I work with marketing agencies and consultants who are tired of working more and making less by licensing them our Fractional CMO Agency System | Author of 7 books, including Duct Tape Marketing!
Is Facebook Still a Useful Play for Small Businesses You may very well be asking the question posed in the title of this post because you've been following the recent damning Facebook whistleblower testimony, or maybe you've just had this sinking feeling for several years. While I don't think being on Facebook is at this point detrimental to a small business brand the way it might be for a publicly traded company the question is - Does it still make sense for a small business from the standpoint of meeting business and marketing objectives to invest time and money in Facebook? In certain instances, maybe but with several big caveats. Do you already have a decent following, and do you already have substantial engagement? Without both, time spent posting on FB will have little impact now and certainly in the future - far too many small biz folks jumped into Facebook and mostly posted uselessness, and FB is making them pay for that. (Literally) For at least five years now, I've been preaching about the need to post fun, fascinating, and culture-based stuff for organic reach and then pay for business and sales reach. For most small businesses today, Facebook has taken away organic reach and made paid reach so much harder, more competitive, and more expensive. So to me, the question becomes one of priorities. There are probably five other more practical uses of time and money for most small businesses, so make the choice and stay focused. In general, social media platforms see us as part of the product, not as customers of the product. They have realized that they need us here clicking, scrolling, and commenting to grow the product. But unfortunately, they've also learned that they can amplify this activity by appealing to the worst in us in many cases. And that's the real problem. t doesn't matter whether you believe the details shared by the whistleblower or which side of the political chasm you fall on - the future of social media is based on this dynamic and probably does not bode well for small business growth. When considering platforms today, we must consider a prospect's research intent - Facebook is set up today in ways that might work for someone selling polarization and opinion in noisy ways. But is someone considering a plumbing project because they happened to be scrolling through the noisy newsfeed? Are they clicking on ads for the plumber because the ad is so much more compelling than the ad for skittles that they just saw? I don't wonder much about either of those anymore. Facebook can have a place for small businesses, but not one that comes before creating a better customer experience, discovering how to grow and scale with existing customers, or finding ways to generate referrals. For most of the folks we work with, social media, in general, is a lazy and misleadingly costly way to market. It's time to let it slide, not as a political statement but as a marketing priority.
It can be extremely useful if you know what you're doing. Unfortunately, most business owners don't understand marketing on social media and so it is very hard to gain traction. This is a very good post, thanks for sharing John!
John I’ve never been a fan of Facebook personally since the beginning. Obviously when they went public, it all became about the money. Now with the iOS update, and many other issues, advertising on Facebook for a small business, as you say, is probably not the best use of money for the business.
I've been thinking about this recently too and wrote an article weighting Facebook against LinkedIn. Interesting points you raise here. I feel LinkedIn is a better place for most businesses 😉
Not if you want to own your content....
Agree with your good advice John! First things first (make the most of your existing customers and give them your very best impact!) THEN you can focus on adding "new traffic." By then you'll know your best customers well enough to recognize which, if any, social media channels are a viable portal for your marketing resources.
As I announced my leaving Facebook to my newsletter readers today, I applaud this post as one of the most measured and sensible approaches and commentaries I have seen. Thank you John Jantsch. I agree and I look forward to more insights from you as well as productive conversations with you on this crucial topic – just weeks away from Black Friday. People are mentioning groups, and while I partly agree for the community aspect of them, I also have to say that I abandoned my own group because it was so disheartening to work so hard at creating content that would only be shown to a handful of members – unless I paid to promote my posts. To the members of the group that I worked SO hard to create! So, while I still see the role that groups can kind of play, I'm directing my efforts elsewhere. I love creating free content, but I want people to be able to see it – at the very least.
There's no silver bullet when it comes to small business marketing and this turn of events makes that crystal clear. It's our job as marketers to educate our small business clients! Thanks for showing us the way, John Jantsch.
John Jantsch 💯💯🎉Well said totally agree!!! 🙌
Your message on this has been consistent for years. The fundamentals matter. Owned platforms (email, website, blog) keep small businesses alive. Leverage social media for attention and owned digital media platforms for retention. Full stop.
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2yWow. Well said, John. Thanks for sharing.