Are you building your business on rented digital land? In this episode, we reveal the hidden costs of relying on social media as your primary customer engagement platform. While platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok offer massive reach, they also come with unpredictable algorithms, restricted visibility, and the constant risk of losing access to your connections overnight.

Discover why owning your own online business platform is crucial for long-term business success and how to start building one today. We’ll share actionable steps for creating a space where you control the communication, the content, and the relationship with your customers—without interference from third-party platforms.

If you’re serious about growing your business with a solid, scalable foundation, this episode is for you. Start owning your customer relationships today!

🔑 What You'll Learn:

• The dangers of relying the wrong platforms to build your business
• Why owning your platform is the key to sustainable growth
• How to create a platform that fosters engagement and loyalty

Chapters:

00:00 - Introduction: The Risks of Building Your Business On a Platform You Don't Own

03:15 - Why Social Media Isn’t a dependable Business Platform

07:45 - The Power of Platform Ownership in Customer Engagement

12:30 - How Changes Beyond Your Control Can Hurt Your Business Overnight

17:10 - Actionable Steps to Start Building Your Own Platform

21:55 - Success Stories: Businesses That Switched to Owned Platforms

26:30 - Final Takeaway: Build a Platform That Works for You

🚀 Key Takeaways:

✅ Owning your platform gives you the ownership of all aspects of your business

✅ Building a platform you own creates long-term stability and trust with your customers.

💬 Join the Conversation:

Have you started building your own platform yet? Share your thoughts and connect with me on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/tara-bryan/

👍 Enjoyed this episode?

Make sure to like, subscribe, share and turn on notifications for more insights on building an infinitely scalable business!

About Me:

Hey, it’s your host, Tara Bryan. And I am on a mission to help more business owners learn to infinitely scale their businesses by leveraging the power of online without sacrificing the customer experience or results. 

I like to geek out on all things business strategy, marketing, interactive digital and user experience. This podcast is all about what is working, lessons learned and actionable tips to create and grow a thriving online business. 

Join us each week as we dive into different strategies, tactics and tips you can apply immediately to your business.

To learn more:

Find us at https://www.taralbryan.com

Here are two ways we can help you create, grow and scale your business:

1. Want to package your expertise or become a Scalable Expert? Take our free quick assessment to see how close you are to creating a scalable business.

The Scalable Expert Assessment

2. ALREADY HAVE AN ONLINE BUSINESS & READY TO INFINITELY SCALE?

Download our free 50 Ways to Engage Your Customers guide or Schedule a 30 minute call with Tara to talk about our offers that will help you master the game.

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Tara Bryan: 00:00:00

Welcome to the Scalable Expert, the podcast where we unlock

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the secrets to building a business

that grows with you, not around you.

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I'm your host, Tara Bryan, business

strategist, mentor, and creator

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of the Infinite Scale Method.

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If you're a coach, consultant, or

service provider who's maxed out

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with one on one work, overwhelmed by

the grind, and ready to scale your

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expertise into a business that works

for you, then you're in the right place.

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Each week, I'll share actionable

tips, inspiring success

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stories, and proven strategies.

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to help you reclaim your time, grow your

income and create a business that delivers

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results without sacrificing quality.

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Let's dive in and make your

business infinitely scalable.

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Hey, welcome to this week's

episode of the podcast.

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I am thrilled that you

are here in this episode.

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I want to talk about something

that is going on out there on

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specifically Facebook land right now.

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But in general, it is such a great

reminder of when you are building

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an online business, making sure

that you own the platform that

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you are building your business on.

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Have talked about this

for years, my friends.

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But now, all of a sudden,

it's out there again.

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In the marketplace.

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So you are probably noticing

that a lot of people are starting

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to pull away from Facebook.

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I've had five or six or seven

people in my network every single

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day saying, peace out, I'm out.

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I'm not going to be a

part of this anymore.

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I have had business owners who I

work with, business owners who I

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follow, who are saying I'm moving

my entire community off of Facebook.

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There's too many things going on right now

on Facebook, it's not serving my audience.

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And it makes me giggle because I have

been talking about this for years.

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One, yes, there's all sorts

of crazy happening, just

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everywhere, but in social media.

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But here's the bigger picture, which

I want everyone to just think about

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is when you build your business

on someone else's platform, you

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are dependent on their platform.

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You are dependent on whatever

it is that they decide to do.

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They decide to close their business.

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It doesn't matter.

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You're done.

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They decide to shift a policy or

change something, it doesn't matter.

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You don't own it.

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You're done.

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And over and over again, this is one

of the things that I talk to my, my

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clients about as they're building on

different platforms, is be aware that

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you are renting land from a landlord.

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Just if you were renting a house, from

somebody, and they decided to sell

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that house tomorrow, you're out, right?

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Or you're at the whims of

the new owner that comes in.

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I think that one of the biggest examples

of this that's happened in the last couple

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of weeks is the TikTok debacle, right?

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When your whole business is dependent

on someone else's platform, and it

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goes away, so do all your sales.

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So do all your customers.

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So do all the things.

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So I always recommend that you

build your business on your own

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foundation and then go from there.

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And so specifically, if you look at

building or running a Facebook group,

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we'll just take that as an example.

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I was at a networking meeting

yesterday and there's, I don't know,

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80 some thousand people on this

woman's Facebook group that she

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uses as the primary platform for how

all these women communicate, right?

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Which is basically the

backend that she has.

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The networking event is like an all

day thing, and it's on RingCentral,

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so it's on just a random, a Zoom

platform, and there's replays

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and whatever else, but there's no

membership site, there's no back end

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to her business other than Facebook.

