I think the number one thing people should understand is that it's really important to own the relationship with your audience. Tech companies like Google and

I think the number one thing people should understand is that it's really important to own the relationship with your audience. Tech companies like Google and Facebook want you to pay for reaching your audience. This sounds like a good deal when it allows you to reach more people. Ads are great! Expand your business! With Google and Facebook you just pay a little and get more customers! It sounds like a win/win situation! Except that tech companies found it would be even more profitable to make you pay for reaching your existing audience! Finding new customers is a really hard problem, so they'll just sell access to your existing customers! So they trick businesses into sharing their customer data with them, by offering analytics or other free services. Once the tech company knows who your customers are, they can charge you to reach them! You can pay to reach the people in your Facebook groups or buy retargeting ads to reach people who visited your online shop. You don't get new customers, you just pay to reach people who you thought you already had a relationship with -- except that relationship is controlled by someone else. And if you don't pay, well they'll just show your competitors ads! If you built up a reputation with hard work by providing a great service, you can now start a bidding war with your competitors to reach your own customers! Long live big brother!