySpace?) and we don’t know what the future holds for each of them. Even within an app itself certain features can become obsolete or be overshadowed by new ones (instagram Reels for example has now overshadowed IGTV). Accounts can be shut down or suspended, glitch, or be hacked. It's rare, but it can happen.

Drive your following off of social media.

It is important to drive your following off of social media and to something more permanent. Drive your following to your website. Feature a blog they can subscribe to, provide an email list they can sign up for - anything you can do to get contact information from them. This way you are not depended on a third-party platform to keep those relationships in tact. You wouldn’t want to lose your entire following should one platform cease to exist. Be sure to cross promote your content across various platforms and drive traffic to your website and lead generation.

Stay active on social media

This doesn't mean you should stop using social media. Social media platforms are a great tool for getting introduced to more potential clients and customers and it's fun! And you should definitely take advantage! But remember you don’t own or have control over the future of any of these sites - you don't own them. So be sure you are cross promoting to something you do own and have full control over – like your website. Build your following on social then drive them to back to you!