It’s 2022. Small businesses are being crushed by bigger businesses, governments, changing economies, pandemic, and their own stagnation. Since the pandemic has forced advertisement to be more digital, we need to address the stinky elephant in the room. I think I speak for the majority of us, but I’ll keep it to the businesses I know of- it’s time to fire Facebook, Meta, or whatever they want to call themselves.
Y’all it’s time to tell them to hit the door, tell them to kick rocks. Let’s just keep it real.
I think it’s just time with the last events and news that’s coming out. Hence, why we need to say their time is over because we don’t have to use them, spend money, or promote their platform.
Clash of the Titans
Facebook is beautiful to look at, but you can’t look at it because if you look at it, it’s going to turn you to stone. For those who know the Clash of the Titans, there’s a character monster no human/animal can look at, Medusa.
At one time, we all needed to be on Facebook. The social media giant was the place for family, friends, and colleagues to socialize via posts, images, and videos. For businesses who wanted to advertise, social provided a great bang for the buck in the beginning. However, that time is over.
Social media is still a place where prospects learn your business character. From your marketing strategy, here’s where they can “know, like, and trust” you.
Facebook’s Burning Building
So this is the article I mentioned on the podcast (Meta’s Head of PR Leaves a Company on Fire:https://gizmodo.com/metas-head-of-pr-leaves-a-company-on-fire-1848327562) that came out a few days ago from Gizmodo. The author is Elise Stanley. She starts off by saying it’s hard to blame someone from running away from a burning building. John Pinette couldn’t handle all the drama from Zuckerberg.
About a year ago, a couple of clients were saying,
“Nathan, my budget is tight… I know I need to be on social, but social so hard. I really don’t want to give money to Facebook.”
I don’t like my money to go anywhere that is not supporting other small businesses, not helping local communities, not helping the BIPoC community, and other underserved communities. And I don’t really know how Facebook is giving back. The more and more I dug into Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg, which I used to love because I was on MySpace. Unfortunately, Facebook is a monopoly and doesn’t do a lot of good for its users.
I reflected on my ad spend with Facebook and wanted to be on the right side of doing good business. Companies are starting to say, I don’t want to do anything with them either.
Eliminate Facebook Advertising
In the New York Times, more than a thousand companies boycotted Facebook. They just updated it back on October 5th, 2021. In the article (More Than 1,000 Companies Boycotted Facebook. Did It Work?) Facebook’s distrust has earned them a loss of significant ad revenues.
Facebook’s business model needs advertisers to keep their doors open, but they forgot about the little businesses and focused on the big entities. Well, that’s changing because I found a Goldman-Backed Fintech company that doesn’t want anything to do with FB either.
Being Used
When I think about Facebook’s platform, they’re making money from our personal posts and memories. They’re using what you do with your relatives, colleagues, and strangers, and selling it to the biggest advertiser so that advertisers can get a bigger bang for the buck. That’s how Facebook works.
So as a small business, I don’t want to capitalize on some tactics that aren’t ethical. Cambridge Analytica isn’t going anywhere because the ugly residue is still being investigated from the presidential election.
And then they have these Facebook papers that came out by their employee Frances Haugen. After contemplating this woman risking her livelihood, I had to imagine the level of unethical behavior is happening.
I don’t want to be associated with something that’s not doing right by its users or employees. I do believe Facebook can do so much good in the world, but they’re not dropping diamonds. So for me, you know, I think it’s time for us to say goodbye to Facebook. And when a company wants to do a social media campaign, I cannot endorse Facebook as a viable channel. I really hope that they can change and pivot what they’re doing, but until they do, I just don’t see them making an effort to support the little businesses. I don’t see them changing how they go about their algorithms, to where it’s not focused on leaving people with a great attitude or a mindset and ensuring that. That’s why I say it’s time to fire Facebook and, and folks that are spending money on Facebook.
Nathan A Webster
