In theory, social media is an amazing idea. Tens of thousands of interconnected people sharing, creating, reacting, conversing and communicating in one space.

In reality, the costs to run this technology has led to every single social media platform of scale ever created with any broad success turning into a hungry beast that needs to be fueled by advertising and any number of other algrorithmic pressures that erode at the effectiveness of the social aspect.

I have advocated professionally and personally for many years for people (and businesses) to keep a toe in each of the two pools: one each in social media platforms and private content platforms. That is to say, the wisest among us know that relying exclusively on social platforms means your content is only as valuable as someone else’s company bottom line. And alternatively, leaning one hundred percent into a private platform like a blog or other website orphans your connectiveness to the wider internet community to the hours per day you are willing or able to promote it and help people find you.

Both have their advantages and disadvantages. So be smart and dabble in both. Have strategies for using both. Don’t rely exclusively on either alone.

Personally, I have leaned more heavily into building content on my own platform and then working to promote it on social media. It does make me a tad unsocial, but also the risks of losing control, access, or moral standing of that content for participation on one of the big social networks is lessened. And at the end of the day, I have retained full control over the vast amounts of content I have created through the years while still having it read and used by many.