---
title: "Social Media Is Not Owned Media"
canonical: https://www.ianlurie.com/writing/social-media-isnt-owned-media/
date: 2024-03-13
category: "Digital Marketing"
description: "Social media isn’t owned media. I could write a huge, theoretical rant about social media and the definition of owned media. Thanks to my pal Elon Musk, I don’t have to."
---
Social media isn’t owned media. Keep reading. I’ll explain why and give a little free advice.

I could write a huge, theoretical rant about social media and the definition of owned media. Thanks to my pal Elon Musk, I don’t have to.

Owned media is marketing stuff you fully control:

-   Your website
-   Your email list
-   Your SMS database
-   Your mailing list (if you’re old school)

Assuming you run backups, no one can take any of this stuff away from you. Those emails are **yours**. That website is **yours**.

Your email list may be spam. Your website may be a pile of AI-generated trash. But you own ‘em.

You don’t own your social media audience. You don’t have a social media “list.”

I’ve got proof. On Twitter (not X), I had an audience of about 30,000 people. Of them, 5,000 were what I’d call “engaged.” They read the stuff I posted. They didn’t respond with “bUy mY cryPTo nOw” or “LOL you suck.” Sometimes, they clicked and read stuff.

Here, have a look. Even after I left Portent and began to fade into obscurity, when I wrote and posted, people came:

![Traffic bursts from Twitter](./social-media-isnt-owned-media/twitter-graph-1024x179.png)

Then came the Elonapocalypse. Twitter becomes X, completes its descent into a swirling poopile, and my audience starts to jump ship—to anywhere. Or nowhere. Then **I** got sick of it and left, too.

Of course, I posted an “Ian Has Moved” notification:

> Hey all – I'm increasingly over at [https://t.co/us64WFUHTC](https://t.co/us64WFUHTC). Just FYI – I'm spending less time here. I'm not ignoring you.
> 
> — Ian Lurie ???????? @ianlurie@mastodon.social (@IanLurie) [October 17, 2023](https://twitter.com/IanLurie/status/1714380071597998276?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw)

How’d that work out, you ask?

As of now, I have 500 Threads followers. And no, audience size isn’t everything. Twitter sent me about 200 visits for [this lengthy post](/writing/whats-the-minimum-number-of-words-for-a-blog-post/). That’s a fantastic engagement rate.

But I **don’t** get all these nice, happy little bumps anymore. Here’s what I used to get from Twitter:

![All those nice traffic bumps from Twitter](./social-media-isnt-owned-media/twitter-graph-2-1024x179.png)

Love Threads. Really. But it’s not a steady traffic generator. Yet. It might get there. In the meantime, I’m the old guy at the back of the room, trying to get some attention:

Helllooooooo.…

I know stuff.

I can help…

Helloooooo?…

## The Solution: Use Earned Media To Grow Owned Assets

If I’d been smart, I would’ve gently guided my dozens of faithful fans from Twitter to a fact-stuffed email newsletter.

I would have used earned media to grow owned media.

Then, when the Ben Shapiro of Jay Gatsbys threw garbage on my favorite platform, I could’ve smoothed the transition.

My advice to you:

1.  Create a permission-only email list. Not a list of customers. A list of folks who said, “Yes, please tell me cool stuff!!!”
2.  Have a signup on your site. Politely invite visitors to join
3.  Occasionally invite folks on your various social channels, too
4.  Remind everyone you’re there. Every month or two, send a few great pieces of self-contained, bite-sized content to folks every now and then
5.  Continuously, meticulously scrub the list
6.  Repeat

Don’t be me.

_And yes, all you smartypants, I’m working on a newsletter. Lesson learned._