With social media, one crucial forgotten aspect is owning your data. There does not seem to be a need for it when billion-dollar servers are storing the data. It’s worthwhile remembering the fleeting nature of social media.
Posts get buried down, sometimes stored only for a certain amount of time. Accounts also get banned, wrongfully or not. Others are simply shut down to save storage costs. The right to data exists but if you are banned, you are walled from your own content.
It’s a good idea to host your data somewhere, to have a copy and a reference distribution point for your personal content. It takes some effort but at the end of the day you get to present your data how you like it. And with the age of SEO-less content where content is assessed based on merit, your content will float around if it’s good enough, as value was the point all this time.
The main problem with owning your data is gathering a backup. Pulling years worth of data from platforms takes a lot of time. It’s great if the platform has an export option.
Personal branding is one powerful reason to own your data. A great distribution point is a powerful force. Thanks Jochen Kirstätter for making me realize the need to own my data.