A big mistake that many businesses make is put all their time and energy into building fans and engagement on their social media channels than forgetting to push them to their own platforms.

If you didn’t already know, you don’t own anything on your social media channels. Yes, that includes the images you post and your fans!  So, while it might be great to have 2000 engaged fans on your Facebook page, wouldn’t it be better to have those 2000 people interacting with you directly?

Think of your social media channels as traffic drivers. Don’t get run over in the rush to get as many likes as possible….  They are platforms that allow people to find your brand and start to engage with you so they get to know you better. Once they have a chance to, you need to think about how you convert them to your own channel like your newsletter sign up or blog RSS feed. This way you have their contact details and can continue to have conversations with them. Using social to drive traffic to your ‘owned’ channels, that’s the ones you own and have full control over makes much more sense than letting Facebook take over your audience.

Here’s the kicker – they can change the rules or take ownership of your fans tomorrow and if you have invested a lot of time and resources into building this, forgetting to convert them to your channels, then you have missed a massive opportunity.

I am not saying don’t invest in social. I think it is a great platform to find audiences, however, make sure you have a plan in place as to how you are going to drive your new fans to your own channels.  It could save you some heartache in the future if you take action now.