A couple of weeks ago, Facebook quietly released business.facebook.com.
Go check it out, if you haven’t already.
It’s all right there in their video.
You can manage pages, multiple accounts, users, and anything an agency would need to directly manage clients on Facebook.
Sensationalists like TechCrunch believe it’s the doom of many folks in the PMD/API program, of which we’re a member.
And Wildfire announcing they’re shutting down is auspicious, too.
But for folks who have the inside track, we know that Facebook for years has been telling tool providers like us these things:
- You need to be creating value outside of purely Facebook-only things. If your business is based upon being a Facebook marketing consultant, selling a Facebook-only ads platform, managing Facebook tabs, or something like that, you’re going to be out of business eventually.
- Create unique value by tying to real-world ROI. Maybe you become THE expert among sailboat manufacturers, something Facebook isn’t going to get into the business of doing.
- Find stuff they will want to partner with you on. That, as opposed to doing stuff you know they will have to build anyway, such as Facebook analytics.
- Execute a multi-platform strategy. Facebook isn’t going to manage Google ads or make wordpress sites any time soon. You can create value by bridging things they can’t.
It’s the same thing with Google branching out into delivering better search results. If you’re a travel fare quote provider, you know Google already embeds fares/rates right inside searches. If you are a news site, they embed news right there.
Do stuff they can’t or won’t be based on the expertise you have.
Have you focused on your topic of passion/expertise yet? Define your niche so tightly that nobody can compete with you!
