Facebook: pay to play

[TechLady]

Friendly reminder that Facebook is NOT here for any of us, and exists solely to make money off of us. Unless you are paying Facebook, they don't care about you.

"The social network last week officially launched its secondary news feed called Explore. The feed generally features posts from Facebook Pages users don't follow. News Feed, meanwhile, hosts posts from friends and Pages users do follow.

But that's not true for everyone. In six markets, Facebook has removed posts from Pages in the original News Feed and relegated them to another feed, Filip Struhárik, editor and social media manager at Denník N, wrote. That means Facebook's main feed is no longer a free playing field for publishers. Instead, it's a battlefield of "pay to play," where publishers have to pony up the dough to get back into the News Feed.

It's a stark change from how media outlets have grown with Facebook. Publishers like BuzzFeed's Tasty and NowThis grew via distributing viral posts and videos on News Feed, as Ziad Ramley, former social lead at Al Jazeera English, wrote. While companies had to employ social media managers, they could generally rely on them sharing content without paying to boost it.

That game could be over, creating a nightmare situation for publishers while Facebook hopes it leads to more advertising revenue.”

http://mashable.com/2017/10/23/facebook-explore-publisher-post-organic-reach-drop/#A1dXP92NTPqJ

 

[phaZed]

I wish Facebook would just go away.

 

[Markverhyden]

Those of us who have been around for a few years probably remember that AOL had their free stuff and their paid stuff. They made a ton of money off of games as they were one of the few online that offered that.

 

[GTP]

I wish Facebook would just go away.

It has for me. Closed my account over two years ago, so I just don't think about it anymore.

 

[phaZed]

It has for me. Closed my account over two years ago, so I just don't think about it anymore.

Ya, I never really did social networks. I hold a biz account that has virtually nothing on it, simply for SEO and web presence as a business. My wife is my Facebook account... she has to tell me when I get Birthday wishes on my FB account and such, lol.

 

[GTP]

My partner used to virtually live on Facebook!
Half an hour after getting up in the morning to about 2.00am every day stuck on Facebook with bouts of "The Bold & The Beautiful" online at 5.00pm everyday!
It used to drive me nuts when those stupid little games (Farmville, some aquarium thing and others) would suddenly stop working!
Her world would crash and all Hell would break loose till I got it working again!

 

[Bryce W]

I have been saying this for years. Its fine to use them to attract leads onto your own platforms, but dont make your platform Facebook. They can change rules and wipe you out overnight.


The funny thing is, I see marketers saying "OH YOU SHOULD FOCUS ON FACEBOOK GROUPS THEN!". It has the same problem, they can change their rules overnight and kill it.

I speak about it more here, recorded this in 2015: https://www.technibble.com/why-you-should-be-collecting-client-email-addresses/

TL : DR: Here is a key part. Its transcribed from speech, so the wording is different to a written article:

In early 2014, I think it was, Facebook changed their algorithm where only 10% of the people that you have that liked your page will actually see what you posted on it. The reason why they did this is everyone’s feeds were getting full of page posts instead of social stuff, like what their friends are doing. I understand why they did this, but it’s not good for business. To use myself as an example, at the time of recording this, Technibble’s Facebook page has 2,700-ish likes. These are technicians who want to know when I post articles and other relevant information that I occasionally send out. The problem is, only 270 people will actually see the message that I posted on their Facebook walls.

Always focus on building up an asset you control, like your email list. It doesn’t matter what social media is the in thing tomorrow. Social media platforms all rise and fall in popularity. One day they’re cool, the next day they’re not. Imagine if you had 1,000 of your customers as your MySpace friends. It’s pretty pointless to build up that asset. People will still be using email and third parties can change the rules at any time, just like Facebook did.

As I mentioned before, social media does have its place. It is a free channel for marketing, so you probably should have a page, but everything you do should be trying to get people into your sales funnel, pulling people away from Facebook and other networks, and on to your own website, your own mailing list, or getting them to give them to give you a call.

 

[Archon Prime]

Unless you are paying Facebook, they don't care about you.

Even if you are paying them, they still don't care.

 

[Moltuae]

Ya, I never really did social networks. I hold a biz account that has virtually nothing on it, simply for SEO and web presence as a business. My wife is my Facebook account... she has to tell me when I get Birthday wishes on my FB account and such, lol.

Same here. Never used it. But then I'm pretty unsociable.

