As much as we are told that Social Media is the way to go with investing our time and money into, brand advertising, and self-promotion it doesn’t necessarily mean that the investment is yours completely. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying: “don’t use social media” and I’m definitely NOT saying “don’t use social media to advertise”; not at all. Just be wary; as we have said in a previous blog, don’t put all your eggs into one basket.
Take a recent news story for instance, where a man in the UK had his Instagram handle stolen off him and given to the Duke and Duchess of Sussex (aka Harry and Meghan). Kevin Kelley had had his handle of @SussexRoyal for the past three years, something about a sporting team which he followed; however, it has been very recently changed to @_sussexroyal_ so that the social media platform could then give the original handle to the aforementioned royal couple. So essentially, this guy has spent the last three years of his social media life creating HIS brand, investing in HIS brand, only to have the social media giant TAKE his brand and give it to someone else that they deem more important for the handle. If it was a regular Joe, like me for example, who wanted that handle, would I get the same royal treatment? No.
Another thing to remember, that even though the content you share is originally your content, once it’s uploaded to any social media platform, it becomes THEIRS. So who are you really investing in? Yourself and your brand, or Instagram/Facebook/Twitter? The answer is… THEM. Your brand, your product is an investment into them. They essentially are the ones making the money off the content on their platforms.
Now as I said earlier, this is not to say that you should not use these platforms, or advertise on them, or make yourself your own brand on them; just be wary that your account, your handle, your screen name is theirs to do with what they will. You may find (but hopefully you don’t) that one day your content is rebranded without so much as a “oh by the way Princess Willynilly from Upper Cabolture wants your screen name so you no longer have the rights to it”. Even Google can randomly change their algorithm and where you were ranking first in searches previously, you can be demoted to the 600th research result. Continue using social media to promote yourself and your brand – it’s effective; BUT… do some other things as well.
For example, build up your assets by posting all your blog posts onto your website, when promoting yourself or brand on social media, always link back to your website. Eventually your audience will automatically know where to go to find out what you have to say or offer. Another thing to do is to put a direct action into your social media business posts; ask them to be shared, liked, forwarded, retweeted. Create good advertising content (we can help with that). Work on short term goals to begin with that will reap rewards sooner rather than later. In the end, promotion on social media it is a short-term game plan, not a long-term investment strategy. Spread the word about branding by looking into alternative, well established advertising avenues; do not put all your eggs in the one basket.
