Becoming a marketer without big tech

It’s an ongoing process

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Fast forward to the 2020s. I hate social media. Everything is awful.

I stopped looking at Twitter after Brexit but it keeps sucking me back in. I can’t quite let go as I use it for #journorequests.

But big tech is not just social media

When the GDPR legislation came into effect in the UK a few years ago, I thought this is a good thing. I could wave goodbye to the days of colleagues telling me they had “acquired” 20,000 contacts and had sent a blanket email to all. However, our personal data is not as protected as we think. Unless you have a mailing list, you probably don’t know that email marketing analytics show which individual people opened or clicked an email.

But I work in marketing…

So how do I avoid big tech? I am in a lucky position because I have my own business and that gives me some control over which clients I work with and which platforms and tools I use.

Social media

I am a B2B marketer, which means I work with businesses and not consumers. So, I spend a lot of time on LinkedIn for myself and clients. It’s owned by Microsoft and is definitely one of more ethical social networks, but it’s not perfect. It runs targeted ads, it holds a lot of data and the unsolicited messages are pretty irritating.

Website analytics

I use Fathom Analytics instead of Google Analytics for my site and clients’ sites. This is a privacy-focused analytics platform which also happens to have a clean and simple dashboard, unlike Google.

Email, calendar and file storage

Disentangling myself from Google is a pain, I’ve turned off Workspace and switched to Fastmail for emails and Sync for files — both are privacy-focused platforms.

I’m still figuring out…

An alternative to Google Forms as the alternatives are so expensive and restrictive. Also I have a Google Pixel 5 and I am not changing this until it breaks.

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Writing about marketing, careers and a creative life • B2B marketing consultant and mentor • intothewoodsmarketing.com • veronicawoodquerales.substack.com

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