What would happen if Facebook shut tomorrow?
If Facebook completely closed down tomorrow, would you be able to communicate with your customers or clients? Would they be able to communicate with you?
Now, you might laugh at the idea and tell me there is NO WAY that Facebook will just close tomorrow, and as much as I definitely agree that the chances are slim it’s always possible. We saw it nearly happen in the US in 2020 with TikTok, that was a crazy time with Trump and now he’s even talking about starting his own social media channel! Isn’t it incredible that these social media channels held more power than the US Government… but that’s a topic for another day!
At the end of the day, you don’t own Facebook, or even your business or personal page really! Facebook can block you from posting or being seen at any point if they would like, or if they deem your content as inappropriate, that doesn’t sound like you own it. We even saw recently the short removal of news from Facebook and the mayhem that it caused for these global media outlets that had to review how they were reaching their audiences – lucky they had a website and an email database!
This brings us to the concept of paid vs owned vs earned media.
There are the three commonly referred to types of media:
Paid media: Exactly as it sounds, any paid placement of promotional messages e.g. Facebook Ads, Google Ads
Owned: Any channels that are actually owned by the business e.g. websites, ebooks, podcasts, blog posts
Earned: The messages distributed at no direct cost and by methods beyond the business’ control e.g. word of mouth, website backlinks, press coverage, reviews
And I would nearly go as far as to say that there is actually a fourth, shared. This is the space where social media sits.
There is definitely a place for all types of media with a business’ marketing, and when the marketing communications are integrated and planned they can all work quite effectively together.
If Facebook or Instagram, or any form of social media, shut down tomorrow and it meant that you lost all communication with your clients… it’s time to think about a website!
