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I have been mulling over this idea of whether I should keep the 78P Facebook Page or not for quite some time now and I decided to settle it once and for all with my friend Dustin Stout from dustn.tv. He has his own opinions on Facebook and recently went through the process of deleting his page, so I wanted to get some insight from him on why he did it and if I should too.
While the video tells of what ended up happening, the article below shares why I came to this decision.
- It Starts With A Commitment
In July of 2010, Mark Zuckerberg is quoted as saying to Diane Sawyer, “This is our commitment to users and the people who use our service, is that Facebook’s a free service. It’s free now. It will always be free. We make money through having advertisements and things like that.” [ABC News] When I heard that, I actually sang the praises of Facebook, dove head first into the service to learn the API, setup my own custom pages, and even invest some advertising money because I believed in the service. I was officially a Facebook fanboy. - Frustrating Privacy Failures
In the last three years, Facebook has had three major, intentional privacy issues that have caused many to jump ship due to losing data. In 2009, they reset their privacy settings without warning and all of a sudden anyone could see your information, even if you told Facebook initially you didn’t want to. Facebook’s intent? To make data open. The second issue happened quickly after when they switched all information to friends only so that third party applications could access their data without asking the users. Finally, Facebook was caught red handed in 2010 giving data away to companies for money… [Nowsourcing.com] - The Environment Has Gone Stale
While Facebook has over a billion users, the target audience for the network really feels more like old friends than new opportunities. We want to use the network to engage with people but even with constant engagement, the traffic easily sat behind all other networks we were on even though I was giving twice as much time to it. Facebook has made many changes to it that “give the perception of innovation” but a cosmetic redesign does nothing for the ROI. - Bait and Switch
In 2012, Facebook went public and Mark’s initial promise to not worry about making the service free left his hands as the stock plummeted and investors screamed for a monetization that would sustain the network. I felt betrayed and even going so far as to question Mark’s integrity because I had invested so much into this network. I am not against the need to make money, I get that workers and stock holders need to get paid and a business strategy can change, but to make us pay for posts to get seen and completely change the process made it feel personal because we love this resource for you guys. A great tweet discussion with Anita Hovey showed me that my argument is truly more than a bait-and-switch, but this simple act is what broke the camel’s back and led me to end it with Facebook.
We have done what some people would say is reckless and stupid but in all honesty, was the right move for us: we deleted our Facebook page. What do you think, should we restore it before it is permanently gone or do you agree with this move?
Herb Halstead says
I think it’s the right choice if it it works for you faith community. It wouldn’t be wise, in my context, to delete our FB page, but that’s my context, not yours.
seventy8Productions says
Agreed. I do not thing that many youth groups should consider this as it is one of only two direct ways to connect with students. But for our blogging context and youth leaders, bloggers, and other tech Christians who are on other networks, we need to put our focus elsewhere.
Great comment!
Sele Mitchell says
I understand how you feel. I don’t think my Facebook page engages many people however, I do know that there are many of my readers who are a little less tech savvy that use my Facebook page in place of my RSS feed. In other words, they are able to see when I post and click through on those posts that grab their attention. Much in the same way that I use Google Reader.
To that end, I will continue mine, but I will not pay to be noticed or read there, it just doesn’t seem to be worth it for me.
Twitter seems to be much more engaging and my click through rate on Twitter is much higher than Facebook.
seventy8Productions says
Unlike Google Reader, Facebook’s stream does not guarentee that they will read it and for the one or two people that were solely engaged on Facebook, they may be able to connect elsewhere or simply come to our site regularly if they find what I post to be good.
Sele Mitchell says
I agree 100%, I am sure that the posts do get lost in the shuffle of all the other minutia that is posted on Facebook. You hit on the key point, if they find what you write to be good, they will continue to visit.
Jason Wiser says
Do you still hold to the same argument about feed with the discontinuation of Google Reader? I know there are other readers out there, and that the true RSS die ahrds will continue to follow your feed, but will FB have a small advantage here now?
seventy8Productions says
Small advantage how?
Tim Young says
Hey Jeremy, interesting interview! I have been on the fence with this and getting closer to dumping my FB page. I share some of the same opinions and experiences with my FB page as you and Dustin.
seventy8Productions says
It is interesting what can be your breaking point and for me it was the bait-and-switch (though that is by no means the only one)
Tre Lawrence says
I’m close.
My FB page has been a desert recently. I have some treasured friends and family on there that I would love to keep connected with, but for all intents and purposes, I have just about gravitated away from it.
For me, there is just so much noise. As a youth pastor, it was invaluable, but I found it eventually became a chore.
G+ fits my needs a bit more at this point.
seventy8Productions says
And there is no reason that you cannot share a favorite post of the week on to your own personal page for those people to see. Just because you do not have a page does not mean no Facebook traffic.