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So 80,000, 85,000 people on the

Facebook group does she own all

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of their details, maybe, right?

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She maybe has them all in an email list,

but she's sending them all to Facebook.

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It's interesting we were having a breakout

discussion, and there were a bunch of us

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who were like we use LinkedIn, we don't

use Facebook for general conversations.

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And we were like, oh

can we use that or not?

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And they were like no, because

you have to be part of this group.

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That's how you all communicate.

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And that's on Facebook.

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Again, super huge risk.

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If Facebook changes something, then

she's out of those 85,000 people

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who are interacting and wanting

to interact with each other.

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All day long, my recommendation

to her would be get that off of

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Facebook and put it into some

sort of platform that you own.

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And that's a huge asset that she is at

risk in her business every single day.

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I have another client that I work with

who has moved her entire community off

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of Facebook into a different platform.

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And she was talking about the

cost that it takes to actually

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maintain a free group on Facebook.

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And so that's another thing, is you

don't really realize how much work

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it is to not only foster that level

of group, but also to be able to

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maintain the integrity of the group.

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Kicking the spammers out making sure

that what's in there is appropriate

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and you know you don't have one person

who's derailing in the conversation

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and all the different things.

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And so again, you're at the mercy of

who is on there and who is coming in.

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And so if you haven't thought about

this and you have a community, one of

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the things I always recommend is own

the platform, of course, but make it a

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cohesive experience for your customers.

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Because the other issue that you

have, along with not owning any of

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that real estate, is that you're

fracturing the attention that your

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people have in terms of how they're

connecting, how they're participating.

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And when you don't have a central

hub where everything is right there,

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where people can easily log in, get

all of the things that they need,

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know how to communicate and talk to

people and do all the things, then

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you're fracturing their experience.

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People already have enough of

a challenge paying attention.

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And so you want to make it simple and

understandable for all of your customers.

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This also includes like putting

people on 14 different platforms or 14

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different versions of the same thing.

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That's the other thing is and I

have a podcast episode on this

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where like you don't change your

platforms, like you change your socks.

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It's a huge, it should be a huge ordeal

to change because every time you make

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a change, it confuses people, right?

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Build the right foundation first,

start to build and put people into

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a curated experience that's focused

on them and what's easiest for them.

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A lot of times I have people say

Facebook groups are great because that's

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where people are already hanging out.

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And I would argue that are

they what are they doing?

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And I said it the other day, I'm

like, I don't want my customers

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to be on my free group while

they're in the bathroom, right?

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Like we're building businesses here.

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We are doing legit work to build

our businesses and build our brands.

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I need people who are coming

in to actually do real work

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and have real conversations.

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Not just while they're, scrolling,

doing something else, coming in

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and answering questions, right?

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Or, posting something.

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That's great, there's definitely a

place for that, but if you're building

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a real business, if you're building a

place where you want people to engage

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and interact and learn from each other

in this curated experience where you're

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taking them down a path to get to a

transformation, I would argue that

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Facebook is never the right place.

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For any group.

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People argue with me all day long.

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So because of these two reasons and

because of what's going on right now in

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the crazy landscape of social media, I

highly recommend that you take a look

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at what is happening with your groups

and your community in the various

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places that you have them and make sure

that you're thinking from a business

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perspective, which is how do I control

and own the group that I have and the

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experience that they're going through.

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When you are on platforms like TikTok

and Facebook and Instagram and LinkedIn

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and wherever else you can think about,

you do not own that real estate.

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It is a huge risk to your business

and it is a huge risk to you being

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a scalable expert business owner

who is building something that

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helps people get a transformation.

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So if you're interested in learning more

about the platforms that we recommend

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for you to be on, to grow your business,

to grow your community, and really be

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able to own the asset that you have,

which is your vast network of customers,

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then give me a shout and we'll have a

conversation, because I guarantee that if

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you put the right community in place with

the right intention around your curated

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experience, your customers will show up.

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They will show up and the quality of

your conversations will be a lot better

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than they will be when you're, you know,

having them scroll through Facebook

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mindlessly and answering or asking

or engaging in various conversations.

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There you go that is

my soapbox for the day.

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But if you are noticing that this is

happening, there are business reasons

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why this is happening and so, all I

say is, make sure that you are looking

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at it from a business perspective.

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Not a, oh it's just nicer for

my customers to be on Facebook,

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or it's easier, or I don't have

another platform, or whatever else.

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If you are getting started, great.

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Do it that way.

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That's fine.

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I would argue that you should start

with the right foundation, but if that's

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the easiest thing for you to do, great.

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Do that.

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But just recognize that you do

not own that asset, and eventually

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you are at risk to building

something on someone else's land.

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If you have questions on that,

definitely give me a shout.

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We can talk through that.

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If you just want to argue with

me about whether or not it should

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be a Facebook group or something

else, just contact me too.

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I love to talk through this

because I can show you the numbers.

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I can show you the math.

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I can show you all of the things around

the risks that you're taking when

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you have sizable groups on Facebook

groups or your everything that you're

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doing is around Facebook lives and

Facebook, all the things, right?

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So use it to become visible as a tool

that helps you get out into the world,

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but don't use it to run your business.

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Two totally different things, and

something that, that I'm super passionate

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about helping people understand, that

if you're using Facebook groups as

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a lead generation tool, right, you

are just trying to plunk them into

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something so that you can nurture

them and turn them into customers.

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Awesome.

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Do that all day long.

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But if you are using it to serve your

customers, that, my friends, is a huge

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risk to your future as a business owner.

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Alright, so if you like this episode,

give it a like, give it a subscribe,

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and until next time, have a great week.