For many of us, the first thing we do when we get up in the morning is check our social media notifications. And it’s not just personal users. Even small business owners are not left out. You pour hours of screen time, energy, and serious money into their Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok. After all, that’s where your customers are.
And the numbers back it up, too. As of October 2025, there are about 5.66 billion active social media users globally. The United States has a good portion of these users, with over 310 million. It’s, therefore, not surprising that businesses build their entire brands on these platforms.
But here’s the million-dollar question: if all the social media platforms vanish tomorrow, will your business survive? Would you still be able to reach the people who matter, sell your products and services, and generally keep the lights on?
For many businesses today, the answer is a terrifying NO.
The Reality of Building a Business on Social Media
Let’s start with a hard, cold truth. Building your business on social media is no different from building a house on borrowed land. You’re just a tenant. You don’t own the property, and the landlord, a giant tech company, can change the rules anytime they feel like it.
We’ve seen this happen over and over. Take the 2024 Instagram Spring algorithm update, for example. Many business pages woke up to a painful surprise. Their organic reach dropped like a rock. Some reported losing as much as 80% of their visibility almost overnight. That’s the reality of what it means to have your business on social media. A small shift in the algorithm, and people may stop seeing your posts.
Let’s not forget the issue of bans. TikTok, for example, has been in the headlines for many long months, with the U.S. Government threatening to ban it in the country for national security reasons unless it sells to a U.S.-approved buyer. True, a new deal was reached recently, according to a BBC news report, but what if the ban had taken place? Thousands of U.S. businesses that depended on TikTok for leads, sales, and visibility would have been affected.
None of this is to mean that your business should not have an active social media presence. It should. Social media is one of the most effective marketing tools on earth. It simply means that your business should not be overly dependent on social media. You should have other options.
Signs Your Business Is Over-Dependent on Social Media
As we’ve already established, you should definitely be on social media. Virtually every business has a social media presence, and you should, too. The key is not to be overly dependent on it. How do you know you are?
You Don’t Have a Professional Website, or You Neglect It
The first sign that your business is over-dependent on social media is that you either don’t have a business website or you have neglected it.
Here’s the thing: your business website is the official face of your brand online, not your social media profile, which can be shadow-banned or deactivated on a random Tuesday. Let’s even assume that nothing happens to your social media. How do you plan to run email marketing or set up a professional business email without a domain name you control?
The cold truth is that if you’re pushing every customer to a social media link instead of a functioning professional website, you’re making a mistake.
But there’s good news. You can create a website today. And no, you don’t need to know coding or have any serious tech skills. AI website builders have become the go-to for small business owners who want a professional-looking business website without having to spend weeks learning a new skill.
According to Hocoos, AI builders allow you to create a business website in 5 minutes, no matter the level of your tech skills. Take advantage of them today. No one knows what the social media landscape will look like tomorrow.
Social Media is Your Only Marketing Channel
If every marketing meeting starts and ends with “what are we posting on Instagram this week?”, then clearly your business is overly dependent on social media. See, the best digital marketing strategies use social media to support or complement other efforts, not replace them.
In addition to your social media marketing efforts, you should be involved in search engine optimization to attract organic traffic of people who are actually looking for what you offer.
You should also be running email marketing campaigns. This is your direct line of communication with customers, vendors, and partners, not DMs, comments, and likes. And guess what? It’s more effective at customer acquisition than all your social media profiles put together. That alone should tell you why you need it.
It’s also important to take things offline once in a while. Look for partnerships with other local businesses, local celebrities, and even regular newspapers and magazines. Relationships like this, outside the internet, can be very valuable.
You Don’t Own Your Audience Data
Your customers on Facebook, do you actually know who they are and what they prefer, apart from what Facebook tells you? While Facebook analytics is a powerful tool, the platform gives you bits and pieces, but never the full picture. And that limits how well you can serve people.
And don’t think social media is doing you any favor by getting customers’ data for you. It’s not that difficult to get on your own. In fact, 74% of customers will gladly share their details when they trust the brand or see value in what they’re getting.
When you have access to your customers’ data, you can use it to gain clearer insights into what they want. And you can tailor your products, offers, and communication in a way social platforms simply don’t allow.
Don’t Build a Social-Only Business
Social media is a very useful tool and a big help to millions of businesses all over the world. But it shouldn’t be your entire business system. If something goes wrong tomorrow, where would your business be?
So, what can you do today? Start with the basics. Get a website, no matter how simple, and continue from there. The goal is to make sure that your business has multiple touchpoints that customers can use to reach you.
