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Digital PRDigital-First

The Online Base Camp

Never underestimate your website.

Jerry Silfwer
by Jerry Silfwer

Cover photo: @jerrysilfwer

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Every brand needs to pri­or­it­ise its online base camp.

This post will dis­cuss why your organ­isa­tion might bene­fit from shift­ing its focus away from social media and onto the brand’s website.

Here we go:

The Online Base Camp

I’ve devised brand strategies for over a dec­ade and am in awe of social medi­a’s power. It’s a glob­al cul­tur­al melt­ing pot of ideas and expressions.

But as PR pro­fes­sion­als, we’d be wise to remem­ber that social media is a mass phe­nomen­on. Few brands enjoy the suc­cess often asso­ci­ated with influencers.

In the cor­por­ate uni­verse, it’s digit­al-first.
Not neces­sar­ily “social media” first.

A brand’s web­site — its online base camp — is often under­used, under­es­tim­ated, and under­ap­pre­ci­ated.

Many organ­isa­tions over­es­tim­ate their social media pres­ence and under­es­tim­ate their online base camp — their web­site.

But it shouldn’t have to be that way.

From Digital Peasant to Digital Landowner

Social media has been a pri­or­ity for many organ­isa­tions for many years. But digit­al-first is more than just social media. And, let’s face it: social media doesn’t work for all organ­isa­tions alike.

A brand’s web­site should be its online base camp, a place for like-minded people to brain­storm, test ideas, put up roadmaps, and review logs.

Unfortunately, web­site pub­lish­ing is seen as bor­ing. But that’s just because the explod­ing scene of middle-hand ser­vices won’t both­er to pro­mote you tak­ing com­plete con­trol of your organ­isa­tion’s web presence.

Social media, on the oth­er hand, keeps us on our toes. Networks like YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Snapchat keep us on our toes, and they have a knack for dom­in­at­ing our newsfeeds.

But the truth is that very few brands do well on social media. For many brands, it makes more sense to be digit­al landown­ers than digit­al peas­ants.

Putting All Eggs in the Social Media Basket

If social media mar­ket­ing works for you, that’s great.

But we should recog­nise that social media pub­lish­ing for brands comes with sig­ni­fic­ant drawbacks:

  • Lack of con­trol. Brands often have little to no con­trol over the brand exper­i­ence in social media. Engaging with a brand on a social net­work like Facebook will mean that Facebook pre­scribes the exper­i­ence. If your cor­por­ate mes­sage doesn’t fit with Facebook’s brand exper­i­ence, then you must change your message.
  • Indirect busi­ness rela­tion­ships. Social media typ­ic­ally offers only indir­ect busi­ness rela­tion­ships with the audi­ence. While a brand can bene­fit from cul­tiv­at­ing a social brand audi­ence, the social net­work will bene­fit more at no risk. Social net­works are “rigged” like most forms of organ­ised gambling — the house always wins.
  • The rules are con­stantly chan­ging. Whatever the social net­work decides, wheth­er to remove or pro­mote cer­tain types of con­tent or make changes to your vis­ib­il­ity, the web will push brands to cre­ate whatever the net­work needs — instead of the con­tent a spe­cif­ic brand audi­ence wants.
  • People are inter­ested in people. Few brands can com­pete in social media com­pared to influ­en­cers. This is mainly because people prefer to inter­act with oth­er people. It’s not for noth­ing that we call this space social media. While a brand can be social, “speak­ing human” isn’t easy.

Complaining about social media won’t get you res­ults; neither search engines nor social net­works are known to give in to user demands. Either you play accord­ing to the social net­work’s rules or don’t play at all.

Controlling Your Online Presence

Many brands could prob­ably do much bet­ter if they focused their resources away from social media and dir­ec­ted them to their websites.

Investing in your cor­por­ate web­site is a prag­mat­ic pri­or­ity in today’s digit­al-first media landscape.

I star­ted blog­ging before it was cool, and I kept blog­ging well past the hype days — and I’m still at it. I wouldn’t trade hav­ing a fully con­trolled online pres­ence for any­thing, nor should you.

