The world has been a buzz with the news of Facebook's new policies regarding business pages. What's my take on it? F*ck you, Facebook! Each time there's a policy update, Facebook makes it harder and harder for business pages to reach and market to their followers. It's bogus!
Small business owners with a lot of followers will realize that it doesn't matter how many people are following if they are not paying Facebook to boost their status. Usually, a business owner would only boost a status to get the word out to more people and not just the folks who are following the designated page for the company. However, with the new rule, the thousands of fans an entrepreneur might have may never see a status unless it is boosted.
Read more: http://www.techtimes.com/articles/21102/20141130/facebook-is-killing-small-business-entrepreneurs-with-new-policy-rule.htm#ixzz3LnZxnyf5
According to the above article, Facebook has decided that they aren't making enough money from the ads they already have SPAMMING our News Feeds, now they wish to make small business owners and page owners in general, pretty much pay for every post. I have 1320 followers or likers on my Facebook Fan Page. That isn't really a lot, but it's still more than I can reach on my regular profile. The point of having the business page or fan page is so people can "like" it, see the updates and interact without having to become friends with someone they don't know and have their personal information available to a stranger. I completely get it and use the function myself on my personal profile. The problem isn't the purpose of the page, it's how Facebook decides to rob those of us who can't afford to spend thousands of dollars on marketing that we can't even be sure is going to pay off.
Let me show you what posts look like now:
This is one of my "organic" posts. This means that it is original content that I posted, not containing any links, photos or information from any other source:
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| Out of the 1320 likers, 47 of them saw this post??!!! |
That's just ridiculous. I mean, really??!! So I'd have to pay for people who have already liked my page to see my posts? How much sense does that make? If they've already clicked "Like", why the hell can't they see my posts? If they didn't want to see what I have to say, they wouldn't have clicked "Like" in the first place or can just unfollow me.
Here's another post that is "inorganic", meaning I shared it from another source:
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| Out of the 1320 likers, 240 of them saw this post!!! |
This is where I call bullshit on Facebook and its so-called policies. The say that the algorithms can somehow pick out the organic posts that aren't considered spammy and make them available to more followers, but this post is the exact opposite and was seen by more people. How do you explain that?? Basically, Facebook is full of crap! Again, why can't I post directly to my followers without having to take back doors into their feeds? How is this fair? What am I supposed to do about it?
Well, there isn't really much I can do. I've created a new group for my fans to join, I've join Tsu, which I don't think is going to be a lucrative as Facebook and Twitter, but I'm willing to try it out. Not to mention I'm on pretty much every other networking and social media site out there. Bottom line is, I refuse to pay a company that is in no way hurting for revenue. Facebook has become the only social networking site for people to share and interact since they blew MySpace out of the water years ago.
Facebook is wonderful if you are using it to connect with your family, share articles with your friends and even play games with a community. Facebook can even be wonderful if you are a member of the many, many, many groups it has to offer about any and everything under the sun. But, Facebook is treating its business page owners like red-headed step-children. We are the exception to be able to take advantage of it's vast platform. Given the option to boost posts to reach OUTSIDE of our ALREADY ESTABLISHED networks is acceptable, but not being able to reach OUR FANS who've taken the time to seek us out is JUST PLAIN WRONG and borderline THIEVERY. Facebook is potentially stealing revenue from people like me who are hard-working independent authors and don't make much money in the first place. I'm forced to pay out more than I make, creating a deficit in my business funds and ultimately making it harder for me to generate the business Facebook potentially holds. I refuse to go broke for you, Facebook.
xoxo
