Trump, Censorship, and Digital Marketing Best Practices

I worked with an email list building coach who emphasized the face that you do not own your social media following. The platform does.

At any moment, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Instagram, or whomever can shut down your account for any reason or no reason at all. They are private businesses, and as such they are allowed to do business with or not do business with anyone they like as long as they are not restricting people from protected classes.

Because of this, it is prudent for anyone who is building a brand and a following to maintain their own communications resources that they do own. Email lists. Mailing lists. Phone lists.

Email is a protocol so it’s not actually owned by anyone, thus while you might lose access to a particular email platform, you can always use your email list.

Postal mail is a federal agency and thus is governed by the First Amendment so that no matter what you send, the Post Office won’t shut off your mailing privileges (except possibly in some criminal cases).

Phone is a regulated utility and thus also somewhat protected by the First Amendment.

If you were to walk into a local store tomorrow and the owner were to kick you out and tell you never to come back, they would be fully within their…