The "Community Board" Problem: Why You Need to Move from Rented Land to Owned Land

Imagine you walk into your local community center. There is a cork peg board in the hallway, covered in flyers.

There are ads for guitar lessons, lost cats, local plumbers, and upcoming bake sales. You pin your business flyer up in the corner.

Now, you hope.

You hope the people who already know you stop to look. You hope a few new people stumble upon it. But you also know that half the people walking by will ignore it completely, and tomorrow, the janitor might take it down—or someone else might pin a bigger flyer right on top of yours.

This is basically how Social Media works.

The Myth of Control

We spend hours crafting the perfect Reel or the wittiest caption. We stress over the hashtags. We post it to Instagram, TikTok, or LinkedIn.

And then? We lose control.

The algorithm decides who sees it. The platform decides if it reaches 5% of your audience or 50%. And—worst case scenario—if the server goes down or your account gets flagged, you lose access to your entire audience in a single heartbeat.

This is the danger of building your business on Rented Land. You are playing by a landlord’s rules, and the rent (your attention and ad spend) keeps going up.

Enter "Owned Land" (The Solution)

Your "Owned Land" is your website and your email list.

When you send an email, there is no algorithm blocking the door. It lands in the inbox. You control the timing. You control the narrative. You control exactly who sees it.

The dynamic shifts from "Shouting into a void" to "Inviting someone into your living room."

On your owned channels, you can be more personal. You can tell longer stories. You can speak directly to the people who asked to hear from you, rather than trying to interrupt people who are just trying to watch funny cat videos.

The "Moderation" Rule Returns

Now, let’s be clear (because at fable & frame, we don't deal in extremes): I am not telling you to delete your social media.

Social media is still incredible. It is the best place for discovery. It is the peg board where new people find you.

But the strategy needs to shift.

Stop treating social media as the destination. Treat it as the roadmap. Your goal on Instagram shouldn't just be to get "Likes"; it should be to get people off the app and onto your list.

The Ecosystem

Think of your marketing like a house.

• Social Media: This is the curb appeal. It’s the sign in the yard. It gets people interested.

• The Website/Email: This is the living room. This is where you sit down, offer them a drink, and actually build the relationship.

If you only have curb appeal, you have strangers walking by. If you have the living room, you have guests.

Build your house. Own your land. And use the peg board for what it’s good for—pointing the way home.