Why the recent TikTok, X, and Instagram cases should make you think twice about including them in your marketing plan.
Let's start with the recent events involving TikTok and its latest adventures in the United States. Imagine a social network so beloved yet so unstable that it could vanish from app stores overnight. That's exactly what happened when ByteDance, TikTok's parent company, faced a ban tied to national security concerns. For 12 hours, TikTok disappeared from users' lives. Access was restored after an executive order, but here's the catch: If you're a new user or deleted the app during this chaos, you couldn't download it again—at least as of this writing. Who needs a suspense thriller when your revenue depends on a platform like TikTok?
And TikTok isn't alone. Remember X (formerly Twitter) being banned in Brazil? It was offline for 40 days because Elon Musk's team overlooked the basics—appointing a local representative and paying fines to the Brazilian courts. More than 21 million users were left in digital limbo, likely wondering if their tweets had evaporated into the ether. The company eventually complied with the rules, but this serves as a stark reminder of how social media can suddenly pull the rug out from under users, often without warning.
Now, here's where it gets darker. These platforms aren't just apps; they're the lifeblood of many businesses and influencers. Imagine waking up to find your primary income-generating tool gone because a government or tech giant decided it should be. Worse still, these platforms don't just control access—they manipulate follower counts and move users around like chess pieces. Case in point: This week, Meta transferred millions of followers from the official White House accounts to the new administration's social media, regardless of user choice.
Here's the hard truth: Your social media audience isn't truly yours. Your followers are one tweak away from disappearing or being repurposed. Algorithms—unpredictable and ever-changing—dictate whether your posts reach your audience. They can bury your content the moment it stops aligning with "engagement goals."
So, what's a savvy marketer or entrepreneur to do? Diversify! Imagine placing all your bets on a single, unreliable dealer at a poker table. That's social media addiction in a nutshell. Instead, invest in other channels—especially email marketing—where you own your audience. Your email subscribers are yours. No tech titan can delete them or reassign them.
Email marketing may not be glamorous, but it delivers. For every dollar spent, email marketing yields an average ROI of $36, far outpacing the comparatively meagre returns of social media. Building an email list might feel old-fashioned, but the security it offers is cutting-edge. It's like planting crops on your own fertile land instead of renting farmland, only to be evicted when the landlord changes the rules.
Social media is valuable for visibility—use it! But use it to funnel people into an ecosystem you control: your email list.
Here's the takeaway: If your strategy relies entirely on social media, you're gambling on someone else's terms. And in this high-stakes game, the house always wins. Instead, hedge your bets. Build your email list. Protect your audience. Enjoy the peace of mind that comes from knowing no executive order, algorithm change, or billionaire's whim can take it away.
Stay tuned!