Yesterday, one of my blogging inspirations, John Saddington, shared a very eye-openning post about the roll of Facebook Pages and their reach. In the post, he stated:
You see, the fact is that Facebook limits the distribution of your content on your fan page unless you pay them money to distribute it fully to your fans
I knew that I was getting limited posts, but on purpose? Maybe it was an accident, maybe that is just the nature of how Facebook works, or maybe Facebook is actually being evil. I decided to do a bit of the leg work and hated what I found.
- Facebook Is Promoting Sponsored Posts This in and of itself is not necessarily an issue. One vantage point that Facebook puts out there is that people can pay for a post and guarantee that people will see your post no matter if they check it hours or days later because it keeps it on the top of the news feed. That being said, when people asked Facebook if the reach was purposely broken to encourage sponsored posts, they responded with this:
If “brands, agencies and artists” want to reach all the people who’ve signed up for status-updates, they have to pay for “sponsored posts.” [HT BoingBoing]
- Forcing Sponsored Posts But maybe this is just a coincidence that is being pushed out of context? Nope. Facebook Ad Project Manager, Gokul Rajaram is quoted in an interview as saying:
In order to reach the remaining 80 to 85 percent, sponsoring posts is important. [HT ad exchanger]
- Facebook Is Being Evil
“The reason Facebook’s promoted user posts are an affront is because the average user’s News Feed is not chronological. It is determined by an algorithm called EdgeRank… what economists call artificial scarcity: rigging the supply of something to create inflated demand.” [HT Mashable]
- Majority of People Will Not Sponsor Mashable did a poll on if people would use the sponsored posts to promote something personal like a getting a new job or wedding photos. At the time of this article, more than 90% of users said no.
The STRONG perception right now is that Facebook is being evil and taking advantage of its position which could hurt it in the end. If done right, other social networks could capitalize on this brief moment of opportunity to increase their active communities.
So what does this mean for seventy8 Productions on social media? As Dustin Stout exclaimed “One more reason to invest more into my Google+ pages.” We will not be abandoning Facebook Pages anytime soon, but we will be shifting our focuses GREATLY to Google+. Didn’t know we were on G+? Add us to your circles and +1 us!
Paul Jolicoeur says
Thanks for the insight. Social media is here to stay, but there will be a time when Facebook is no longer the popular avenue. Hopefully they don’t bring this upon them selves sooner than the natural movement.
seventy8Productions says
Agreed and unfortunate…
kolby milton says
great post! greed will kill this company.
seventy8Productions says
Yet another reason that youth groups simply must not make Facebook their only online presence!
kolby milton says
I agree!
Rachel Blom says
I agree, Facebook is really pushing the borders of what people will accept. There was already a revolt against the timeline, then some other privacy issues and now this. They are indeed using their monopoly position in a way that makes many people uncomfortable, so I do wonder how long it will take before people get fed up and drop Facebook. It’s not like there are no alternatives…
seventy8Productions says
Yup. Google+ and Twitter have the opportunities to capitalize. We will see what happens. Personally, I think the average joe stays, but the companies leave. At least for now.