A few weeks ago I was in San Francisco giving a conference on privacy at eMetrics, the world’s leading Web Analytics conference. I took advantage of my trip to meet up with Avinash so we could talk and catch up on how things were going at Mind Your Group (Avinash is an advisor and partner at MYG).

Among various topics, he was telling me about his new role at Google and how what he mainly did now was meet with executives of large multinationals to show them the importance of the digital channel.

For Rent: Social Networks

One of the things that caught my attention is that Avinash considers that very often brands’ social media strategy is misguided (as Javier Godoy also noted in his 3rd Generation Social Media Guide). Social networks have become a trend, and many companies invest more in these new channels than in their website or other owned digital channels — not to mention the prominence they give social channels on their own sites to encourage visitors to become fans or followers.

To explain the difference between a brand’s owned channels (websites, apps, etc.) and its social media presence, Avinash explains that what brands and companies do on social media is rent space, and even though they think the space belongs to them, it doesn’t: the data belongs to each social network, not to the brand that has its page or profile on that social network. In the same way, the users and all content, including images, also belong to that social network and not to the brand.

What happens if tomorrow Facebook goes out of fashion or changes its terms of service? The brand has no rights over what it has built on that page. It’s nothing more than a rental where instead of paying with money, the brand is paying with data that allows Facebook to have ever more extensive and precise user profiles.

With this, Avinash seeks to get executives thinking about the importance of seeing the digital channel as a whole and not falling into the temptation of following the social media trend while neglecting the core of their online business. The Internet is an ecosystem, and brands and companies need to develop better digital strategies. I wonder when the big Spanish brands will get this message ;-)

I’m not saying you shouldn’t do things on social networks — be careful with that — just that you shouldn’t see them as the cure-all and not everything has to revolve around them.

As Javier noted in his Guide, social networks can and should help companies’ strategies, and you can even extract economic value from them, but they shouldn’t be a company’s central strategy unless your business model is based exclusively on social networks.

Bottom line: think about whether the efforts you’re putting into social media are truly contributing something to your company, or if you’re just renting a space where the one who really benefits is someone else.

Your company doesn’t own its Facebook wall — it’s simply a tenant, and Facebook can shut it down at any time, as they very clearly state in their terms and conditions. If we make an offline analogy, would you invest the same money in a house you own as in a rental where you don’t know if you’ll still be living there tomorrow?

What do you think? I’d love to hear your comments and points of view.

Cheers,

René

P.S. In this post I talk about Facebook, but the same can be said for Google+, Twitter, or any other social network.

Original Comments

Comment 1

Author: Jorge Alvarez Date: May 8, 2013 Text: [Originally in Spanish] Totally agree with what you’re saying. Coincidentally, exactly two years ago I was talking about this on my blog: Social networks should serve to generate trust and provide value to visitors. Everything else should be done on the company’s own website. Although I also have to say that my experience with companies, especially big ones, is that the corporate website is usually complicated to touch. What ends up happening is that the social media person can publish content on Facebook, Twitter, Google+ without problems and with total freedom, while getting a post published on the corporate website or making changes to pages is nearly impossible. The consequence is that all that content ends up, as you rightly say, in the hands of third parties who can do whatever they want with it. Another big mistake many companies make is running marketing campaigns where they show the Facebook address instead of their own web address.

Reply by René Dechamps Otamendi (May 8, 2013): [Originally in Spanish] Thanks for your comment Jorge. I agree with you. I also didn’t want to make this post too long like my previous ones, and there are things I haven’t said or left out. Regarding the last point you mention — if for example you develop an app on your Facebook page and collect data in a system you own, that can make sense since you’re acquiring data, not just creating it for Facebook. One of the things that surprises me most are campaigns that redirect you to Facebook as you mention, or worse: when you arrive at a company’s website and what it does is send you directly to Facebook via a mega banner. At Mind Your Group we’re redoing our website for example, and the social buttons will be at the bottom. We don’t want someone who visits us to go directly to a site we don’t control ;-)

Comment 2

Author: Daniel Falcón Date: May 13, 2013 Text: [Originally in Spanish] René, great post, and unfortunately we didn’t cross paths at this year’s eMetrics — I would have loved to chat with you. On the topic, my recommendation for making this clearer to clients is the Forrester analysis: “How to Build an Interactive Brand Ecosystem.” Here Nate Elliott supports the importance of brands having their organization’s website as the center, with social networks and media like TV, radio, and press serving to generate awareness and drive people to interaction on the site the company controls.

Reply by René Dechamps Otamendi (May 13, 2013): [Originally in Spanish] Hi Daniel, Too bad we didn’t cross paths at eMetrics indeed. Next time send me an email or tweet and I’ll buy you a beer. Thanks a lot for your comment — I couldn’t agree more, at 300% ;-)

Comment 3

Author: [Trackback] State of Search Date: May 30, 2013 Text: [Trackback] Spain & Search Marketing: The 6th Edition — “In social networks like Facebook, your company is renting by René Dechamps”