If you're on Facebook, you've likely been invited to become a fan or join a group, a cause, etc. Chances are, you've probably also joined a group on your own.
I'm not going to knock those friends and Rhyno partners who already have established pages, but lately I've had a lot of people asking me when I'm launching mine.
And I won't be. Here's why:
1. I demand control
Facebook controls all things Facebook. Launching my own portion of Facebook and then relying on it as "easy" exposure is asking for problems.
At The Smart Marketing Blog and all extensions of Rhyno Marketing, I control the design. I control the privacy features. I control the hosting and its reliability. I control its privacy policies. I control the URL. I control, I control, I control...
2. Same exposure
First, I'm not convinced that a Facebook page is the best way for me to be exposed to new business. If you're an artist, musician or cause, your exposure to people is a bit different.
I have my friends and family. And if they're good friends and family, they're already my fan, and they already appreciate my work with Rhyno. I don't need Facebook to have a tangible realization of it.
But, for a moment, let's pretend one of my family members or friends wanted to share my work with one of their friends, I'm confident my website can do that more effectively than a templated-branch of Facebook would.
Bottom line, for a niche business like mine, I'd be surprised to see my "fan" list on a potential Rhyno/Facebook page be drastically different than my personal list of friends.
3. Community for dialogue
Some of you reading this are Rhyno clients (thanks for being here!). Some of you are industry folks, carefully dissecting the theories and implications of this post (thanks for being here too).
For Rhyno, I'm content with the comments portion of my blog to housing my community of conversation -- I don't need a Facebook discussion tab to do it for me. In fact, I'd rather the discussions be as narrow and specific to the post as possible to eliminate tangents.
4. Brand consistency
I'm a stickler for brand consistency. So why would I voluntarily house myself somewhere that doesn't look like the rest of my brand?
Yes, I can put the Rhyno logo on a Facebook page, but I'd like to preserve what little brand equity I have. I want everything relating to my brand in one place. If I spread it out on various sites (that are likely to change their look...or even shut down without notice) that just makes it more difficult to manage.
5. Limited availability
Frankly, if for some reason I'm wrong, and Facebook suddenly unleashes a mob of small businesses who were hidden from me before my little "page," I simply don't have any more time than I'm currently spending on Rhyno.
I have a wife. I have a house. I have a day job. And after that, I have Rhyno.
I'm so very thankful for the opportunities Rhyno's given me, but I'm only one guy who's getting older a little faster than his body would prefer. If I accept any more work, either I'm not going to give my current clients the attention they deserve or something's going to bust. And we all need to be really careful about that.
6. Exclusivity
Rhyno isn't a business for everybody. Rhyno isn't a commodity that everybody has a relationship with. Not everybody needs a design and marketing consultant in their pocket.
I preach targeted marketing. I preach that everybody isn't a market So why would I want to execute a tactic that's outside my "small business owner" market? Yes, one of my friends may have a friend, who has another friend (exhausting), but we covered that possibility in the second point, didn't we?
7. Because everybody is doing it
We've talked about this a bit in previous posts, but to me, when everybody is doing it, that's a red flag. Because everybody is doing it probably means you should really think why they're doing it.
If you launch a page, what's your purpose? I certainly wouldn't have one, and I'm not going to do it just to maintain a placeholder URL.
Recap
Again, I'm not trying to persuade you one way or another. Those are just my reasons. I'm not questioning anybody's reasoning, no do I necessarily need justification for your doing so. Everybody has an angle; most of them different from mine.
What do you think -- am I off point?
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