Social Media is Rented Space

Social media is rented space.

Many of the outdoor brands I’ve worked with are social influencers. I started as a social influencer with my hiking brand. And there’s nothing wrong with that.

Social media is a great way to grow your brand and develop your reputation in a niche.

In outdoor recreation communities, the fans and followers are on social media. These people also convert into leads and customers, too.

But many influencers forget that social media is rented space. And because of that, they take too big of a risk in depending on social media to continue as it is.

We know it can quickly change, and your social status can quickly end. Yet, we take these risks. Why?

In this article, I don’t want just to address why social media is rented space, but I also want to note what you should do to expand and protect your brand.

How Social Media is Rented Space?

Social media is rented space because you don’t own it.

Facebook, Twitter, TikTok, and even YouTube are like apartments. You can rent them, but you can’t own them. You can customize your channel, but you have limited abilities on what you can do.

Your website is like having your own house. You can do whatever you want with it, but it does cost more. Social media is usually free for you to create with.

But social media also has terms of use you agree with by creating an account. In those terms, they say (all platforms) they can end your account for no reason. There’s nothing you can do about that, either. Most platforms won’t do that, but they can, and they have in the past. And they have the right to do it, too.

If you break the platform’s rules, whether you think you did or not, the platform can restrict you from accessing your account and content. They do this all the time.

Because of restrictions and their ability to outright delete you at will, social media is rent space one hundred percent.

Should you Leave Social Media since it’s Rented space?

No. Of course not.

Just because social media is rented space doesn’t mean you should give up on social media.

Most brands, people, and businesses will become popular because of social media. It’s a great tool to get ahead in life.

And the best part is, most of the time, it’s completely free to use to grow your reputation as an influencer or your business and brand. You can’t ask for a better service than one that can make you rich and famous at no cost.

It takes a lot to become rich and famous from social media, but I wanted to mention that because it can and has happened to some creators.

Social media is a great tool for you, your brand, and your business. In many cases, you might not grow to your potential if you don’t use social media.

But with that being said, my message for you in this article is to use social media as a tool but not as your main source of growth and income generation.

Because if something does happen and you lose your social media accounts, and that’s all you have, it will likely be one of the most devastating things you’ll ever experience.

That’s why it’s important to recognize that social media is rented space and do something about that risk before it’s too late.

What Should You Do About This Situation?

Do you have a website? If not, you should build one.

A domain name and hosting are cheap to start with these days. It’s anywhere from $100 to $300 a year. Then you can use the free WordPress blog software to create your website even if you don’t plan to create a blog. Over 40% of websites on the internet use WordPress. That’s my go-to website software. You can have a website up in a day by using WordPress.

You’ll own your website. This is because you have access to its files and database. You’ll still have your files and database access if you have to change hosting services. You own this space.

If you lose your social media, you lose everything associated with it. That’s because social media is rented space.

Do you have a newsletter? If not, you should start building one.

A newsletter is free to start. Create an account on Mail Chimp or another service you wish to use. Mail Chimp, for example, gives you a lot of free subscribers before you start getting charged for it. You also have to make a move to start paying for it.

A mailing list is owned space because you have access to the list of names and email contacts of your newsletter. You should periodically save them to your computer and external hard drives.

If something happens to your email newsletter account, you still have your list of subscribers and customers. You can easily add them to other newsletter accounts if needed.

You can’t do that with social media because you don’t ever get access to that sort of information. That’s because social media is rented space.

And that sums up this article about how social media is rented space and what you can do about it. I hope you enjoyed reading this article and that it inspires you to create things you own. Please follow me on Twitter for more tips and resources.

About the Author

Shawn Gossman has created content, blogged, ran online communities, and shared a passion for digital marketing for over twenty years. Shawn believes the best way to help content creators, businesses, brands, and marketers is to give away more than you sell. The same advice is recommended for the readers who follow this blog. Shawn also offers various services for extra help in content creation and blogging.