Orange County businesses, you may have considered hiring an SEO company at some point. If you’ve thought about it, or if you’ve employed one that is now in the midst of an optimization campaign for you, then surely social media outreach is part of what’s taking place. Businesses need social media. You can have a fully optimized website, but even if you do, it’s only part of the equation. Promoting your brand through social media platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook are essential these days; that’s just how it is.

The problem comes about when some business owners consider how Facebook has been in the news lately for all the wrong reasons. Mark Zuckerberg had had to testify before Congress regarding all kinds of shady dealings, specifically the sharing of personal user detailers that were supposed to have been kept confidential. The company has since launched a series of commercials vowing that they’re going to change their ways and how this is never going to happen again.

Here’s the thing, though: this is not the first time this has happened. Facebook has a history of sharing the supposedly private data of its users almost since its inception. If their track record is an indication, this could well happen again. Despite that, usage of the social media titan is only increasing. Billions of people worldwide use Facebook. As a business owner, how do you reconcile their unscrupulous practices with the usage of their platform to promote your company?

Individual Use Versus Business Use

Business owners are going to have to come up with their answer to that question. This is not one-size-fits-all. Some might want to give up on using Facebook entirely as a way of promoting their businesses and exclude the platform from any social media campaign. But as we mentioned, if you do so, then you run the risk of missing out on business that could be coming to you from all of those billions of users.

One possible solution that might be palatable for you is this: have a Facebook profile to promote your business, but delete your private one. By doing so, you’ll have sent the message that you no longer trust the company, just as many people deleted their Wells Fargo bank accounts after that company’s recent underhanded dealings were revealed. By doing so, you can stick to your principles by protecting your personal data, but at the same time you can continue using the popularity of the platform for the sole purpose of business promotion.

Of course, you don’t have to take us up on this suggestion. It’s entirely your prerogative whether you want to continue using Facebook. Who knows, maybe this time they’ve learned their lesson, and they will be more forthcoming about their privacy policies and what they’re doing with the data they collect. It’s entirely up to you, as a business owner, to decide how much you want to engage with an entity whose popularity shows no signs of flagging.