There were two young farmers, Amos and Rufus. Both were just starting out, and neither could afford to buy their own land. They had heard a large landowner, Frank Booker, was letting farmers like them rent land for free. They spoke with other farmers and realized that it was indeed the case and that they to could use the land for free.
Amos and Rufus were given identical spots side by side. They were the perfect spots to boot! They were close to the main road with plenty of parking, and they could sell their crops directly from the field. Time went by, and our faithful farmers started to become more successful.
One day a friend came by and asked both of them, “When are you going to buy your own land?”
Amos said, “Why would I want to do that? I have everything I need right here.”
Rufus said, “I am working on purchasing my own land right now. And once I have it cleared, I plan to work both pieces as best I can.”
Then one day, the unthinkable happened. Frank Booker started building fences and gates that prevented people from knowing about all the farmers. The traffic to their roadside stands dropped. Then Frank Booker came to them and said, “For a fee, I am happy to keep the gates open and lower the fences.”
Amos had invested so much in Frank Booker’s land he couldn’t afford to pay him. Lucky for Amos, Rufus was kind enough to employ him. Because Rufus had purchased his own land far away from Frank Booker’s property, he was now only using it to help redirect people to his main stand, which was growing more and more. Rufus was able to invest a little bit to keep the traffic coming to his own land.
Now, Rufus still uses the rented land, but now he uses it for informational purposes and to give people directions to his own land.
The moral of this story is that you shouldn’t build your business on other people’s land. You never know when they are going to come in and change things on you.
The Small Business vs. Social Media
If you didn’t know who or what my little story was about, let me be crystal clear, it was a direct shot at Facebook. Way back in October of 2013, Facebook started building walls and putting up gates. It forced businesses who wanted to reach the audience they built on the platform to pay to reach them.
To put some numbers to it, Facebook’s stock price was around $50 a share in October of 2013. At its peak as of writing this (October 2021), it was over $380! That is an increase of 660%, all on the back of businesses who advertise on the platform.
According to a report by Ogilvy, they documented the steep decline of organic reach between October 2013 and February 2014. In that short period, for large pages with more than 500,000 likes, organic reach dropped about 2%, and for others, it dropped to about 6%.
According to the latest reports by HootSuite, “The average reach of an organic post on a Facebook Page hovers around 5.20%. That means roughly one in every 19 fans sees the page’s non-promoted content.”
This brings me to my point, why do so many businesses think that just having a Facebook page or a social media presence is enough?
How Much Does It Cost To Play
According to Wordstream, the average cost per click for an ad on Facebook is somewhere between $0.45 to $3.77 depending on the industry. They also report that the average click-through rate is between 0.70% and 1.61%, depending on the industry.
Let’s look at the Home Improvement industry, for example. The average click-through rate is 0.7%, with a cost per click of $2.93. Therefore if you were to advertise to the 18 people who haven’t seen your post, it would cost you $52.47 to reach all of them. And let’s say you post five times a week and boost each of those posts. You would be spending north of $1000 a month to reach people who already know who you are on the land you RENTED!
Final Thoughts
As you can quickly see, Facebook and the social media channels are not here to help you and your small business succeed.
If you are a small business and only have a social media presence, reach out and see if we can help you build your business on your own land. We have pricing options to fit almost any budget, including website design and development, content creation, and social media marketing.
