Social media companies love that you don't have a website

Social media is similar to sharecropping :

• We’re "renting" space on a platform we don’t own


• We’re paying for that space by becoming “the product” whose attention is sold to the highest ads bidder


• Our attention is also being usurped by the makers of the platform and what they’ve programmed their algorithm to show us, and


• Our data is being collect

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And rather than rent an audience on social media in exchange for ad revenue, they can control their own relationships. TikTok, Instagram and Twitter may help them get attention, but they monetize that attention with the Beacons links in their bios, bringing their fans back to where they can engage more personally and get paid directly.

It doesn't matter what trend you chase, growth hack you engineer, or platform you build on. Digital media companies can only win if they own the customer relationship and monetization on their own platform. They must be direct-to-consumer first companies.

Your social media posts do make money. It’s just that you don’t see any of it. Your gorgeous photographs, compelling essays, and motion graphics draw attention to platforms like Facebook and Google, which churn advertising dollars off of all those eyeballs. You do all the hard work. They make the money from it. And now that you see it that way, isn... See more