My sister's the complete opposite. And my other half is never off the damn thing and insists on keeping me up to date .... "Your sister is Manchester drinking cocktails", she'll say. Or "your sister is in a restaurant in London. Look, here's a photo of what they're eating!" ..... FFS, I'm not interested! lol

I find it destroys face-to-face conversation too. When I see my sister now, there's nothing to talk about. It's like: "We went to a cocktail bar in Manchester last week" ..... Me: "Yeah, I know". Her: "And we went to London at the weekend" ... Me "Yeah, I know. Apparently we 'liked' your food"

 

[cypress]

I stopped using it after I found how bad the conversion rates were that @Bryce W mentioned. Doesn't make sense to put in all the work and get absolutely nothing out of it.

 

[coffee]

So, Facebook wants to charge you for news from people you do not follow? lol...

I wish Facebook would go away too. I dont use it either and I get calls from clients wanting to know how to do crap on that site. I tell them that I have no idea and they stare at me and say "but...but... your a computer tech arent you?".

 

[glricht]

... I tell them that I have no idea and they stare at me and say "but...but... your a computer tech arent you?"

To which I reply that I am indeed a computer tech, but that doesn't mean I know about every program/web site out there. It's the same as asking your auto mechanic how to program your car's sound system or GPS.

That being said, I find that I personally have to use Facebook as one of my son's and his family live far away and his wife is always taking pictures of the kids, things they're doing (etc.) and posting them on Facebook. For my wife and I, it's really the only way we can keep up with things other than the once-a-year visit.

 

[Umbra]

That being said, I find that I personally have to use Facebook as one of my son's and his family live far away and his wife is always taking pictures of the kids, things they're doing (etc.) and posting them on Facebook. For my wife and I, it's really the only way we can keep up with things other than the once-a-year visit.

Yes Facebook is good for that.

 

[trevm999]

I never post on my newsfeed anymore, just in private family groups (we use Facebook because it is familiar to our elders)

Also there are some friends where thats the only method I have to contact them. It kills me a little bit inside whenever I think of how much Facebook controls our digital communications these days!

 

[JoeTech]

I stopped using Facebook during the elections when my newsfeed was full of nothing but arguing. Plus I feel social media just kills any social interaction.

Unfortunately I have friends who don’t know there is life outside of Facebook and I have to keep it to stay in contact with them.

It is sad that Facebook is the internet to way too many people and they will never know what real journalism and news is like.

Just saw one of mu favorite websites post am article about how this recent news affects them.

http://thechive.com/2017/10/25/how-facebook-became-the-grinch-who-stole-christmas-10-photos/

 

[G8racingfool]

I'm probably one of the few 'proud' ones who can say that I've never had a Facebook account at any point in time. Which, being in the generation/age-range that I am is almost unheard of. Of course, I always grew up with the mindset that "if the cool kids are doing it, the cooler kids aren't", probably to my detriment at times but meh.

I have been tempted to set up a business page. But after finding out that you have to have a personal account to do so I immediately hopped back onto the Nope Train.

 

[GTP]

I tell them that I have no idea and they stare at me and say "but...but... your a computer tech arent you?".

Yeah, I get this too! And I would love to respond with - "Yes, but I also have a "real life" and not a life that's involved in staring at my mobile screen like a Zombie!"
But I hold my tongue!

 

[GTP]

Lets have a nice Family day out?
Ok, send me the details!

 

[TikiGiki]

A very successful realtor friend told me last week after throwing tens of thousands of dollars at Adwords & receiving no ROI, he dropped Google in favor of FB & IG (with no support) and has seen a huge upturn. Now that I spent many hours getting a proper landing page, I'm daunted with the myriad of options in both platforms and the face that I just installed a new Chrome popup blocker that blocks FB ads! Where to 'throw the money'?!

 

[ComputerRepairTech]

I like facebook, I mean I use it mostly for messenger but i occasionally read my feed (with f.b. purity of course to hide all the likes,shares,commented posts etc so that its all original content from friends only). I think maybe some of you are forgetting just how bad some of the methods of online communication were before facebook. Remember the trouble some of us went through just to have instant message logging? Many of the services didn't have cloud messaging so you send it and if the person didn't receive the message then its gone. I can search conversations i've had on facebook from many years ago quickly and I know that when I send a message and I see it there in the history that its there to be seen.....now they may not get a notification properly lol but at least the delivery is reliable.