If you’ve been following the news on Twitter overnight, you’ll know that human error led to a mass suspension of 1000s of accounts. This meant that those affected could not send updates, connect with their followers, or do anything on the site until their access was restored.
While my account wasn’t impacted, I think there are some important lessons to think about from this event:
1) Never rely on just one social media site for your marketing efforts. We all have favorite social media sites, and we tend to frequent the same places over and over again. We like what we like, and we are creatures of habit. The problem with relying too heavily on one site is that if it goes down (or your account gets taken down), you have built your business on a shaky foundation. Never rely on an external site as a mainstay to run your business.
2) Technology is only as good as the humans running it. Twitter reports that it was human error which led to the mass banning. This is a good reminder that technology has its limits- and we shouldn’t overvalue what technology can do for us. If you’re only using social media as a push marketing method, you are putting yourself at the mercy of technology. If your “other controlled” distribution channels go away, you have no way to get your message out.
3) You need to have a central hub for your business building efforts. Ideally, this would be your own self-hosted blog. The goal of all social media is to create conversations, and try and lead people back to your central hub. If you overbuild on sites you don’t control, your effort can be lost or wasted. Companies lose funding, sites are abandoned, databases become corrupted.
My friend and colleague Denise Wakeman offers a great article on Why Blog When You’ve Got Facebook (read this!), and she makes some really great points about how you need to create a multi-focused social media platform in order to get the most from your social media marketing efforts.
The final lesson, I think, is that social media is an evolving space, and if you’re following the rules of engagement, you should be able to get your account put back in good standing, simply by pointing out that you weren’t doing anything wrong in the first place.
I am surprised at the number of people who have no other website except some social media site. Having your own website is so important, even if it is just a site with your contact information.
People will try to contact me via Facebook, however, I have to say, I do not spend a lot of time on any social website, if you want to contact me, my own website is best.
Dr. Wright
The Wright Place TV Show
http://wrightplacetv.com
http://www.twitter.com/drwright1
Dr. Wright,
I agree with you- with all of the options available now, it just makes sense to have, at least, your own blog, and, ideally, your own self hosted blog. Thank you for taking the time to comment.
🙂
Rachna
Hey Rachna, thanks for the shout out and link to my blog post. What I have noticed via the comments is that everyone agrees (I guess I’m preaching to the choir) and there are still a few folks out there who have NOT created a hub site and I think this twitter event may spur some action on their part to get a blog set up.
Blog on!
Denise,
You are, of course, welcome. Thank you for writing such a linkworthy blog post. I do hope people move forward to get their own hub sites set up. Too bad it might take problems like on Twitter to make it happen. Isn’t the best defense a good offense or something like that?
🙂
Rachna
Rachna and Denise, you bring up a great point, about your blog (or website) being your central hub — because you can control it, and you aren’t beholden to a free service that can change the rules or disappear at anytime.
I personally take this one step further. I have WordPress installed on my server, so I’m not limited by an online blogging platform that may or may not back up my blog. I even have my email list management software installed on my server; meaning I don’t use a service like Aweber or ConstantContact. It gives me another measure of protection, and I can control (and backup) my site.
Call me paranoid or a control-freak, but at least I’m never at the mercy of someone else if a problem comes up!
Terri,
I don’t think you’re either paranoid or a control freak. Just a person who makes sound business decisions. With so many things being uncertain in business anyway, it’s very wise to have as much under your management as you possibly can.
Completely agree with self hosted WordPress. It’s what I do and recommend too. Thanks for contributing your thoughts.
🙂
Rachna