I’ve not seen a lot of publicity about the recent announcement by Facebook that it plans to make it really difficult for small businesses to reach their clients and prospects with marketing posts that aren’t paid advertising. A November 27, 2014 article in the Wall Street Journal stated that “as of mid-January, the social network will intensify its efforts to filter out unpaid promotional material in user news feeds that businesses have posted as status updates.”

I’m sure that clever entrepreneurs will find ways to work around this new restriction, but I suspect that this new move by Facebook might just force many photographers to come to grips with what smart marketers already know: It takes more than just social media to build a business that can achieve the kind of growth needed for financial stability to kick in. Yes, an Internet strategy is a very important slice of the marketing pie, but it’s only one slice. Financial stability that lasts over time is achieved only when the whole marketing pie is prepared, baked and served. This requires time, money and planning. Perhaps Facebook’s new policy will provide the incentive for photographers to leave the virtual world long enough to face this reality. You can read the entire WSJ article at this link.