As media companies like NPR and others have signed off of Twitter, I saw a great quote about social media.

The quote said, “Social media is great if you want to cultivate an audience on someone else's platform, not so great if you want to cross-pollinate an audience onto your own platform.”

This nails it, and this is exactly what FTVLive has been saying for years.

We have never understood why TV stations put so much effort into a social media platform that they don’t own and don’t have control over.

It took Elon Musk to buy Twitter, proving exactly right what FTVLive has been saying forever.

Stations should spend the time and money on their website. The site they own, the sight they sell ads on, and the site in which they control.

FTVLive gets traffic that rivals many TV stations, and 85% of the traffic that comes to FTVLive.com is direct traffic. That means someone is coming to FTVLive directly and not through another source.

In fact, less than 2% of FTVLive’s traffic comes through social media. Just over 13% comes from search engines, and the rest is direct. Here is our breakdown:  

This should be the goal of TV stations, to have your viewers come to you directly and not some other source.

Elon Musk could turn around tomorrow and tell TV stations they need to pay $10,000 monthly to have a Twitter account. What do you do then?

It would be best if you control your own destiny.

Also, if you think your anchor posting a dance video on social media is doing anything to drive traffic your way, you’re an idiot.

The only thing that dance video is doing is hurting your station’s journalistic integrity.

Just saying…