Because here’s the thing:

Websites are uniquely flex­ible. One single web­site can sim­ul­tan­eously accom­mod­ate sev­er­al high-level PR strategies on auto­pi­lot. And the entire infra­struc­ture is under your con­trol. Social media mar­ket­ing can’t do this.

As the paradigm of inbound com­mu­nic­a­tions entered the online uni­verse, it has been proven that many brands must rely on “pub­lish­ing a con­tinu­ous stream of new content.”

Why You Need an Online Base Camp

Website pub­lish­ing extends well bey­ond what we typ­ic­ally think of as blog­ging. Some pub­lish­ers like to call their plat­forms news­rooms, oth­ers con­tent hubs, and some don’t call them anything.

No mat­ter what you call it, being a digit­al landown­er is more than just hav­ing a format for newly pub­lished content.

To emphas­ise the import­ance of a con­trolled cor­por­ate online pres­ence, I’ve star­ted refer­ring to cli­ents’ web­sites as their online base camps for:

  • Organisational value pro­tec­tion. The online base camp is one of the few con­trolled envir­on­ments to which a brand can always return if a social net­work sud­denly changes the rules of engagement.
  • Organisational com­munity build­ing. An online base camp can host sev­er­al strategies and serve as a com­munity for like-minded people. In this com­munity, all mem­bers of the exped­i­tions ahead can come togeth­er, exchange exper­i­ences, and try out new ideas.
  • Organisational trans­par­ency prac­tices. The online base camp is where you and your team post your roadmaps, review your logs, share ideas, and dis­cuss solu­tions. So far, the base camp ana­logy has res­on­ated very well with sev­er­al of my clients.

In oth­er words:

If social media isn’t a good fit for your organ­isa­tion, stop banging your head against the wall. Instead, shift your focus to the brand web­site, your online base camp.

Learn more: The Online Base Camp

Digital Sharecropping

Nicholas Carr pop­ular­ised the concept of digit­al share­crop­ping in the mid-2000s and is an apt ana­logy for how mod­ern digit­al eco­sys­tems func­tion. 1Carr, N. (2006, December 19). Digital share­crop­ping. Rough Type. https://​www​.rough​type​.com/​?​p​=​634

Digital share­crop­ping = the phe­nomen­on where indi­vidu­als or busi­nesses cre­ate con­tent on plat­forms they do not own and have little con­trol over, much like share­crop­pers in agri­cul­tur­al eco­nom­ies who worked land owned by oth­ers. 2Silfwer, J. (2025, March 13). Digital Sharecropping. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​d​i​g​i​t​a​l​-​s​h​a​r​e​c​r​o​p​p​i​ng/

From Agrarian to Digital

To under­stand digit­al share­crop­ping, we must first explore its name­sake: tra­di­tion­al share­crop­ping.

  • Agricultural share­crop­ping (post-feud­al­ism to the 20th cen­tury). After slavery was abol­ished in the United States and oth­er parts of the world, landown­ers needed laborers. Still, newly freed or dis­placed work­ers often lacked the resources to own land. Landowners provided small plots for ten­ants to farm in exchange for a large por­tion of the crops. This sys­tem kept share­crop­pers in per­petu­al debt, unable to gain own­er­ship or escape poverty.
  • Industrial-era par­al­lels (fact­ory work and gig eco­nomy pre­curs­ors). As eco­nom­ies transitioned to indus­tri­al cap­it­al­ism, a new form of eco­nom­ic depend­ency emerged. Workers exchanged labor for wages but did not own pro­duc­tion means (factor­ies, machinery). This depend­ency on indus­tri­al­ists set the stage for eco­nom­ic mod­els pri­or­it­ising profit extrac­tion over indi­vidu­al autonomy.
  • The rise of the Internet (Web 1.0 to Web 2.0).

    Web 1.0 (1990s – early 2000s) was decent­ral­ised; users owned per­son­al blogs and web­sites.

