Many brands are seeing their Facebook business page engagement and reach decline exponentially due to recent changes Facebook has made to their algorithm. As a result many business marketers who have put all of their social business and social media marketing eggs into Facebook are “freaking out.”

These are the top questions we are hearing from every client, partner, colleague, friend and neighbor…

What the heck is going on with Facebook Edgerank?

Why are no fans engaging with my content?

Why has my Facebook reach tanked?

Should I give up on Facebook?

Should I head over to Google+ as my number one platform in 2014?

Where should I focus my time in 2014?

Is Google+ the Answer for Businesses in 2014? 

If you are reading this post looking for the answer to if you should jump ship and head to Google+, I will tell you now you will likely be disappointed.

There is no cookie cutter answer to this question. Here is why…

• I do not know your business.
• I do not know your customer.
• I do not know your target market demographics.
• I do not know what content marketing assets you have that can be leveraged to help you meet your business goals.
• Because I do not know your business, customer target demographics I can not tell you if your customer is hanging out on Google+, LinkedIn, Twitter or Instagram. I have no idea where they are hanging out to be honest.

Here is what you need to do: 

• Stop putting your social media and business eggs in one basket!
• Stop putting your business strategy and success dependency into a social network basket you do not own!
• Stop depending on social media to determine your business strategy.
• Acknowledge that your business should not plug into Facebook. Facebook and the other social networks should plug into your business.
• Focus on integrating social media into your business. This means you need to be thinking about an integrated platform that uses your blog and / or website as home base. Smart marketers were already doing this from day one.
• Social media is a medium, not a solution, treat it as such.
• Acknowledge that you do not own your Facebook fans. Yes, you may have paid good money to Facebook via advertising campaigns to get them to like your page.
• Accept that Facebook owes you nothing. What do you expect from a platform you have been using for close to free for months and/or years? You don't own your fan page, your business page, your personal page, nothing. This is why it is a risk putting your eggs all in one basket you do not own.
• Accept the fact that your fans may have liked your page, but did not necessarily fell in love with you. Get over it. You must move on to plan b, and fast.
• Develop a plan inclusive of business goals and objectives and serves the needs of your audience.
• Get in the head of your customer. Know what and where they eat, sleep, drink. Know when, where and how they tweet, pin, post, blog, read, and share. Know why they do all of the above.
• Your mission is to determine where your audience is hanging out online and figure out how you can have the most relevant conversation with them possible that helps them meet business and life goals, and you do the same.
• Inspire your audience to connect with you, with a goal of helping them achieve their objectives. When your audience achieves their objectives, you will achieve your objectives by default. Inspire, connect, achieve!
• Google+ is not going to solve your problems any quicker than Facebook will. Quit looking to the social networks to solve your business problems.

Watch this video to better understand and get a grip on your social media for 2014 and beyond.