Don’t Rely On Social Media

We love social media. We’ve got profiles on all the major networks, but we know that we cannot rely on social media networks. They rise and fall. Remember Bebo? A few years ago it was “the” social network in Ireland and the UK. Or what about Posterous? So many “cool” services offer users all sorts of features at zero fee. But they can change their terms of service, go out of business or get swallowed up by other companies.

If, however, you establish your own online identity based on your own domain name then you can move it when you need to.

We put out a press release on this earlier today:

Blacknight Calls on Internet Users to Reclaim their Online Identity
Irish company advises against relying on social media for content management

July 29, 2013 – Carlow, Ireland – Leading Irish domain registrar and hosting company, Blacknight is calling on Internet users to take control of their own online lives.

Blacknight (http://www.blacknight.com) want Internet users to know that storing their data on social networks is not a long-term online content management solution. As social networks rise and fall, so does the information stored there. The safest and most effective way to store and manage online content is through a personally controlled business or personal site. A domain name and website run on an open source platform like WordPress and hosted by the individual or company creates a space for content and data to live over time in one place.

Michele Neylon of Blacknight explains: “If there is one thing I tell people over and over again, it is that the most important thing you can do for yourself and your online business, is to get a good domain name and build a site on it. Do not rely solely on social networks to store your content and information. It is unprofessional but most alarmingly, it’s impermanent. If Facebook should suddenly go out of business, all of your data goes with it. You need a domain name and a website to house all of your personal and business data.”

Whether focusing on a blog, personal, photo sharing or business site, it is advantageous to create a place online from which to host content that is sourced to preferred social media platforms. Not only does this create a personal record of everything a user publishes online, but it also makes it easier to control online identity.

Neylon continues: “The amount of content a person creates over time becomes a record of their life. If suddenly, every holiday photo, opinion and important announcement or business contact were to disappear due to the collapse of a social media service, it would be devastating.”

For those seeking to re-claim their online identity, Blacknight offers domain name registration in over two hundred extensions including .COM, .EU, .BIZ,  .CO and .ME, which can be perfectly paired with “No Fluff” Cloud Hosting. For those who prefer a more traditional hosting setup, Blacknight also provides Standard Hosting, Shared Hosting, Hosted SharePoint, Dedicated/ Colocation, and Mobile Friendly Hosting through goMobi. Each service has several pricing and performance tiers so Blacknight customers can create a package that fits their needs.