What If Facebook Is Actually Hurting Your Business?

I was talking to a friend and fellow business owner.

He asked me if I wanted to be their “social media manager.”

“No.”

“I’ll help with marketing that actually works, but in general, social media alone is a terrible strategy and takes too much time. It can help but really only if you run ads or have a big following.”

Now before you say anything, hear me out…

I know of several local businesses that post on Facebook ALL the time.

Does it work? Yes? Sometimes. Maybe.

Is it a waste of time? Yes.

Caveat: Unless social media is already a proven and trackable revenue stream for your business.

The posts might get 2 or 3 likes on a good day. Then forgotten about completely.

See, most people on Facebook are just scrolling mindlessly. They see something cool, then keep scrolling.

What good does that do?

Reminds them of your business? Sure.

But whatever you just posted about? There’s a 80% chance they completely forgot about it (by my random made up math)

And that’s assuming they even saw it.

The Facebook algorithm is brutal. You could post every day for a year and still have less than 5% of your followers actually see your posts.

Which means you get SOME business. But the amount of business you get compared to the amount of time you spend posting on Facebook ISN’T WORTH IT.

That’s not even considering the fact that Facebook owns your audience and followers. Not you.

So if your account get shuts down, hacked, or shadowbanned?

Poof—your audience is gone. Overnight. You have nothing left.

So what should you do instead?

Well, in simple terms: OWN YOUR AUDIENCE.

If YOU own your audience (not Facebook or Instagram or TikTok or whatever) then YOU can control who sees what, and when they see it.

There are some simple tactics to build up an audience YOU own and not those billion dollar companies.

As the saying goes: “The money is in the list”

Your main goal should be collecting email addresses and/or phone numbers of as many customers or potential customers as possible. (This is WAY easier than you might think - but how to get this info can/will be a whole article by itself)

This way, you can market to your own list and not to the void that is social media.

Want to promote a sale? Boom—email + SMS blast = instant eyeballs.

Want to announce an event? Customers actually get notified (instead of seeing it two weeks later).

Want more repeat business? Automate follow-up offers and loyalty rewards.

No hoping, no guessing, no “maybe they’ll see it.”

I’m not saying social media posts are totally worthless. But most business owners are limited on time. And spending that time on social media isn’t worth it.

But if you must post on social, use it as a lead magnet or direct response post to generate engagement towards a compelling call to action.

You can use posts to drive people to your email list or an offer.

Or consider posting in Facebook groups. Then respond to comments and turn those conversations into leads.

Because the real money isn’t in the likes—it’s in the leads.

Let’s focus on what actually drives revenue.

If you need help converting your social media followers into assets you actually own and control, let me know. Here to help.

-Taylor

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