Marc the Wood Whisperer Retweet JC8KNQ5SVTKT

When I posted a blog article about me leaving Facebook, it got a retweeted by the Wood Whisperer himself, Marc Spagnuolo – visit him at http://www.thewoodwhisperer.com!

I have an incredible amount of respect and admiration for what he’s done with his show and watch every episode… I love his style, delivery and creativity making even the most complex woodworking tasks seem easy – just like Norm from “This Old House” that I loved watching when I was growing up!

My blog article lead to a discussion where I’d say generally that half of the people say I’m doing things “wrong”, which is a very valid point btw, but at the end of the day, like I wrote,

https://twitter.com/WoodWhisperer/status/425985787671236608
“if you don’t own it, you have no control over it.” – something to think about for my fellow content producers.

I agree there is A LOT I could be investing resources into to improve my Facebook performance, there is honestly an endless list of things “social media experts” tell you to do both free and paid. Not getting results? That’s your fault… the platform is sound (yeah right!) What you have to realize is that they are not telling you what WORKS but what WORKED… otherwise they wouldn’t be an expert for too long would they? So, expert “A” says “XYZ” and their herd of followers do just that, to the detriment of everybody as it will no longer work as well. Once results die down, they pop-up and say “no… I meant that way” so they all get up and run the other direction and the cycle repeats itself. It’s quite sad.

I’ve always had a problem with given authority (over earned authority), I tend to think for myself and don’t let “experts” with their endless babble to herd me along with their sheep to a new promised land trying to convince me I’m doing something wrong if I don’t follow their “lead”. Don’t fall for that “do a little more” non-advice. I know their game… choose to use your time to plot your own course to new opportunities.

To me, Facebook is a wonderful tool that, if they kept it in its original from, would work great for SEO/SEM but here’s the problem. People are sharing more and more… last count, if Facebook allowed you to see everything all your friends were doing, you’d have close to 2 000 status updates A DAY! This will ONLY get worse. Facebook’s solution is a simple one, what other people “like” or “comment” on the most is what you’ll see the most. Sounds good? What about those “fan” pages that Facebook knows are online for financial gain (business needs money to survive). Those are segregated into another stream where increasingly, a company will have to give payola for eyeballs leading to traffic and eventual sales. Put another way, money increasingly overcomes merit.

I don’t mean to hurt people’s feelings but do you seriously think Facebook (or other social media networks) gives a damn about you or your family keeping connected? There is no money in that… you are just a product for companies to exploit. They care about what pays the bills, not sharing grandma ate for breakfast… so expect to see more and more ads using YOUR FACE, YOUR PROFILE INFO in your stream over updates to convince YOUR friends and family to buy the same cereal you are eating in the instagram picture you posed but with a 10% coupon discount. It’s already happening, this isn’t misinformation, it’s the next logical course that Facebook has already tried and will keep doing. Remember that Google “terms of service update” about a month ago? You remember, that part about you agreeing that it was OK for them to use your Google+ picture for advertising to your friends/family? Yeah, you just agreed to it by default without thinking. That’s why my picture isn’t on that platform or on Facebooks… I refuse to be used to peddle products without my knowledge or consent. It’s a slow creep, like the frog realizing it’s being cooked alive just a little too late to do anything about it.

Leave your ego, feelings, and investment in time you’ve put into these platforms at the door – it has nothing to do with black helicopters, people are just making excuses to keep on pedaling away on something, rehashing what others have told them. People love pointing to exceptions to prove their point, ignoring the grand scheme of it all with its larger trends.

I’m not some ignorant guy who knows nothing about SEM/SEO/SM – I’ve been at this game for over 15 years! I just see the bigger picture and it isn’t pretty and I have no interest (vested or otherwise) in joining the masses as they try endless strategy permutations in order to tweek out just a little more juice for their site that at the end of the day, you have no input or control over. You’ll end-up being a hamster on a wheel, running faster and faster but not really getting anywhere. Don’t be like everybody else, think for yourself, be smart and get off the damn wheel and jump out of the cage!

At the end of the day, I “own” my businesses, I “own” my videos and I “own” my books… that is where I plan on investing my time and energy, not on somebody else’s platform to bitch about my fans hearing less and less of me but not leaving because I fear losing the hundreds if not thousands of hours I invested in a platform that I don’t own.

Don’t get me wrong, I love my fans, customers and people who follow what I do… I’d be nowhere without them! I talk to them all the time on my website realtime using Zopim which kills any other platform out there by far!

Yep, this is what my traffic looks like right now in the middle of the night in North America…
just wait till everybody wakes-up!

But for them to benefit the most out of what I do and for me to keep in contact with them in the most efficient manner… Facebook and most of this “social media hype” just isn’t it. Social media isn’t a business plan, it isn’t an efficient way to deal with customers nor is it anymore a good use of my time than watering my pet rock.

Anyways, I’ve ranted enough… back to work growing my business the smart way where I control my reputation, my hard work while helping others grow their perspectives and businesses. I know some will poke holes through this – that’s fine. I’ve moved on.