Digital Sharecropping A Native English Content Writers Perspective
                     Digital 
Sharecropping: A 
Native English 
Content Writers’ 
Perspective
https://goodmanlantern.com/
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So you’ve decided to invest some time, effort, and budget into your business’s 
online presence.
You’ve heard that social media is the way to go. While social media can play a big 
part in your marketing strategy, you need to be careful of one thing…digital 
sharecropping.
It’s easy for any business to fall victim to digital sharecropping because there’s an 
alarmingly low amount of awareness about it. Native English content writers in 
the industry know all too much about this shortfall. In fact, we think it’s high time 
that everyone gets a better idea of what digital sharecropping is and how best to 
avoid it.
Here’s what our native English content writers think about digital sharecropping 
and some advice on what not to do. 2
What is Digital 
Sharecropping?
The term ‘digital 
sharecropping’ was first 
used by the author 
Nicholas Carr. He used it 
to describe a common 
occurrence on the Web 
2.0 (today’s internet). 
Being one of the 
knowledgeable native 
English content writers 
in the industry, he said:
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“One of the fundamental economic characteristics of Web 2.0 is the distribution of 
production into the hands of the many and the concentration of the economic 
rewards into the hands of the few.”
Simply put, the more content that’s put onto free platforms, the more valuable 
those platforms become. So, the more you add to Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc. 
the richer you’re making them. To make matters more unfair, once you publish that 
content on the platform, it no longer belongs to you, even if you’ve created it.
The reason it’s called digital sharecropping is that it draws parallels to a form of 
agriculture called sharecropping. With this system, those who farm the land don’t 
actually own it. Instead, they work the land that is owned by a larger entity and 
receive a small portion of the profits of their labour.
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So, if you imagine that Facebook is the landowner, your business would be the 
farmer doing the actual work. You work the ‘land’, producing content that brings 
traffic and attention to the site. What our native English content writers hate most 
about this is that, even after the effort, your content no longer belongs to you once 
it’s online. And, yes, you may get some customer interest out of it, but you have 
little control of what happens to it once it’s on there.
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How We Can Tell if You’re Guilty of 
Digital Sharecropping
Our team native English content writers will tell you to stay far away from digital 
sharecropping. But that’s easier said than done. How do you even know if that’s 
what you’re doing?
The horrible truth is that tons of businesses are victims of digital sharecropping 
without even knowing it. For those that use PR teams and media managers that 
aren’t native English content writers, this is a travesty. Their teams should know 
better. But, alas, when you make content for so many different platforms, it’s 
easy to lose track and forget about who actually owns that content. It’s easy to 
assume that it’s still yours.
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Here are some questions that our team of native English content writers use to 
determine their level of digital sharecropping:
1.Is the content credited to me?
2.Am I able to control when, where, and how my content is displayed?
3.Can I say when my content is deleted, edited, or taken offline?
4.Can I download or archive my content from the site it’s on?
If the answer to the question above is “no”, then you’re probably digital 
sharecropping. Yikes.
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What’s SO Bad 
About Digital 
Sharecropping 
Anyway?
It’s not always easy to 
keep
Unless, like us, you’re 
one of the native English 
content writers that 
understand the ins and 
outs of digital 
sharecropping, you may 
not see the downside. 
Sure, your content 
brings in money for the 
social media site. And 
sure, you may not have 
control over the content 8
once it’s posted.
What’s the harm in all that? You’re still getting your name out there, right? While 
that may be true, it’s not always for the best.
You need to remember that there is a difference between having a well-rounded 
marketing strategy and relying on a platform to do your marketing for you. It’s the 
latter that we want to avoid. Native English content writers in the marketing 
industry will tell you that it’s important to use all kinds of social media to promote 
your business. It’s a great way to engage with your audience and promote your 
business. But, you should be doing more than just that.
Here’s why our native English content writers think you shouldn’t put all your eggs 
in one basket:
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Platforms Come and Go Overnight
When was the last time you thought about Vine, the video-sharing platform? 
Crazy to think it was once the most popular video-sharing platform out there. 
And then, it disappeared overnight.
Websites and third-party platforms can lose popularity quickly for various 
reasons. So, if you’re investing significant amounts of time, energy, and money 
into one of these platforms, you stand to lose a lot if it goes bust.
The scariest part of all is that there’s little way to tell when the ship might sink. 
You’re taking a huge gamble on the platform doing well. If it does start to lose 
popularity, you’ll have fewer eyes on your content and your reach will start to 
dwindle. This is our native English content writers’ collective nightmare.
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There’s No Customisation
Unless you own the platform, there’s little room for creative control of your 
content. Our team of native English content writers often bemoan the fact that 
there’s a word limit for posts – unless you buy more characters. But, it goes 
further than this.
What if your business uses outstanding photos as part of its marketing. These 
platforms often compress the images, taking away the impact. And, if you use 
video content, your videos have to meet certain requirements to be shown. I 
can hear the rest of our team of native English content writers cringing from 
here!
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On the topic of videos, platforms like Facebook will place ads on them. While this 
brings in revenue, you have no control over the types of ads they use. What if the 
ad doesn’t align with your brand? What if it’s an ad for your competitors’ products?
Ultimately, relying solely on these platforms leads to a compromise in terms of 
quality and originality of content. For our native English content writers, quality 
comes before everything.
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What Other Options Do I Have?
 So, say you’ve taken our native English content writers’ advice and decided to 
avoid digital sharecropping. What kind of solutions do you have?
• Firstly, you need to make sure that your website is up to scratch. After all, this 
is where your potential customers are going to be looking. Make sure that your 
website is professionally designed, optimised for SEO purposes, and is mobile 
friendly.
• Secondly, start posting content to your website. This can be in the form of 
videos, blogs, or infographics. Whatever you choose, you’ll be the one that 
owns it. This means that you have full control over when and how it’s posted, 
and how it’s distributed. Your content will be completely customised to suit 
your standards. Our team of native English content writers can be a great help 
with this part.
• Finally, build your brand on your own terms. Seeing as you’re no longer 
beholden to the whims of the platform execs, you can decide how you want 
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your brand to work. You get to choose how you advertise and who you partner 
with.
Don’t Say Goodbye to Social Media 
Just Yet
Your website is great on its own, but it would be silly to discredit how powerful 
social media is. Simply for the fact that so many people use it every day. As part of 
your marketing plan, it’s a great idea to use social media posts to promote your 
content. That way, you’re getting the best of both worlds.
The goal in this instance is to use those platforms to drive traffic to your site. So, 
instead of relying on the site for all the information they need, your customers will 
find you on there and rely on your own website instead.
A great way to make sure you’re hitting a good balance is to write a blog for 
your website, then post a summary of the blog to the social media site. Make 
sure to link the blog so that people can keep reading if they’re interested. This 
is where our native English content writers can make things much easier for 
you.
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How Goodman Lantern’s Native 
English Content Writers Can Help You
Hopefully, you’ve got a better understanding of what digital sharecropping is 
and how to avoid it. But, our native English content writers know that 
understanding and implementation are two different things. That’s why it’s 
better to choose well-versed, knowledgeable native English content writers to 
do the job for you. That’s us!
With a deep understanding of language, phrasing, and nuance, our native 
English content writers can help you produce excellent content. And, with an 
allergy to digital sharecropping, they’ll make sure your content remains yours 
and yours alone.
Our team of native English content writers can help you avoid the dreaded 
digital sharecropping. Contact us today!
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THANK
YOU!
Goodman 
Lantern
Phone: Email: Website:
+1 9292993999 [email protected] https://goodmanlantern.c
om om/
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