This year is a very strange place for all social media platforms. There is a wide assortment of issues affecting almost every single platform today, and the fallout with everything happening is that many of the businesses that rely on social media to conduct their business will become casualties.

Let's take a brief look at some of the key stories happening as we speak.

This month, US policymakers finally unveiled a new bill that would give the Commerce Department the ability to impose restrictions up to and including banning TikTok and other technologies that pose national-security risks, said Democratic Senator Mark Warner, who chairs the Intelligence Committee.

Every intelligence agency in the US, Canada, the UK and Australia has raised concerns about data security since the Chinese own the company Byte dance, the producer of TikTok.

The ban is seemingly very likely, since the White House has now backed the new legislation, and the thought process is that if the ban happens in the US, then Canada, the UK and Australia will follow.

After these announcements, the Meta company run by Mark Zuckerberg made a quick announcement that they will stop their Reels bonus programme, which was set up to incentivise creators to create video content on Facebook and Instagram, in hopes of winning back creators from TikTok.

Meta has also announced its new Meta Verified programme, which takes a page out of Elon Musk’s Twitter book. This programme is currently starting in the US, but is set to make the rounds, and you will be able to buy your verification and also get more organic reach for your content. It’s going to cost US$11.99 per month, or, if purchased on any of Apple’s operating systems, US$14.99.

With more people buying these premium services, that means our feeds are about to be filled with more ads and also more “suggested content” from creators we do not know, making it even harder for your content to gain traction on social media.

Twitter, TikTok, Facebook, and Instagram are all going through major changes that are leaving people ever more confused about how to grow on these platforms, and some are considering whether they should even be on these platforms any more, given all the security concerns and now the further costs of using the platforms.

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According to cybersecurity company VPNOverview, searches online have surged over 2,400 per cent for: How to deactivate Instagram. There were over 900,000 searches for how to delete Instagram, followed by 385,000 searches for how to delete Facebook.

It’s safe to say that this is the year when your business/brand, out of sheer necessity, must start working on building your channels, or else your entire marketing plan and, in some cases, your business could be jeopardised if your brand is only accessible via social media.

Here are five additional reasons why your brand needs to build other digital channels and re