What are the dangers of using Facebook to grow your business?

Several years ago, if you wanted to grow your business, Facebook was the most popular method. And many people today still feel that using this social media platform is practical.

This thought process is the glorified nativity. When Facebook launched in 2004, my friend called me and invited me to join her. After about a year I finally did. It didn’t occur to me that I could grow a business using it.

Several years after I closed my traditional business, I helped other small business owners build and grow their business on social media. And like most consultants, I recommended and used Facebook. My small business owners were successful, so I was successful.

Later, when I retired from small business consulting, I decided to open my doors to online marketing. And it was enjoyable as well as educational. Like so many other people, I learned from failure. Marketing anything online is challenging due to scams.

When I finally got my master’s degree from the University of Hard Knocks using the Internet for my business ventures, I discovered that I, too, could use Facebook to grow and expand my bank account.

Using Facebook groups and building relationships was easy. I opened four groups of my own. Everything was going great. Although I wasn’t completely happy with Facebook, it was paying off. And I bought advertising on Facebook from time to time.

Several of my business partners warned of changes on the horizon. But I was successful and did not listen. That was my mistake.

The point here is this; Do not trust this platform. They have a unique way of selling our personal information and an even more unique way of tracking our posts. (Yes, even our commercial content).

Insidious fact-checking is primary. Mainly because fact checking is not fact checking, it is a way to silence and control our content.

Be careful if you are building your business on this platform. At any time you can deactivate your account. And most of the time they don’t tell you exactly why.

I lost all my personal groups, plus my thousands of followers and my account. If only I had listened to my associates before this happened, I would never use this platform.

My business was moral, legal, ethical and honest. I lost my Facebook account because my content didn’t fit their narrative.

I have opened a new account. But I will never again trust a platform that controls my content; business or personal.

Anyone who suggests that you build your business with Facebook is naive. The market and the business environment are not what they were five or ten years ago. Today, it’s about control. Your business is your livelihood; it’s your hard work. Think about it before you go ahead. Maybe you want to make changes.