Facebook admitted that autoplay video ads are coming to everyone’s feed. Last month, they confessed that teens really are losing interest in the social media network, and then ChurchMag’s Facebook widget decided to go cray-cray on us.
So what does this all mean?
It means that Facebook is terrible, and it’s time to leave. The party’s over, folks; let’s stick Zuck with the check.
Why I Hate Facebook
Facebook isn’t evil, but it is annoying. It’s code never functions the way it should — it’s a victim of its own success. Facebook seems to be too big to slow down and do things right. Consumed with the “new,” they’re constantly redesigning, redoing everything without perfecting anything.
Options, settings, security features never change. One could write a blog solely focused on keeping people up-to-date on Facebook’s changing/relocating of various settings and features. Why is this a big deal? Because I’ve “turned off” app notifications about a million times, and yet every few days some well-meaning fifty-year old whose new to the “interwebs” invites me to join them in four different, increasingly stupid, games.
Why is this Facebook’s fault? Because it just is.
The real issue here, aside from Facebook’s lack of consistent design and function, is Facebook’s lack of consistency in anything. Facebook Pages were all the rage for churches the past few years until we began to realize that Facebook was limiting the reach of a page’s posts unless money was spent to increase the posts’ reach (learn more about their latest change). Effectively, your organization’s posts are being held hostage, and your “fans” will only see them if you pay up. So much for Facebook being the social media platform for churches.
Let’s Quit! It’s Time to Diversify
I would love it if everyone in my church quit Facebook and joined me on Twitter, or we could all join Dustin Stout on Google+. And yet, that would still leave countless individuals on Facebook without the positive influence of an entire congregation.
So what’s the answer?
Diversification.
Churches should have never based all of their social media efforts on Facebook. Sure, I’d pick one to spend the majority of my time and effort on, but to only use one, to only market yourself on one platform is to base the success of you online presence on the success of a single company’s platform. It ties your fate to theirs, and it allows them to limit your reach online. Imagine a church the sunk all of their resources into connecting with people on MySpace. How do you think they would have felt in 2008 when Facebook stole their social media crown? I ask because you’ll probably feel the same way when Facebook cuts you off entirely or another, hitherto unknown, players overtakes the social network.
I’m going to start increasing my church’s presence on Twitter and will look to expanding to Google+ by the end of next year. We’ll never quit Facebook, but it does feel like Facebook has quit us. This is where walled-garden social networks like The City and other systems begin to make sense, despite the problems they pose.
What will your church do to overcome Facebook’s negative changes?
[via Engagdet | via Business2Community]
Josh Tandy says
Church Planter who has focused heavily on fb for event promotion, marketing, connecting, etc.
And we have seen some good returns from this, but like everyone the decline of fb concerns me. We have done some things with Twitter and Vimeo, but not much. Particularly with Twitter I think an org like a church struggles there more than an individual.
Would love to hear your developing strategies to diversify
Phil Schneider says
Hey, Josh. We are looking at diversification, and I particularly have an idea wherein one or two of our staff pastors manage our presence on the social media network closest to their heart. I love Twitter, but I agree—it’s tough for an organization to do well there.
But we’re gonna give it a go! Thanks for the comment!
Josh Tandy says
How do you keep things unified and on the same page if you have different staff people running the different mediums.
Like the idea just curious about this practical issue.
Phil Schneider says
Not sure, to be honest. Still teasing it all out. I think I’d set it up in three ways:
1) Share common content in platformed-specific ways—meaning that we’d have a pool of content that is share according to what make most sense for the social media network in question.
2) Develop a common vocabulary—I want to equip our pastors with an “official verbage” with which to describe what we do/why we do it. Something a little less cynical sounding that “talking points,” but that’s kind of the idea.
3) Trust team members to engage on the platform that they know the best—I mean, if #’s 1 & 2 are taken care of and if these are competent people, then they should be able to engage on their platform in a way that results in positive attention being brought to our message.
Just my first thoughts. Still trying to find some more practical steps.
Paul Alan Clifford (@PaulAlanClif) says
First, to Josh, I wrote the book on twitter for ministries (literally; it’s on Amazon), so feel free to ask away.
Secondly, I think FaceBook keeps shooting themselves in the foot. Autoplaying videos is just a start. They’ll add sound, not immediately, but soon. They keep chipping away at privacy and eventually the normies will notice what we geeks already have, only they won’t be able to fix the settings b/c Zuck and crew hide them in odd places.
While, right now Google+ is the likely successor, I don’t know that it will hit until they fix some things like messaging (it’s not easy to find past messages) and add a wysiwyg editor instead of relying on markup like *word* or _word_, which aren’t easy to remember for the non-geek.
FaceBook has momentum, but I think it will slow (like I said in today’s Tech Help for Churches show). Will they decline this year? Maybe. Will they start to decline soon? Yes, unless they start being more audience centric and less greedy in their money-making schemes.
Paul
Phil Schneider says
It sounds like a cop-op, but I think FB is either going to decline because, like you said, the mainstream user leaves or their secure their empire’s dominance by buying out or into so many other services that they literally become ubiquitous—The Internet, brought to you by Facebook.
Thoughts?
Eric Dye says
Great thoughts, Phil. All of this is SO fluid.
Phil Schneider says
Thanks, boss. 🙂