DELISH TO BE CLOSING THEIR RECIPE AND NEWS APP? SMP POSSIBLY SHUTTING DOWN? WHY.

This morning as I sleepily grabbed for my phone to check the latest Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter craziness, I was met with an unexpected and very upsetting 'flash' to my phone:

I am ridiculously obsessed with Delish ... their app, the website, their social media posts ... me and Delish see each other multiple times per day ... and while this message doesn't hint more about closing other areas of their business, coming off the news that Style Me Pretty may be shutting down ... well, let's just say that I'm

SUPER SENSITIVE RIGHT NOW

Here's the thing ... the world and how we use information IS CHANGING ... just read the first sentence in this blog post ... what was the FIRST THING I did this morning???

I CHECKED MY SOCIAL MEDIA FEEDS

... and I'm guessing I'm not the only one.  Here's the problem with businesses being so dependent on social media:

WE DON'T OWN THAT SPACE OR THE PLATFORM

Yeah.  But you don't typically remember that bit, do ya!?  We are the ones BUILDING UP the social media platforms ... we are making them great ... but we don't own sh*t.  Let me say that again:

YOU DON'T OWN ONE SINGLE OUNCE OF THE PLACES YOU SPEND THE MOST TIME AND EFFORT POSTING TO

Huh ... that kinda sucks when you consider it, doesn't it?  Yet, the way I am seeing things change for businesses is that we are being forced to take our efforts and our business and focus on other places other than our own websites, our own blogs, our OWN spaces ... we are being dragged from the places where blogs like Style Me Pretty started and were first loved and taking them on location ... to a location NOBODY owns ... for instance:

IT'S POSSIBLE THAT SMP GETS MORE PLAY ON THEIR SOCIAL MEDIA THAN THEIR WEBSITE NOW ... HUH?

Yeah ... if you take into consideration the 'loss in traffic' from a few years ago that SMP had ... and you compare it to today ... my guess is comparably, they have more play on their social media accounts.

BUT, HEATHER IT SOUNDS LIKE YOU JUST PULLED THAT OUT OF YOUR ASS

It's true.  I'm only guessing ... I'm guessing from my experience of running Style Unveiled (the wedding publication and blog I started in 2008) for 8 years ... and watching what happened then ... and I'm factoring in the market with is completely oversaturated with sooooooooo many online wedding publications ... and hello, the fact that Oath would even consider closing it down ... to the point where they felt confident to ANNOUNCE IT ... even though they have since deleted the 'closing SMP' post on their website and social media ...

Are times changing?  Yes.  Do we all need to adapt?  Yes.  My issue is that we are adapting by building the businesses of other people:  the owners of social media platforms ... we are being forced to take our business to another place to run it and see successes ... I don't have an answer ... but if Delish (and I hope that's fake news ... hahaha) is closing their app ... is it because they get more play on a platform they don't even own???  Do they get more play on Facebook, Instagram ... super sad fact to accept .... isn't it??

XO~ Heather