Businesses Need to Have a Website

This is going to be a little rant-y, but I want to try to explain why I feel this way. I don't have a Facebook or an Instagram account. On principle, I refuse to have an account on any platform Meta controls. I don't like their handle on privacy and I don't like how Mark Zuckerberg runs the company. Normally this would not be a big deal, except for the fact that businesses are now putting their updates on Facebook and Instagram, and Meta more often than not blocks me from viewing posts unless I'm logged in. You can see the problem.

From a user and potential customer perspective, this is pretty bad. If you're a restaurant and happen to be closed for a private event or the like and you put the update on your Facebook page...it's a 50/50 shot that I will be able to see it before Facebook puts up their "login to continue" interface. I'm also inclined to believe this is Meta being anti-consumer.

It's possible it's changed, but profiles used to be able to be toggled to either private or public. This is good. People should be able to keep random people from viewing their profile and updates. It makes sense that if I try to go to some random private individual's Facebook page, Facebook would make me login to send a friend request. I support this part. But with businesses, I'd wager the overwhelming majority have their profiles set to public for their customers to interact with them and to see updates. So I'd guess the forcing me to login to view said updates is probably Facebook trying to get more information and user data from me rather than the business not wanting me to see what events they have coming up. And I get them wanting to say not allow an anonymous user to message the business through Facebook or interact with posts, but we should be able to at least read them.

So you know what's pretty great for allowing anonymous individuals to see what's going on? A website. Now to be more than fair, most businesses have their own website. The issue is that they're not always kept up to date. And I get it, running a business is difficult and it can be much easier to just post a quick photo on Instagram or post on Facebook than it is to find a web developer or service to build some kind of updates feed for your website. But if users like me can't easily get those updates without creating an account not tied to your business, it gets frustrating very quickly.

My suggestion for businesses and restaurants is to work with your website provider to figure out how to best keep your website updated. This also has the added benefit of not being so tied to Facebook, Instagram, or whatever the social media platform of choice is at any given time. At any point they could change their algorithm, their policies, or whatnot. You're at their mercy and whim. Their changes could be benign, or they could drastically negatively affect you. Your website is yours. You control it completely, It's yours.

And yes, we can certainly call, but it's always easier to just quickly bring up a website to check statuses and all. And easy is often better.