Own Your Network Or Perish
Control your destiny by building your network, growing your audience, and engaging your fans on your own platform. Or face the consequences.
What do the following high-profile individuals have in common?
Donald Trump
Alex Jones
Courtney Love
At some point, they were all banned from Twitter.
Just a flip of the switch and, just like that, their accounts were suspended (some temporary while others were permanent).
If you’re building parts of your business on third-party platforms like Twitter, LinkedIn, or Facebook, you are at risk of losing everything you’ve built at the discretion of the respective powers that be.
The solution?
Build your business on your own platform.
Justin Welsh, a renowned entrepreneur and thought leader specializing in solopreneurship, has accrued over a million of followers on LinkedIn and Twitter’s X.
Still, he urges that creators and influencers move their followers off of the social media platforms and onto their own list or newsletter:
How does he do it?
He leverages social media to direct his followers to his own platform.
While LinkedIn may frown upon it, Justin's strategy is a stroke of genius.
By funneling his LinkedIn followers to his own newsletter, he is taking proactive steps to safeguard his audience and ensure their loyalty.
A brilliant move that puts him firmly in control.
Owning Your Audience
While Justin Welsh defines audience ownership as an email list or newsletter, there are broader interpretations.
An alternative perspective suggests that audience ownership entails cultivating direct relationships. In this case, the goal is to understand your audience intimately, including their preferences, their journey with your work, and their expectations.
As a recent Forbes article points out:
Today’s digital content creators face a double challenge: attracting an audience in the beginning and then building it over time. Viewers come for content, but that doesn’t mean the answer is to pump out more content blindly. Instead, creators who want to boost engagement and revenue need to give their audience what they want. How? By truly understanding and engaging with them directly—or as I call it, by “owning your audience.”
Building Authentic Connections
In this sense, “owning” means cultivating a strong, loyal relationship with viewers and creating content that resonates deeply with them. Authentic engagement is crucial for building and maintaining this relationship and should be given as much priority as creating new content.
By controlling the channels of communication—your email list, website, or other owned platforms—you can connect with them directly.
Owning Your Network
Your connections and relationships are the lifeline of your network.
Controlling your network means having control of your destiny.
Examples of two popular LinkedIn influencers who lost control of their network and faced severe consequences are Lara Acosta and Luke Matthews.
Acosta lost her LinkedIn account and access to her 200K+ followers recently due to suspicious activity.
Also due to suspicious activity, Matthews was banned on LinkedIn and lost access to his 180K followers.
Are you willing to risk losing your hard-earned, network of followers to the unpredictable nature of a social media giant?
Owning Your Fans
The final and ultimate goal for a business is to “own your fans.”
In the 60’s, The Beatles charmed and enthralled their new fan base (“Beatlemania”).
In the 90’s, The Buffalo Bills captured the hearts of their rabid fans (“The Bills Mafia”).
And more recently, Taylor Swift enraptured her diehard, loyal followers (“Swifties”).
These iconic brands have mastered the art of owning their fans.
The term “owning your fans” involves building a community based on authentic engagement. It’s is a strategic approach to audience development that prioritizes direct relationships.
The Takeaway
Build your network and develop an audience.
Grow your audience into a fanbase.
Engage your fans and cultivate loyalty.
And do it on your own platform.
Otherwise, you’re at risk of the unpredictable consequences of being dependent on third-party platforms.
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Good insight 😌