D is for Digital Sharecropping

Before we go to far in this discussion, I want to go ahead and encourage you to sign up for the Life in the Fishbowl newsletter. It’s going to be a weekly recap of all the fun stuff you might or might not have seen here in this beloved space. It’s going to be the best way to keep updated!

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I already explained a few weeks ago how subscribing to the email newsletter is one way you can help support our adoption. So that should be reason enough to subscribe. Right? But wait. There’s more!

Facebook has changed.

We all know that Facebook is unpredictable. It has a reputation for liking to change things with little warning. You know how people get upset when Facebook tweaks the timeline’s appearance? Imagine what that’s like for a Page owner whose reach is suddenly dropped to near zero. That’s what happened to many pages at the end of last year/beginning of this year. It wasn’t pretty.

People had figured out how to game the system. Some were even able to make money off of it. And now? Nada, basically. Facebook has made it clear that if you want your Page content seen by your audience, you have to pay to play. That wasn’t very good news for small business owners. And it definitely wasn’t very good news for sites like this one.

Google has changed.

It’s no secret that Google keeps changing its algorithm to try to stay ahead of those who make money by gaming their system. Unlike Facebook, Google is pretty up-front about what they like and what they don’t like. Don’t get me wrong. They still keep the SEO folk jumping. And guessing. But the general framework remains consistent.

That being said, they keep changing things. And there are people who have full-time jobs to keep up with what Google changes. I don’t really have time for that. And I don’t really care about that. All I care about it sharing my story with you. So why worry about what hoops I’m jumping through?

Google+ has changed.

Oh, who am I kidding? None of you really use Google+. But if you did, you’d probably know that they might finally be putting Google+ to rest. I know you don’t care about this. I really don’t, either. Except for the fact that it’s another example of the rules changing.

Pinterest has changed.

Did you know that people were making money off Pinterest? And it wasn’t just by driving traffic to their site. But that’s not happening anymore, either. While this didn’t have any impact on me and what I do, it’s yet another example of the rules changing.

Myspace has changed.

Wait.

Does Myspace still exist? I honestly don’t know. Or care. I’ll bet you don’t know or care, either.

Remember when that was the social platform that you had to be on?

ch-ch-changes…

You see the pattern. Right? Things change. Especially when it comes to social platforms. Any of them can change their rules or requirements at a moment’s notice.  And that’s their right. They own the platform. They can set the rules. And they do.

Those of us who rely on their platforms to help build our own audience and to share our content (and maybe even make money)?  We’re just digital sharecroppers.

My friend, Felicia, introduced me to this term a little more than a year ago. She wrote a great article about digital sharecropping in the wake of the Great Guest Blogging Massacre of 2014. Michael Hyatt uses a slightly different analogy, talking about a landlord/tenant relationship. The message is the same: when you rely solely on other platforms to get people to read your stories, you’re bound by their rules (no matter how ridiculous they might be).

It’s time to take control.

Don’t get me wrong. Twitter is still my first-love. And I have fun on my Facebook page. But I could lose those with little to no warning. That’s their right. And that’s OK. I’ll keep using them. I have fun with them. But I can’t rely solely on them when it comes to this blog.

If I’m going to take this blogging thing seriously, it’s time to do what I should’ve done a long time ago and take a little more control of getting what I write in front of your eyeballs. Because that’s the purpose of writing, right? It needs to be read. What’s the point of telling stories if there isn’t anyone to hear it? Right?

That’s why I’m asking you to sign up for the newsletter. It’s not nearly as trendy as the latest social media platform. But it’s pretty reliable. And all of us use it.

It’ll be much better for us in the long-run. I promise!

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**I’m participating in the April A to Z Challenge. This post is part of that endeavor. You can see my other entries to this year’s challenge here. A lot of people are doing the same thing. You should check out some of their posts!**

 

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Howdy. I'm Matt. My wife, Christy, and I have four kids and two dogs, I'm passionate about orphan care. I'm a die-hard fan of the Evansville Aces, the Indiana Hoosiers, and Star Wars. I'm trying to live life by the Todd family motto: "It behooves us to live!"
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