Is the Foundation of Your Business Built on Shifting Sand?

Michele MacPhearson posted this interesting excerpt from Ad Age on her SEO and Internet Marketing blog recently…

This is yet another step in a trend we call the Splinternet. The open, standards-based Web experience that we’ve embraced for the last 15 years is becoming a set of platforms that people love, but that are controlled by companies (like Apple, Facebook, and now Twitter). While these platforms are exciting, do not be naive: companies control them and will set the rules on how marketers can use them to connect. They’ll change those rules as they see fit, which will make your life as a marketer far more challenging. This is the Splinternet era; you’d better get used to it.

Splinternet Era: http://adage.com/article/digitalnext/tweetdeck-acquisition-means-marketers/227758/

Not that I have anything against Twitter, Facebook or Apple products — but it is a dangerous thing to build your internet marketing efforts on a foundation controlled by somebody who may or may not have your best interest at heart.

Am I recommending that you abandon your social media efforts?  Not really.  But, if you are planning a long term business, you could consider speading your efforts among different channnels.   Michele recommends making sure that your customers are getting hooked into media that you control like your e-mail list or website.

You could even go a step further by getting physical addresses of your customers and keeping back-ups – that way if your e-mail provider or web host shuts down — you’ll still have your data (and your business).