Over the past year, I’ve spent a lot of time building up a following for my business on Facebook. I followed all the expert advice - I used images, I asked relevant questions, and I offered discount codes and promotions. I posted frequently, but not so often that I spammed my fans’ feeds. I maintained my personality and offered help with WordPress issues and did everything “right” from a marketing standpoint.
Then Facebook decided none of that was good enough.
Today, if you want your Facebook fans to see what you’re talking about, you have to pay to “boost” your post. At first I thought this was another name for running ads on Facebook - you pay, and new people will see your stuff. So imagine how surprised I was to learn that I would actually be paying for people who already “liked” my page to see my posts. What, what?
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This time last year, if I posted something to the Nuts and Bolts Facebook page, roughly half my fans would see it. Now? Out of my last five posts, only one made it to a decent number of people. The others were viewed by less than 1/10 of my audience.
The trick now is engagement - if a lot of people engage with one of your Facebook posts, more fans will see your posts in the future. But once you post at a low-traffic time or post something that isn’t very popular, it’s too late. Fewer and fewer people will see your stuff from now on. Facebook has created an environment where you either succeed ALL. THE. TIME. or you fail for all eternity. Or, of course, you start paying.
All Right, Facebook. I Give Up.
It’s HARD to get fans on Facebook when you run a business like mine. Totally different from a clothing store or other product-based brand. And despite all the work I’ve put into my Facebook page, I’m unable to get even the small bit of traction I was getting before.
And the automatic posts to my Facebook page when I publish a new article? Forget about it. When Facebook detects a post made through a third party service like Dlvr.it or CoSchedule, it purposely limits the reach to a handful of my fans. Even if they want to see those posts.
I’m not getting rid of the Facebook page yet, but I’m simply spending less time and effort there. Instead, I’m hanging out on Twitter (my favorite) and Google+, where I know my followers will see my posts. And many of the small business owners I know are doing the same. Facebook simply does not provide enough incentive to make me keep trying. Me leaving doesn’t hurt Facebook whatsoever, but it sure does make me feel better about life.
How’s your Facebook fan page doing? Are you seeing the same decrease I am? Where are you hanging out these days?
At this point, the only reason I have built a Facebook page for any new projects is to get a link and MAYBE have some people find it out of sheer luck. Between all of the games and recommendations and reach limitations, it’s just not worth the effort. There are plenty of other ways to build a community, even if Facebook is the biggest network (for now). Just remember what happened to super-hip and popular MySpace…nothing lasts forever, which is why you even need to diversify your social networking.
Yep, very true. I’ve made fun of G+ for ages, but I actually like getting on there - so much less noise than FB, and I know I’m seeing everything (versus what they “think” I might want to see). It could change tomorrow, so I won’t get too attached, but for now it’s a much better option.
Oh, I am beyond pissed at FB right now for this. The local women’s day festival page I liked, so, um, I KNEW WHAT WAS GOING ON? Yah… I have to go look up the page manually, Facebook circa 2006/7. The local restaurants who tell me about which bands or specials they have on? Same thing! The blogs who post links to articles I might be interested in? Them too… and on and on. I have had several rants lately on this subject. Here’s the deal, Facebook. If I don’t want to see something, I delete it! If I want to see something, I click “Like” so that I see it!
The only partial saving grace is on that on my phone, everything that makes it to a feed, shows up. (The pages feed is incorporated.)
Exactly! You can turn on notifications for pages you’ve liked, which is what I have to do for the ones I really need to see. That way at least I know when they’ve posted something. It’s ridiculous.
I work with Facebook & Twitter all day (literally have sat down with their teams) and don’t get Facebook anymore. When I follow someone on Twitter or sign up for their emails, I have opted in to their content. I would like to see what they post, that’s why I opted in. Liking a page or friending someone should mean I see their content, but that’s not the case. Nobody wants to opt-in twice or rank their friendships…when someone is annoying, sure, I appreciate a good “mute” function without unfriending- but the math to figure out what I want to see is totally off.
Unless you have an ad budget, I don’t see Facebook being viable for anyone. The reason ads are profitable right now is because a good chunk of folks haven’t given up yet, but I think it may be coming.
I’m so glad you came by - was hoping to hear from you since this is what you do all day. I’m also glad to hear that I’m not off base in thinking it’s not worth the fight anymore. I’ve used FB for years and I hate to give up on it in a way, but I also have to treat my business like a business and do what makes the most sense. Sure, I can (and have) thrown money at Facebook, but when it’s not helping me in the areas that are most important, it just makes more sense to focus on the social networks that DO help me in those areas. Appreciate your comment!
I never have quite got the hang of facebook…..with all I have to do I can only spend a certain amount of time on each aspect of our website. So glad to hear that FB is one that I can just let slide. I get a few likes now and then but other than that I agree it seems like they are eventually going to kill themselves.
