I’m Leaving Facebook: Why Groups and FB Live No Longer Spark Joy

hey there it’s David H Lawrence the 17th
and today I want to share with you a
decision that I’ve made that I didn’t
think I would make I really didn’t think
I would make I’m a pretty big believer
in understanding the equation between a
platform that’s free and a platform that
requires you to follow their rules and
then today I’m going kind of public I
guess with the decision that over the
next few months I’m going to be phasing
out my use of most of Facebook for my
business I’ll still be on Facebook as a
member
I’ll still message people when they
message me on Facebook but for almost a
decade I have been using Facebook to
help create discussion lists groups you
know private groups for the most part to
allow my students and clients to have
conversations with each other with me
and ask questions get answers you know
provide support and you know it’s worked
out pretty well but there have been some
changes recently that make me worry
about the long-term efficacy of Facebook
in terms of groups also I had a lot of
hope for Facebook live and I’m not gonna
be using that anymore either so I’m
gonna be retiring Facebook groups and
Facebook live from my sort of you know
utility belt if you will of apps and and
services that I use to run my business
and the reason is for the most part it’s
trust I I’ve had many clients at this
point not just a couple not just the
outlying few that have been really
concerned about Facebook’s trust level
with them you know they don’t trust that
Facebook is going to harbor their
information well or because safely or
that they ask for too much information
for what they get in return and I’ve had
to go to great lengths to help some of
my clients who don’t want to be on
Facebook don’t have anything to do with
Facebook feel like Facebook at its worst
is a huge corporate behemoth that
doesn’t have anybody’s best interests at
heart except its own and was complicit
in the election shenanigans that
allegedly occurred in 2016 so they don’t
want to be a part of that they don’t
want to have anything to do with it and
I haven’t experienced that but what I
have experienced is Facebook getting
tighter and tighter and tighter with how
they let you use their offerings so what
will I do I you know it doesn’t as Marie
Kondo says if it doesn’t spark joy thank
it for the memory and quietly and
respectfully retire it and so that’s
what I’m going to do I’m gonna let all
my clients know this over the next few
months but what I’m planning on doing is
what I talked about in the last video
not building on someone else’s platform
that’s what you’re doing when you’re
using Facebook groups to create a
community on Facebook yes you and your
people get to go enjoy the community but
you’re doing it on their platform you’re
building it on their platform and so
you’re subject to anything they want to
do with it
and I guess the camel that the the camel
the straw that broke the camel’s back
the other day was I did I wanted to do a
live Facebook a Facebook live with my
friend Tristan McDonald and I got it all
set up and ready to go I decided I was
going to use be live TV to manage that
little live thing and when I got it all
set up a few days earlier I found out
Facebook doesn’t allow you to promote
with boosted posts a Facebook live
I’m like wait a minute you can you can
boost a post you can boost a an event
you can boost on me but you can’t boost
a Facebook live I don’t understand this
and I had counted on doing that because
I wanted more than just my tribe to know
about this potential interview so that
was the first thing and then with
Facebook groups every it seems like
every month or so every couple of months
they change the the controls and the
settings for privacy and so those
members of my community that I’ve worked
very hard to keep private there are
people on Facebook don’t want to know
don’t want to let anybody know that
they’re on Facebook but they want to
participate in my groups you know the
last update broke one of the things that
that I told people about so it got to
the point where I had to decide for
myself look while I’m making this change
let’s make the change about discussion
group so what I’m gonna do is I’m
actually going to move the discussion
groups to my site and build on my
platform so in the future probably in a
few months instead of going to Facebook
to ask questions in the vo – go go group
or in any of the other groups that I’ve
created to discuss things with their
fellow pros pros will simply come to vo
– go go whatever its next incarnation is
and I’ve got some big plans for that and
do they’re discussing right there on the
platform so I can control the rules and
I can control the space there won’t be
millions of ads around it there won’t be
other things distracting them from the
discussion I’ll be able to add links
that don’t have some additional Facebook
schmutz at the end of them that makes
them not usable because sometimes when
you put links on Facebook they add a
little after text that identifies it as
coming from Facebook and that breaks
some technologies so there’s there’s all
these things put together and it just is
very clear to me that if I want to have
more control and less trust issues with
my discussion groups and with people
wanting to be a part of my
tribe the best thing to do is to give
them the best tool possible and that
tool is no longer Facebook groups or
Facebook live Facebook live is also kind
of rickety in terms of how it serves
things up there’s freezing and there’s
anyway it’s a technology that’s early in
its in its development and it’ll get
better in a few years and who knows
maybe if things change a little bit if
they come to their senses about certain
things over at Facebook
maybe we’ll be back who knows but for
now the plan is I’m going to be leaving
Facebook not as a member not as a lead
source but for the discussions and
presentations that I’ve been using
Facebook for I’m going to find better
options options that I’m building on my
platform rather than on theirs so my
question for you is how do you look at
Facebook how do you look at social media
in general but it specifically how do
you look at Facebook do you trust them
do you understand what I’m saying and do
you agree with it or do you find that
I’m just a nervous Nellie who’s you know
the sky is falling and that’s you know
why am I doing this because you know
look I get Facebook is really easy to
use and it’s ubiquitous it’s everywhere
everybody’s on it but because
everybody’s on it that means there’s
lots and lots of opportunity for bad
actors to get involved and steal things
I don’t like that um but anyway I’d love
to know what you think that’s really
what I’d like to know so if you’re
watching this video on VOD go go comm
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I’m David H Lawrence xvii I thank you so
much for watching and I’ll talk to you
tomorrow.