I’m excited about this post because every time I talk about this topic with someone I can see a lightbulb go off in their head and that’s cool to see so if that happens to you send me a message on LinkedIn and let me know what you think or how you’re going to implement what we’re talking about here today.
This topic is at the crossroads of marketing, privacy, and regulation, so it’s a juicy discussion.
Today we’re going to be talking about first-party data, social media platforms, and how to own the audience that you build.
If that sounds a little confusing to you, don’t worry I’ll break it down in just a second.
First, we need to define the three categories types of data available to advertisers:
Bonus: If you’re looking for social media marketing strategies, check out this post.
First-Party Data
This is data that a company collects directly from its customers or users.
It’s the most valuable type of data because it is accurate, trusted, and from your customers.
This would be all the data that you collect on your website using tools like Google Analytics, the contact information that you have for your enrolled families, your email list or podcast subscribers, and things like these. Essentially, it’s data you collect and own.
Second-Party Data
This is first-party data for another company, shared with you.
For example, the local soccer association shares its email list with you so you can run a marketing campaign targeting their users to promote your school’s soccer program.
First-party data for the soccer association, second-party data for you.
Third-Party Data
This is data purchased from a data mining company.
For example, you purchase a list of affluent parents within a certain demographic area to use for marketing your private school.
First-party data is the gold standard. You own it, you don’t need to pay anyone else for it, and it’s from your customers and users so it’s the closest to your target market that you can get. Second and third-party data have their place, don’t get me wrong, but relying too heavily on either of them puts you on a slippery slope.
Social media is considered second-party data.
They collect the data and then let you use it when you run ads on their platform. In other words, they own it and you rent it.
Now, for the most part, we’ve been talking about this data from an advertising and traditional marketing perspective.
But I’d like to bolster the importance of building your own first-party data from a content marketing lens.
The Problem with Rented Land
Too often I see schools, businesses, and influencers building their audience on a platform that they do not own and therefore, do not control.
Joe Pulizzi and Robert Rose from the This Old Marketing Podcast have been talking about this for nearly a decade.
They call it building your house on rented land.
Building an audience and leveraging a platform that you do not own as your main hub is building your house on rented land.
For example, having a ton of people like your Facebook page but not knowing their email addresses.
If that’s you the problem with that is you’re relying on Facebook to decide whether or not they want to show your content to your fans.
They’re the ones that get to say yes or no. And, as I’m sure you’re aware, Facebook says no, unless you pay them. But that wasn’t always the case.
Way back in 2012 organic reach for FB pages was around 16%, now, it’s around 5.2%.
That means one in every 19 fans sees your post.
Pretty much every social media platform that’s main revenue driver is its advertising platform is at risk of following in Facebook’s footsteps.
Why? Because they make money by limiting your organic audience reach.
This is why it’s imperative to move your audience off of the platforms that you don’t control and onto a platform that you do – website, email list, and to a certain extent a podcast.
Now I’m not saying to abandon these channels altogether. They are great marketing tools for reaching new people and keeping your audience engaged.
BUT, what I am saying is they should not be your main hub. You should actively be growing your audience on these platforms and moving them to a platform that you own as often and as quickly as possible.
Let's Recap
I hope this post has helped you understand the importance of building your own content hub on a channel that you own. Shoot me a message on LinkedIn and let me know what you thought about this topic. I hope you enjoy your week, I’ve been Nick and I’ll see you next week.
