Bilal Jaffrey makes my teeth grind with his use of the phrase “in the online space” in his opening sentence, but his heart is in the right place in this Social Media Today post.

In the mad rush to be on Facebook, to leverage the latest Facebook enhancements, to get more people to like your Facebook page, to implement all the Facebook tips for small business that can be found … in all of that, marketers and businesses are forgetting that they’re building on someone else’s platform, not their own.

When all is said and done, don’t you want your online traffic coming to you, not to them?

Because as much as the web isn’t about control, you can nevertheless control the platforms on which your content is disseminated.

Then, when Facebook does something that messes up your communications strategy — like yesterday’s announcement that Facebook pages can no longer send updates — you won’t be as affected by the news.

And let’s face it — especially with something of a social media features war taking place between Facebook and Google+, this won’t be the last major feature overhaul that takes place on Facebook. The last thing you want is for your online communications strategy to get chewed up by all the shrapnel.

(Hat tip to Barbara for bringing the SMT post to my attention.)

This entry was posted on Saturday, September 17th, 2011 at 8:23 am and is filed under Marketing Stuff, Social Media.