Do we really need to know?
Do we really need to know that the coffee down the road is extra frothy? Or the brownies at your local cafe has won an award? The pumpkin picking patch will be the family day out of the year? And without those three things, is your life really incomplete?
I had many thoughts last night when social media grounded to a halt. I’m not sure which my first was but I certainly realised early on that we provide inessential services. I highly doubt that there are enough people thinking they NEED a family photoshoot without me prompting them of this.
There has been talk for a few years now about the reason behind the sudden surge with farm shops. Many claim that farms are having to diversify due to meat prices and the ever growing bills that occur. However last night it hit me, farms are well known for being in the middle of nowhere, how many times have we tried to find one and failed? Passing traffic isn’t exactly something we can count on when it comes to setting up a customer facing business. No sign at the end of the drive will ever gain enough trade to keep a shop open. Is the rise in farm shops that seem to have popped up everywhere, actually all down to the fact we can now shout about the experience you encounter when visiting said place on social media? We can give pinpoint locations thanks to google and this is opening up a whole new world of potential.
For some reason it took last night for me to understand that there are billions of businesses, mine included, that are solely relying on 1 huge company. If Facebook, Instagram & Whatsapp disappeared today then how would we be able to keep the inessential businesses alive? For those who are not a millennial or part of generation Z you’ll probably be laughing at me, you’re currently thinking ’the world use to work just fine!’ But the difference is, who buys the papers anymore? How many visit high streets and when was the last time someone opened the yellow pages? We’ve created this new world, so reverting back to the old one isn’t as possible as we’d imagine.
I would be the first in the queue for being keen on getting rid of social media, as the bad often seems to outweigh the good. However this can't just happen over night, we need to prepare and have a decent backup plan. The world will change, we don’t know what direction but there is only so long this simple business strategy of social media can last.
So shall we go back to focusing on having a clear and engaging website, decent brand awareness offline, and having morals that resinate with others?
For us we’ll be having a good think about the future and what we feel we can achieve from different business avenues. No one can fully plan for the future, but if you fail to prepare then you need to prepare to fail.