In 2015, Facebook revamped its Notes to make it easier for users to blog directly on the social network.
Right away, many small business owners and indie artists started asking themselves whether it wouldn't be a good idea to abandon their blogs and just publish complete posts on Facebook.
Five years later, a number of them still wonder.
Here is my short answer: Don't put all your eggs in that basket. I repeat, do NOT put all your eggs in that basket.
Why? Let me start with a story.
In 2013, Social Fixer, an unofficial app created to improve the Facebook experience, had a Facebook page with 338,000 likes and a flourishing community of 13,360 members. Then one day, the page was deleted without notice or explanation.
Founder Matt Kruse was bummed, of course. However, he really wanted the page back up, so he accepted Facebook's demands and removed some of the tool's key features. You can read all about it here.
Over the years, many people have complained about the social network deleting or disabling their pages or profiles. From spammy content to badly run contests and reports gone wrong, the Facebook team can decide to sever all your ties with your audience with a push of a button.
It doesn't matter if the decision is justified or not. It's more important to understand that your Facebook page isn't your property. Actually, the same goes for any social media account you have. Whatever you publish on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, YouTube, etc. could be gone tomorrow. All these platforms are rented land and make their own rules.
Want an example of what I am talking about? Read the Financial Times' article titled Instagram Threatens to Stifle a New Generation of Poets. Here is an extract:
Instagram is in danger of strangling the literary phenomenon to which it gave its name [Instapoetry]. Gill thinks that measures the Facebook-owned platform has introduced to boost its own commercial income are cutting her - and fellow poets - off from the fan base they worked hard to create.
I get it. The appeal of publishing on Facebook or Instagram is real. After all, you are tapping into a huge audience. But the powers that be, not you, have the last word on your content. Also, algorithms have been put in place to limit your visibility. Only a subset of your audience can actually see what you post.
It is what happens when you build on borrowed land without backing up your content on YOUR platform. If you own your domain name, no one else but you can tell you what to do.
In 2020, if you consider yourself a serious author or writer, you must have a website / blog. Publish your content there first. Then, republish and/or curate it on social media platforms to draw traffic to your site. And, if your social media accounts are deleted for any reason, your hard work won't be lost.
Worried about duplicate content? Just rewrite or tweak your posts. That's simple. 🙂
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