Women have got to invest more in their own digital assets in 2025.

Women have got to invest in their own assets.

This has always been true, but my god, it's especially true in 2025.

This week alone, I've heard multiple stories from and about women who've lost big because they put too much stock in social media. I can't emphasize enough that we don't own these platforms, and if you're leaning on them to reach your fans or make your money, you're giving someone else power to take it all away from you.

One woman had been building an online magazine on Instagram. She'd spent years growing her following, and for reasons Instagram will never explain, she was kicked off the platform. She's trying to rebuild, but the damage is done.

Then there's news this morning that Sophie Lee's ( Electric Peach) personal LinkedIn page was shut down again.

I need you to remember that there's an entire, multi-million dollar industry that profits from you pouring your energy into these platforms. It benefits from your unpaid labor, you giving away your best content (and your personal life) for free, and it keeps you in line by controlling your access to your audience. Carrot, stick.

You can lose it all tomorrow. Hell, you could lose it all in the next 5 minutes and you don't even have to do anything wrong. It's not hyperbole, it's fact.

But here's the key: I don't want us to panic about this. I want us to get smart about it. There are simple steps you can take without overwhelming yourself or completely derailing your plans to make sure your voice and your business can keep going no matter what does or doesn't happen on social media.

Here are the top 4 things I'd recommend you do today.

How to reclaim your business from social media

This is where the foundational, old school, "unsexy" parts of the marketing playbook come in. Yes, they take time. More time for some, maybe, than throwing out a quick post on social media, but they work. They always have, no matter how many pronouncements from some dude you heard online that they're dead.

Step 1: Invest in your own website.

That's your digital home, not the social channel you use the most. That's "land" you own. I want you to build on it.

It builds good SEO (and SEO still matters, for heaven's sake stop listening to all this BS about it being dead!). It's what AI is referencing. It stays up when TikTok gets banned or Meta has an hours-long glitch.

People do still go to websites in 2025. Dust yours off, or get to building a simple one to start. Do it now.

Step 2: Fuel your own platform, not theirs.

Write things on your website. They're not meant to sit stagnant, so here's your permission to make changes! Post videos there instead of on social media.

If you've been using LinkedIn like your personal blog, you need to start building a literal blog on your website so you own that content. If you're banned from LinkedIn tomorrow, your work won't disappear with it.

Again, this is SEO and AI fuel.

Step 3: Collect your people.

Build your email list. You don't have to start a newsletter. You don't even need to use those email addresses right way, just start collecting them. Aim to get a name and email address from about 30% of your followers. You can take that 30% from just the account you use the most, or across all of your channels in total. If you can get more, that's great, but this will take time. Pace yourself.

Then, when you're ready, use those email addresses with care. Don't spam, don't email for the sake of emailing, don't add to the noise in their inbox. Create a plan; make it worth the open.

Step 4: Start telling your audience.

Start telling your social media audience that you're collecting contact info in case something bad happens. Hey, we've have glitches and outages before so on that fact alone it's not a bad idea to have a backup plan.

Make sure your audience knows where your real digital home is—your website. Tell them where to find you if they've noticed you're not showing up in their feed lately. Make your website active so they know there's going to be good things waiting for them when they come for a visit to see what you're up to.

Should you stop using social media?

I can't tell you that. I don't think it's my place. It depends entirely on:

• Whether or not you like using social media

• If it's where your buyers are (note I didn't say audience)

• The industry you work in and how much brand lift you get from social media

• If you're willing to put in the work to be less dependent on it

But if you do want to keep using social media, here's what I can tell you I'd recommend: get more strategic about how you use it.

Don't give away the farm. Create a strategy for what you will and won't share, and always always always make the reference back to your website for the best things.

That might look like this:

1. Write a blog post instead of a LinkedIn post.

2. Then, write a short teaser on LinkedIn about what you're sharing in the post.

3. Tell them in the post they'll have to head to your website for the full story.

4. Share a link to the post in the comments. (You'll note this is exactly what I did for myself with this post.)

Alternatively, tell them they can spare themselves the clicks if they just sign up for your emails, and they can get your content straight to their inbox in whatever format you decide to send it: newsletter, monthly note, literally just the blog post once a week—whatever works for your audience.

I know this goes against all the advice you hear about social media.

"People won't go to your website!"

"Extra clicks are friction!"

"You have to do native social!"

"Social media's where the party is. If you're not doing it all here, you're invisible."

Blah blah blah.

This is the difference between followers and fans. Some of that audience you've curated on social are just entertained by you; they're never going to buy your product or your services. That's okay!

Your real fans will make the effort. They'll follow you through the digital desert for your content because they're eager to hear from you. And you are so much more you when there's no algorithm to perform for, or worry about getting in trouble with, or to get buried by.

Social media is meant to be one tool in the toolbox of your business, not the tool. Start giving those other tools more TLC asap; your business depends on it.

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Work with me to get personalized support to safeguard your business against social media. Get in touch.