The Biggest Mistake Most Business Owners Make

The Problem

I've seen business owners make a lot of mistakes, but one of the biggest is an overdependence on social media.

Everything runs through Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and WhatsApp. Their customers are there. Their sales happen there. Their content lives there.

Now, you might be wondering what exactly is wrong with this.

The way I see it, social media is centralized. There are decision makers. Algorithms that change. Policies that shift. You don't own any of it. You can wake up one day and realize you've been kicked out because you violated some rule you didn't even know existed. You could even be shadow banned without realizing it. All you know is that people stop seeing your business.

I'm sure you've seen it over and over again. People complaining about their Instagram or Facebook accounts being deactivated for no clear reason.

Recently, a friend of mine lost all of his social media accounts and hasn't been able to come back on.

So the question is, why do business owners keep making this mistake?

Because what it literally means is this. The day Facebook or Instagram goes down, your business goes down. The day your account gets deactivated, you're done. You have to start over and rebuild from scratch. And that is not an easy thing to do.

So what should you do instead?

Use social media as a funnel, not a foundation.

Let it bring people in, but move them to something you actually control. A contact list. An email list. Something that belongs to you. You can also direct them to a platform you own, maybe your website.

Anything that allows you to reach people without needing permission from a platform.

When someone buys from you, save their email. When someone reaches out, get their number. Build a list of people who actually want to hear from you, and make sure you can reach them even if Instagram or Facebook shuts down tomorrow.

Social media should work for your business. Your business should not depend on it.

Let's stop here for now and answer this question, If Instagram or Facebook disappeared tomorrow, would your business survive?