I’m tempted to say Facebook finally crossed the line. When Mark Zuckerberg refused to suspend Steve Bannon after he called for the beheading of Dr. Anthony Fauci and FBI Director Christopher Wray, I thought to myself, “That’s it. Facebook has finally gone too far.”
But that’s not really why we’re leaving Facebook now. The reality is there have been plenty of “Steve Bannon” moments over the years. Cambridge Analytica didn’t quite convince us. Myriad privacy concerns didn’t tip the scales. Not even the proliferation of White Nationalist and Q-Anon content got us to leave.
There have been SO many straws that could have (and probably should have) broken the camel’s back. So why are we leaving Facebook now? The honest reason is simple:
Facebook has become irrelevant for us.
When we started our Facebook account it was a place you simply had to be. It was a community. Everyone was there. It gave us access to a key demographic for our business and it allowed us to engage with people in a way we couldn’t find anywhere else. Times have changed.
In the last decade Facebook has evolved, and the more it evolves, the more it loses relevance to our business and the way we connect to the world around us. Our clients or potential clients may still be using Facebook, but they aren’t using it the same way. The sense of community has declined. The engagement isn’t as strong. It’s simply not a trusted source for content anymore and, for that reason, it doesn’t fill a need for us and our business.
This isn’t the first social media evolution for TEN7. We stopped posting to Instagram earlier this year for many of the same reasons. We didn’t see the engagement we were looking for and we decided to focus on more effective channels.
TEN7 will continue to connect with the outside world through Twitter and LinkedIn. We have a robust blog and the TEN7 Podcast recently produced its 100th episode. We also highly encourage you to sign up for our monthly newsletter where I share timely updates, links to interesting and entertaining content, and thoughts about pressing issues of the day. We’re not putting walls up around us. We’re just choosing to reach out in ways that better fit our voice. We’re also going to be selective about future social media outlets, not rushing into them just because others are going there. In other words, you won’t be seeing TEN7 on TikTok, MeWe or Parler anytime soon!
When we discussed taking TEN7 off of Facebook at a recent team meeting, there was universal agreement that it was the right thing to do. It felt good to make that decision. The fact that this is a case where business interests coincide with a desire to push back against Facebook’s ethics and privacy practices makes it feel even better.
So, after more than a decade, we are saying, “Goodbye, Facebook (and Instagram).”
And to all of our friends, we’ll see you again soon in other, more relevant places!
PS: Our monthly newsletter is a great way to stay in touch with us!