People got used to things staying the same for centuries before any changes or updates were made. It took a long time for console televisions to evolve into the flat screens that we have now. Even when the flat screens started to come out, people avoided them because of the cost and uncertainty about how they worked. Today, flat-screen televisions are the norm.
But the Internet is unlike anything people have ever seen, and business owners still need some time to adjust. For example, in May 2015, Facebook announced that it was releasing a news article platform that posted news content directly to Facebook and not to the publisher’s site. Facebook tried to allay fears of a media takeover by allowing media companies to keep 100 percent of the revenue they generated from ads they sold on their Facebook content. Facebook even gave the media companies 70 percent of the income Facebook generated from the ads that Facebook sold on publisher’s content.
For all of its hoopla and chest pounding, the Facebook direct publishing tool is still in its initial launch phase, and it is taking much longer to introduce than Facebook anticipated. All the changes the publishers were ready to make were put on hold and everyone is now taking a wait-and-see approach.
Social media, as shown by Facebook’s attempts to become an online publisher, is incredibly dynamic in nature. The companies that own social media platforms realize that their millions of registered users represent revenue and power. That means that companies like Facebook and Twitter are starting to branch out into other Internet activities that used to be off-limits to them.
Each year, Google or some other major social media player introduces something new and that something new usually causes entire industries to jump. When Google started with its Panda, Penguin, and Hummingbird algorithm changes, it completely altered the online content industry and changed it overnight. If Facebook had been able to successfully launch of its publishing platform, it could have changed the dynamics of the online publishing industry overnight. Social media represents a necessity to businesses that remains very unstable.
The solution for any business owner facing a dynamic social media industry is to get involved with marketing professionals who understand the changes and can help companies benefit from them. If you try to take on social media by yourself, then your business will suffer. The dynamics of social media make it the realm of professionals, and you can get left behind if you are not willing to invest in the right type of professional assistance.
Will Facebook alter how online publishers present their products to the world? It is almost guaranteed that Facebook will find a way to use its vast worldwide audience to get as much revenue as possible from as many different industries as possible. While your company may not be a media giant, you can still benefit from the dynamic nature of social media. All you need is a professional social media marketing company to point your company in the right direction, and you can take advantage of the chaos created by a dynamic social media industry.
