Came across this article which touched on a subject that often arises here in SME’s Networking Clubs.

Vigorously discussed, argued, defended, exasperated over, confused by, submitting to, conquered by, disgusted by, frustrated by, feeling compelled to, don’t know what else to do, feeling overwhelmed, giving up, giving in, just going along to get along… would be typical tags you’d find in conjunction with any thread that touches on the subject of whether investing your money, time, talents, and your content on sites you do not own is really worth it… for now… and in the long-run.

Sonia over at CopyBlogger really painted a clear picture when she discussed the problem of “Digital Sharecropping” and what can inevitably happen when you put all your eggs in one or only a few baskets.

http://www.copyblogger.com/digital-sharecropping/

Hi @atlantarobin

Brilliant article! Thank you.

Sutinder

i see this point too.but  dont we all know this?   i would  be all those places if they worked  for  us….or are  you just talking to other online social media companies?  social media is just one part of my  marketing….  ..

 on the other hand…what   business would   spend  tons of time on things that dont work for them…or  make them   money?  it  would  be nuts for me to work on   twitter,linked in, google+  when  all my  evidence says dont  bother…..my marketing sense tells me  facebook is  working   great  right now and i should   take advantage of it as much as possible and as long as possible……. …. it  doesnt mean i wouldnt   do something else that  actually worked….i would find the time….also if a business thinks things wont  change   they  will probably  be  sadly suprised…

so i work on  what works…website ,email database, email newsletters, and  one  big social media thing…facebook….. along with all my other marketing., mail,billboards and  events,with a teeny amount  of  radio and  newspaper… 

i did jump into google* after one of these dicsussions….and  truly my peeps are not there ….i spent  about  2 weeks   open and looking   ….  its not good for me….

Hi @annfurnivall —  

Yes, but not all of us are like that.  :D  

OH boy – When someone with a business does not see the value in the best marketing tool to come down the pike you have no choice but to say “Aw well, to each his own.”

It’s a hard lesson learned.  Lots of sales down the drain.

Google+ rewards your “ownership” of your website, the articles you write, the photos you take, and the videos you make.

Google authorship rewards you for verifying who YOU are by giving you two advantages in the SERPS — by ranking you higher above anonymous content writers and producers… and by attaching your photo thumbnail to your work that shows up in the SERPs, making readers eyes choose to read your #5 ranked article BEFORE the #1-4 content without photos. People like to know WHO they’re reading… and they like seeing that 500+ people want YOU in their circle. (Yes, the number of circle followers will show up in the SERPs, too).

This will happen for all your articles AND your YouTube videos… as YouTube is part of the Google+ network, too.

Sooooooo… Google+ REWARDS you for OWNING your own website and the written and visual content YOU produce.

Facebook and Twitter rewards MARKETERS for staying ANONYMOUS and who continue to spam members and who continue to maintain multiple or even THOUSANDS of duplicate accounts through which they bombard other members with slightly reworded duplicate ANONYMOUS content.

Hmmmmmmm… do you even have to ponder who will win this game of AUTHENTICITY?

Robin Carlisle

Thanks for sharing the article, it was a good read. A good business strategy includes having your own domain and web site, keeping a local copy and backup on the server for safety measure. 

I’ve worked with many marketing agency’s, some lean on keeping traffic in the different channels (FB, TW, G+), others prefer to drive traffic back to the site. We have experienced more engagement when the user remains in a network so we worked through iFrames so the data being consumed is still coming from our servers. 

An alternate solution is to give the users the option to consume some content within the SM channel but offer other information that drives them to explore more on the business web site.

@mitch-rezman i hear you on the no plan b…that  example was way too simple and  probably  many  owners  could have  survived    or maybe not   with   borders and  ipads   ruining everythng  for them already….

.. your  history sounds like ours… …..  gigantic  changes in our world, what we used to do doesnt work now,   and then the recession  when   over half of our wholesale customers    closed their doors….so  to me  worrying about the demise of  facebook  seems  like a waste of time….. if it happens i can figure out something else…..  any  business  might have to  face  big big  changes  and  better  be   as  flexible as possible…which social media  place  to pick    might  be the least of your worries…

 a big  change like   what happens  if  the need  for  webmasters drops  dramatically ,,,that might happen   because  so many small businesses  out in the  real world    are using  facebook on their own and not even  bothering with a website …all wrong  the   web people say  but they arent the ones deciding…. [i still value my web]  that  change wouldnt be out of  your  control…. like so much else…

i feel   kind of   protected  because we  are deep into  google  and  facebook…. we are easy to search on  google  and   very deep into facebook   ….i hear you on  no  good  searching/category tree on  facebook….   but for local brick and mortar  its all different and and  working  great for many…   good  including   very good   roi….  if i get  under 10% engagement i know  i  put on something weak…even tho the experts say  5% is  good.

@mitch-rezman i hear that so much  from my   downtown  buddies..lots of  deserted  sites…. ..   it  must be a  big  communication  problem  plus  lots of   web  people   who  really dont  get it at all. or  just take advantage of  the  unknowing   shop person who is paying them.. and  shop people   trusting that it will do what they think  it will do….. 

 we did ours inhouse and  im  glad  for that…