    Web 2.0 (2004 onwards) ushered in cent­ral­ised plat­forms like Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter, mak­ing con­tent cre­ation easi­er and shift­ing own­er­ship and con­trol to tech com­pan­ies. People will­ingly handed over their con­tent, believ­ing they were gain­ing access and expos­ure while, in real­ity, they were ced­ing control.

Digital Sharecropping in Everyday Life

Digital share­crop­ping is ubi­quit­ous, though many do not recog­nize it. Here are some real-world examples:

  • Social media influ­en­cers and con­tent cre­at­ors. YouTubers, Instagram influ­en­cers, TikTok stars, and Twitter com­ment­at­ors gen­er­ate valu­able con­tent but do not own the plat­forms. Algorithmic changes can instantly reduce their vis­ib­il­ity, demon­et­ize their con­tent, or even erase their accounts. Unlike tra­di­tion­al busi­ness own­ers, they have no dir­ect con­trol over their rev­en­ue streams.
  • Medium, Substack, and oth­er cre­at­or plat­forms. Many writers aban­doned per­son­al web­sites for Medium, Substack, and LinkedIn Articles. While these ser­vices provide audi­ence access, they con­trol mon­et­isa­tion, dis­cov­ery algorithms, and policy changes. Writers who build audi­ences there are at the mercy of the platform’s busi­ness mod­el. Writers who build audi­ences there are at the mercy of the platform’s busi­ness model.
  • Musicians and artists on Spotify, Apple Music, and YouTube. Musicians used to rely on album sales; now, they depend on stream­ing ser­vices that pay frac­tions of a cent per stream. Platforms dic­tate terms, often tak­ing the major­ity of profits while artists remain fin­an­cially vulnerable.
  • The Gig Economy: Uber, Airbnb, Fiverr, and Etsy. Workers and small busi­ness own­ers rely on plat­forms they do not con­trol. Uber drivers, for instance, do not set fares or terms of ser­vice. Etsy sellers depend on algorithms that determ­ine their visibility.
  • Corporate depend­ency on Big Tech eco­sys­tems. Businesses rely­ing on Amazon Marketplace or Google SEO are in a pre­cari­ous pos­i­tion. Amazon can under­cut third-party sellers with private-label products. Google’s algorithm updates can oblit­er­ate organ­ic traffic overnight.

Effects on Cultures and Societies

Digital share­crop­ping has pro­found effects on eco­nom­ics, cul­ture, and power structure.

  • Economic depend­ence and pre­car­ity. Unlike tra­di­tion­al busi­ness mod­els where entre­pren­eurs owned their infra­struc­ture, today’s digit­al entre­pren­eurs rent digit­al real estate. Platform risk means live­li­hoods can van­ish overnight due to policy shifts, algorithm changes, or cor­por­ate whims.
  • Cultural mono­poly and inform­a­tion con­trol. A hand­ful of cor­por­a­tions (Meta, Google, Amazon, etc.) act as gate­keep­ers of cul­ture, decid­ing which voices are amp­li­fied or sup­pressed. Deplatforming, demon­et­iz­a­tion, and algorithmic cen­sor­ship affect who gets heard.
  • Algorithmic manip­u­la­tion and user beha­vi­or engin­eer­ing. Digital land­lords (plat­forms) use algorithms to max­im­ise engage­ment, often pro­mot­ing polar­ising con­tent over nuanced dis­course. This alters not only what people see but how they think and behave.
  • The death of digit­al sov­er­eignty. In Web 1.0, users owned their digit­al pres­ence (e.g., per­son­al blogs, inde­pend­ent for­ums). Most digit­al iden­tit­ies exist on ren­ted land — social media pro­files, cor­por­ate plat­forms, and SaaS products.

How To Escape Digital Serfdom

Digital share­crop­ping is not sus­tain­able in the long run. To avoid being a digit­al serf, con­sider these strategies:

  • Own your digit­al pres­ence. Maintain a per­son­al web­site instead of rely­ing solely on social media. Use email lists instead of rent­ing audi­ences via social platforms.
  • Diversify your online foot­print. Do not put all your eggs in one bas­ket. Spread your work across mul­tiple channels.
  • Monetise dir­ectly when pos­sible. Use dir­ect pay­ment mod­els instead of rely­ing on ad-based monetisation.
  • Explore decent­ral­ised altern­at­ives. Consider Web3 plat­forms, fed­er­ated net­works, and block­chain-based own­er­ship structures.

