We’re in strange, strange times, friends.

It’s 2025. The world is weird and wonderful, and sometimes weird and… less… wonderful. We’ve got twelve social platforms that business owners are supposed to be updating with their content all the time, that way we get in front of the right people at the right times. Despite social media being the marketing method of the future, it’s not very efficient, and when you look too closely it almost starts seeming like it’s built intentionally to keep your attention scattered. (But we’re not going to talk about THAT side of things today…)

Social media is powerful

Despite being a scattershot strategy that you need expertise in a ton of platforms to actually implement, social media is a hugely powerful driver of sales and conversions. It’s a place you can connect with your clients, you can grow the know, like, and trust factors – and you can overall get your sales and promotions in front of them.

Engaging, showing your people who you are, and creating cool stuff they care about – it’s all possible on those various platforms. And on some of them, you can sell directly – through having a shop in Instagram, or Tiktok, or by integrating your product catalog with Pinterest so that your content is shoppable.

The options for monetization are everywhere – and that doesn’t even get into just straight up monetizing your posts themselves if you have a personal brand.

Despite being powerful, relying on social media is risky business.

Social media might be a functional strategy for acquiring clients, and eventually making sales – it’s not as stable as it might feel. I’m sure you’ve seen the horror stories of even large, successful accounts being suspended or banned on Instagram and other platforms, with very little to be done about reinstating their access.

We’ve all watched outages on Facebook, and the longevity of TikTok access in the United States is still currently up in the air.

At the end of the day, no matter what platform you’re relying on – if you’re relying on it TOO much, that can get risky. You don’t own that platform. You don’t own your Instagram account. You don’t own your Facebook profile, or your LinkedIn profile, or your Pinterest page. The umbrella company for that platform does. And when you signed up, you ticked the little box agreeing to it. For some platforms, if you’re an artist who posts work that falls under your copyright, you’re also giving that platform a license to use your work. Which gets even messier as all platforms descend into the new generative AI hellscape we’re living in.

So… what’s the alternative?

An email list is stable, consistent, and yours

Don’t hate me, because honestly I think you know what I’m going to say. The best alternative is still creating an email list, and gathering subscribers. That list is YOURS. It’s not owned by the company you use to send your emails, it’s owned by you. And if you choose to change platforms, you can take those email addresses with you.

That audience is YOUR audience, who wants to see things from YOU, and most of the time, they’re primed to buy and engage.

No algorithm drives engagement there

Part of that, comes down to the fact that when you’re using email marketing to get information out there, that’s not algorithm driven. You’re not throttled by whatever Instagram thinks about your post, or tied to a user making a search on Pinterest. When you send to your email list, that content shows up in their inbox, when you send it, which means if you have an engaged email list, you can see open rates up to 50% and beyond – there’s no social platform out there right now that will deliver your content to that much of your audience.

And when those platforms are down, your list is still there, showing your cool stuff to your cool people. Basically, email marketing is the cockroach of the digital era. It’s going to be here after the digital nuclear disaster, still doing it’s thing, when all the social platforms have changed or evolved beyond recognition.

But Social Media can work WITH your list in the meantime!

Now, email marketing being YOURS isn’t a good reason not to use social media at all – it’s a reason to change your strategies, so that you’re doing BOTH, simply. Partially by being a little “old school”. There are lots of recommendations to sell directly on social right now – and the people recommending that aren’t entirely wrong. It DOES work. But it doesn’t have longevity.

Your goal should be to make your social media work WITH your email list, by promoting opt-ins that bring your social media audience TO your email list. Then you can sell in both places, but your audience is captured (not a brilliant word, we’re not trapping them, but you know what I mean!)

Ready to learn about the “how”?

So – if you’re working with social media platforms as the base of your income, or the primary means of communicating with your audience, it’s time to change to something with more stability, longevity, and potential for conversion.

Build an opt-in, create a quick opt-in page or form with your email marketing provider, and build that list of buyers who will actually SEE your content. It’s time. Because 2025? It’s a weird, weird world.