Are Facebook Shops Worth It?
Keep Your Business Sovereignty
An explosion of businesses are moving online due to COVID19.
Survival is human nature.
Facebook is capitalizing on this opportunity by launching Facebook Shops - a way for commerce & transactions to happen online, inside their social media platform.
I want to offer you the exact same advice I offer to everyone transitioning and getting started online:
Be careful.
Always maintain your sovereignty.
What do I mean?
Own land.
Don’t trust a landlord.
Don’t become a tenant farmer.
Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.
Being able to self-govern and control your own destiny is everything!
How do you maintain sovereignty online?
By building and hosting your own e-commerce store.
By choose the technology to run your own website.
By NOT depending on social media, or Amazon, or eBay, or Etsy, or UpWork, or any other marketplace to SOLELY feed you.
Don’t get me wrong here…
I am NOT saying don’t use Facebook Shops. Facebook is a powerful social network and effective marketplace to sell your products & services on.
I just see way too many small businesses owners surrender their work to the hands of a giant who ultimately can crush them. Stop giving up what you have worked so hard for!
Never “hand it over” to something new, someone you don’t know, or to a single marketplace.
Why?
Shit happens - things change!
Those new to online marketing, join a social media network or marketplace vertical, get some sales & traction, and focus their entire efforts ONLY there.
Then one day, the platform announces a major update and they are forced to accept and adapt to these changes - even if they don’t want to.
Remember, what works today, might stop tomorrow!
Whether it’s Facebook cutting organic reach, Instagram crashing, or Amazon stealing product ideas from their sellers - these technology behemoths have their own interest in mind - NOT yours!
Imagine waking up one day and poof, everything you worked hard for is all gone.
This actually happens! All the time!
Don’t get caught without the safety net of your own sovereign storefront!
Back in July of 2019, Instagram crashed. I never imagined so many users, influencers, and instafamous people would lose their minds to the extent they did.
Their ability to post, promote, advertise, and monetize was halted for a mere 24 hours over a bug.
Down for (1) day doesn’t sound like a big day, but what if that (1) day cost you $100K?
For some people - it did.
Their only ecosystem - their entire “World” was literally stopped!
The last thing I want to see is another GoFundMe page popping up because you made a stupid decision and let yourself get swallowed up by a sudden change.
If your career / business is surviving COVID19, please remember how fragile business and LIFE are. Please don’t make the mistake of handing it all over to someone or something in the midst of this chaos.
Only sovereign store owners can weather any storm, pivot, adapt, rebuild, recreate, and continue to flourish without anyone else’s hand to dictate the future.
Add Facebook Shops to your business, but don’t make the mistake of making Facebook Shops your entire business.
I am not anti Zuckerburg.
I am not anti Bezos.
I am pro entrepreneur.
I am pro small business.
I am pro sovereignty.
Protect your empire!