Happens all the time in business: come up with a good idea and then have to translate it into income. Suddenly their focus changes and they lose the very thing that made them popular in the first place. No doubt FB will be around for quite a while, but I wouldn’t count on them staying predominant.
By all accounts, Google Plus is the new Facebook, if I can put it that way.
I agree with you 100%, Gloria. With so many social networks, it’s impossible to keep up, and if Facebook wants to make it easier for me to drop them, I’ll gladly oblige. That leaves me more time to concentrate on more important things. G+ is really growing into something I love and I’m really interested to see where it goes in the next few years.
scarr
I quit Facebook in July 2013 and have migrated to G+ and Twitter (I don’t have a business but I follow a lot of blogs, news and tech writers). I prefer G+ over Twitter but I constantly peruse both multiple times a day because they let me see the things I WANT to see. I have read several posts basically saying Twitter and G+ is the best place for your content to be consumed. A lot of them have said they keep their fb page up but their “traffic” overwhelmingly comes from the other two mediums.
Same here - I get way more traffic from Twitter and G+ than I ever have from Facebook (except on this particular post, hilariously enough). And I prefer them because I’m the one who decides what I want to see, not some stupid algorithm. G+ has really surprised me; I hated it at first, but that’s where I go for all the news related to my niche.
Jackie
I agree with you, and am seeing the same thing. I’m spending most of my effort on Pinterest.
I’m kind of dipping my toes in re: Pinterest but I suck at it, so no good results yet. Then again, my content isn’t crafty or food-related so I guess I can’t expect too much. 😉
You are so true Andrea! After spending some money for building my social page on facebook (counts 800+ likes) i can only see that sharing a post brings me no more than 40-50 visitors (i thank God when that happens!). I use twitter too and it’s undoubtly better than facebook…
I like the fact that most people here prefer Google+ and i’m really thinking of this. Knowing that it’s pretty hard to build a community, is there any kind of add at Google+ to promote the Google+ profile page?
I’m still feeling my way around in the dark on G+ - I have a page for my business, but I also have my personal profile. A lot more people follow me personally versus the business page. I’ll be writing some more posts as I figure out what the heck I’m doing! 🙂
Dave
I’m completely behind you on this.
I actually cancelled my personal Facebook account a couple of months ago as I had had enough. It’s surprisingly easy to keep in contact with friends and family. Once everybody understood I wasn’t going to reply to their messages on Facebook they just started emailing. Took longer for some people though.
As for business, I removed everything apart from google+ from my blogs so new readers would have no choice about how to follow me.
…but although I prefer google+, I still believe that for the long term the email opt-in is the only secure option for building a community around a website. Otherwise we are just building communities on someone else’s land and will have to play by their rules, work when they say work, pay when they ask us to pay. Not worth it.
I’m slowly transitioning over… Experimenting with G+ comments here on the site has been interesting - some people love them, and others just pretend they aren’t there. I’m sure it will take time like anything else. The idea of leaving Facebook (my personal profile) is a little scary since I’d probably never see pics of my nieces and nephews without it. Honestly, though, I’m not sure I check it enough to make it worth keeping. My mom keeps me pretty well informed of anything going on with the family.
My email list is in pretty sad shape - I don’t like asking for email addresses since I don’t like giving mine out. I hate asking people to do something I’m not willing to do personally. Then again, I guess it just depends; I know some people who really like getting the emails.
Chrissy
Hey Andrea,
I found you via the Genesis WordPress Facebook group :). Thanks for this post because I am a relatively new comer to the WordPress Designer scene and I have a Facebook page but was wondering how I’m going to get likes. It seems the only thing business wise where Facebook is help( for now) are groups. I’ve made a lot of connections and gotten some traffic to my website from that but again I’m a newbie so have a ways to go. Otherwise good to know that I don’t have to spend too much energy on my Facebook page. Twitter and G+ are new waters for me so I will have to play around with that :). Thanks again
Hi Chrissy,
Getting Facebook likes is really difficult! It has taken me years to build up my measly 590+ fans, especially now that Facebook expects you to pay for ads if you want new followers. I kept a Facebook like box in my blog sidebar for a long time and that seemed to help, but I’ve taken it down now that I’m not concentrating my efforts on Facebook anymore.
Donesia Muhammad
Glad to know there are other people that are getting tired of not seeing their posts show up in newsfeeds. Or you see more posts if logged in on a pc then on your phone. Weird. I do love Twitter and pinterest is just fun. I have neglected Google plus because we just go with the business flow and run with the latest and greatest tool. I didn’t know about the issue with using 3rd party tools. That is a shame because we are all trying to save time by using 3rd party tools that help to post to multiple areas at once. Thanks for the article. This helps.