We're upset with Facebook. Since we opened our Facebook page, we've been model citizens of the 'net. We've garnered fans to our Facebook page. We've posted regularly and frequently. We've liked, commented, and shared. Yet despite our efforts, less and less of our content is reaching you, our audience. This really ticks us off.
What's a syndicate of writers and artists like us to do? We alone are too small for Facebook to pay us any attention. But what we can do is educate you, our readers.
What's a syndicate of writers and artists like us to do? We alone are too small for Facebook to pay us any attention. But what we can do is educate you, our readers.
Facebook Is An Advertising Company
To its credit, Facebook does several things well -- not counting how good their service is at swallowing up your workday productivity, as that's beyond the point.
Foremost, Facebook is great at research. This is no surprise. Any advertising agency worth its salt knows its target audience, which is why you don't see teenagers in denture cement ads. The task of getting to know what makes you tick is made easier still when you fill in their user profile information forms. There's a reason they ask for your vital statistics -- age, gender, hometown, occupation, education -- it helps them slot you into a preset demographic so Facebook's clients (the advertisers) know what products to sell you.
Foremost, Facebook is great at research. This is no surprise. Any advertising agency worth its salt knows its target audience, which is why you don't see teenagers in denture cement ads. The task of getting to know what makes you tick is made easier still when you fill in their user profile information forms. There's a reason they ask for your vital statistics -- age, gender, hometown, occupation, education -- it helps them slot you into a preset demographic so Facebook's clients (the advertisers) know what products to sell you.
Facebook Doesn't Share All Your Fan Page Posts
Have a look at this screenshot. This Facebook update reached none of our fans. You read that right. This reached a grand total of no people. While our Facebook following is a meager 100 or so, one would expect at least a handful of fans to have seen this in their feed in the thirteen hours between when it was posted to when the screenshot was taken.
Test this yourself. Log in to your Facebook page and see if any of your posts have a reach of zero. If you're fortunate enough to not have a single zero-reach post, try this: count all your posts in the past two weeks. Then have a friend who's already a fan of your page log in and count your posts in his feed. Chances are he'll come up short. But this should come as no surprise because...
Test this yourself. Log in to your Facebook page and see if any of your posts have a reach of zero. If you're fortunate enough to not have a single zero-reach post, try this: count all your posts in the past two weeks. Then have a friend who's already a fan of your page log in and count your posts in his feed. Chances are he'll come up short. But this should come as no surprise because...
Facebook Wants You To Pay For Exposure
Who doesn't want their fifteen minutes of fame? The way Facebook works today is like this: Facebook is happy to give you the first five for free, just to get you hooked. You'll have to pay for the other ten. This business practice may do wonders for their bottom line, but it does us, the users, no favors.
We'll put it this way: All of the content on our website is free to read. You, the interested reader, like our content and want more. It makes sense that you'd also like our Facebook page to keep on top of new content and updates.
Here's the problem: Facebook wants us to pay them to bring you content that we're giving you for free. If we don't pay Facebook, you'll never get our content because it will never pop up in your news feed. Ever hear the expression, "What you see is what you get"? The reverse is true: "You can't get what you don't see", and that's because you can't get what you don't know is there.
"Wait!" you may be thinking. "So why don't you pay to boost your reach?" Good question. From a strictly business perspective, it would only make sense to boost those posts where we're selling you something. This is because we want to maximize our chances that you see and want what we offer. And here's the problem with that: if all you ever saw was advertisements, you wouldn't like our Facebook page. We'd essentially be paying Facebook to spam you.
We'll put it this way: All of the content on our website is free to read. You, the interested reader, like our content and want more. It makes sense that you'd also like our Facebook page to keep on top of new content and updates.
Here's the problem: Facebook wants us to pay them to bring you content that we're giving you for free. If we don't pay Facebook, you'll never get our content because it will never pop up in your news feed. Ever hear the expression, "What you see is what you get"? The reverse is true: "You can't get what you don't see", and that's because you can't get what you don't know is there.
"Wait!" you may be thinking. "So why don't you pay to boost your reach?" Good question. From a strictly business perspective, it would only make sense to boost those posts where we're selling you something. This is because we want to maximize our chances that you see and want what we offer. And here's the problem with that: if all you ever saw was advertisements, you wouldn't like our Facebook page. We'd essentially be paying Facebook to spam you.
But Don't Take It From Us...
Before you get into thinking that we're bashing Facebook just because we're angry, read this: According to Advertising Age, an advertising and marketing news magazine, Facebook said:
We expect organic distribution of an individual page's posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site.
Sure, that all sounds fine and flowery, but the crux of that statement is at the beginning: "We expect organic distribution... to decline..." And make no mistake, while we're certain that ensuring people have a "meaningful experience" is a swell thing, this does not translate into dollars in Facebook's pocket. But throttling access to your fan base is another matter entirely, according to a Facebook spokesperson:
We're getting to a place where because more people are sharing more things, the best way to get your stuff seen if you're a business is to pay for it.
There you have it. Facebook says: Pay to play, even if you give it away.
We say: Sorry, Facebook, not today.
We say: Sorry, Facebook, not today.
