Managing your message, redux

Cnet is reporting that Facebook won’t permit ads for or even mentioning Google+ on its service.

When you read the article, you get the impression that it’s some sort of first amendment issue. Hey guys… news flash… it’s not. It’s not about free speech in any way. Facebook is its own business, not a government, not public (as in governmental), and it can do very much whatever it wants in the way of regulating speech.

Whether banning G+ talk or ads is a good business decision is something that we’ll not likely know for some time. I suspect, however, that this is a good idea for Facebook (if handled well). Some users might not like the inconvenience of not being able to cross-advertise as they may like, but why should Facebook promote its business competitor?

This brings me back to why I monitor comments and don’t post ones I don’t like, especially anonymous ones–I’m managing my message and there is nothing wrong with that. All good businesses do exactly that. This is my space. This is not a public space. I offer to you what I put on this blog and I hope you get something out of the material I present here, but this is not a public forum. You want to write that I’m a total idiot or, as some commenters have tried to post, that I should be put in a dark hole someplace without a trial, well, you go write that on your own blog and I can’t say bupkis (well, unless you actually slander me or pose a credible threat).

For your business blog and other social media tools, this means that you can and should control your message. You need to use your tools to promote what you offer. You owe no space to those who offer negative comments or your competition. In fact, I think the best thing you can do is ignore any of those outside attitudes and focus completely on what you want to say to the world. Everything should relate back to your core message.

For those of you who have read my books, you know already about the Vision Marketing Statement (VMS). This is your core message. It’s the heart of what you want the world to think of when they think of your business. If you don’t have a VMS (or similar), then you don’t have a message to manage. So start there.

Know who your business is (yes, I said “who”) and who you want it to be. It has a personality (mostly your own personal one I bet)–what parts of that do you like and want to show and what parts do you think might be off-putting and might be better played down? Once you have that, you can better use all your tools (not just the social media ones even).