Digital Feudalism or a New Renaissance?

Digital share­crop­ping is an eleg­ant yet insi­di­ous evol­u­tion of eco­nom­ic depend­ency. Just as tra­di­tion­al share­crop­pers found them­selves trapped in a cycle of labor without own­er­ship, today’s digit­al cre­at­ors, gig work­ers, and entre­pren­eurs are build­ing wealth for plat­forms rather than themselves.

The future is uncer­tain — will we break free and return to decent­ral­ised, user-owned digit­al spaces, or will AI-driv­en, cor­por­ate-con­trolled eco­sys­tems tight­en their grip?

The ques­tion is: 

Will you be a digit­al peas­ant or a digit­al landown­er?

Learn more: Digital Sharecropping

The Inbound Shift

As pub­lic rela­tions pro­fes­sion­als, we must rethink how we think about pub­lics. Traditionally, many PR depart­ments have argued:

“Why should we waste budgets on ‘already acquired’ audiences?”

The truth is — it’s the oth­er way around.

The inbound shift is a fun­da­ment­al mind­set change in the pub­lic rela­tions industry.

Jerry Silfwer speaking about inbound marketing
Jerry Silfwer (Doctor Spin) speaks about inbound marketing.

Instead of “spam­ming” non-exist­ing audi­ences, pub­lic rela­tions and mar­ket­ing can do much more with exist­ing online pub­lics. 3Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/

Inbound vs Outbound: The Difference

Inbound vs out­bound is the online equi­val­ent of draw­ing the line between those who know you and those who don’t.

Drawing a line between those who know you and those who don’t know you is noth­ing new:

  • Pull vs push (mar­ket­ing).
  • Hot vs cold (sales).
  • Internal vs extern­al (com­mu­nic­a­tions).

If your inbound shift PR strategy is strong, you might no longer need to pri­or­it­ise your out­bound PR strategies since your inbound audi­ence will attract out­bound publics!

Learn more: The Inbound Shift PR Strategy

List of PR Blogs

Doctor Spin's list of PR blogs (2024).
Doctor Spin’s list of PR blogs (2024).

PR blogs come and go, and some seem to go on and on — I should know. I’ve been blog­ging before, dur­ing, and after it was con­sidered cool. Today, I still find that hav­ing a great web­site is underrated.

Many organ­isa­tions over­es­tim­ate their social media pres­ence and under­es­tim­ate their online base camp — their web­site.

Blogging is still the corner­stone of con­tent com­mu­nic­a­tions. To stay cur­rent, I update this list with act­ive blogs on pub­lic rela­tions and com­mu­nic­a­tions (2024).

Would you hap­pen to know of an act­ive PR blog that I should include in this list? Please let me know!

Learn more: Doctor Spin’s List of PR Blogs

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Annotations
Annotations
1 Carr, N. (2006, December 19). Digital share­crop­ping. Rough Type. https://​www​.rough​type​.com/​?​p​=​634
2 Silfwer, J. (2025, March 13). Digital Sharecropping. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​d​i​g​i​t​a​l​-​s​h​a​r​e​c​r​o​p​p​i​ng/
3 Silfwer, J. (2015, June 11). The Publics in Public Relations. Doctor Spin | The PR Blog. https://​doc​tor​spin​.net/​p​u​b​l​i​c​s​-​i​n​-​p​u​b​l​i​c​-​r​e​l​a​t​i​o​ns/
Jerry Silfwer
Jerry Silfwerhttps://doctorspin.net/
Jerry Silfwer, alias Doctor Spin, is an awarded senior adviser specialising in public relations and digital strategy. Currently CEO at Spin Factory and KIX Communication Index. Before that, he worked at Whispr Group NYC, Springtime PR, and Spotlight PR. Based in Stockholm, Sweden.

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