Own your

audience

In reality, Facebook, Twitter, TikTok or any other social media network owns your audience. Not you. So even if your socials have been working well for you, you should be worried—and should start owning your audience. First, because you will want to ensure that your message actually reaches your followers. Second, because you want to have a grip on the many metrics and dependencies of algorithms that affect the delivery of your message. How does that make you feel, having Mark own your audience? Not good, huh.

As Is

The medium is the message, a wise man said several years ago. And man, did he have a point. We don’t talk about a bit of text when sharing on social media, we call it a post. We don’t write a story, we post it. One man is responsible for these neologisms. Yep, there’s Mark again. And while brilliant, he is also contested, as are the products he has developed.

This past decade, we’ve been trying to break the code to success on social media. How do these algorithms really work? How can we beat them? It keeps marketing managers up at night. But how is this normal? If you pay a newspaper money, they put your ad up. Simple. Not so with socials, who might decide to make you invisible on a whim. This opaque M.O. and uncertainty makes us long for the good old days. Almost. Because looking forward, we can imagine improvements. We can see how it would be possible to allow brands to reconnect with their crowd, without unpredictability or mystery. All focus on building a better brand, not on how to mislead the algorithms. Sounds good, no?

could be

Web 2.0 allowed average Joe to add his content to the giant interwebz. Web 3.0 will put the big players on the same plane. Want to reach a crowd? Send them an email. Whether you're InBev or an up-and-coming indie band, set up a Substack and write authentic content as if your life depended on it. Then? Send. It. Out. Simple as that.

Are social media over and out then? Obviously not. But while the small players already took to alternative broadcasting and sharing options, those in power won’t depend on Mark forever either. The internet has created an exciting reaction to the algorithms, shaking everything up. With platforms like Patreon, you can make a direct link with listeners, readers or supporters of whatever you come up with, and that is, as you will agree, worth more than a thousand likes.

We should expect users to become more emancipated when it comes to sharing all their data with Mark and the likes. What will his mysterious algorithm be worth then? Time to emancipate along them. Invest in and build up a direct relationship with your customer, via mail or any of the new platforms that let you own your own data. And remember: customers know by now that their attention doesn’t come cheap, so you better make it worthwhile.