The good ol’days of creating a FB page, building likes, and driving traffic via your page are over.
Facebook is killing social media.
FB page owners have seen a dramatic drop in reach % recently. Brands, influential figures, affiliates, and small business publishers alike are being affected. It’s a site wide change. In Facebooks continual attempts to keep it’s stock price from plummeting they’re making the move to a “promoted posts” model.
In short Facebook wants you to pay anywhere from $5 to $50 to increase how many of your fans see your posts.
Instead of allowing the USER to decide which posts they want to see in their news feed – Facebook has clenched onto the reigns of control in order to drive new revenue. Businesses that were once flourishing via their FB channel are now seeing a fraction of the reach % via the news feed. Of course users can always go directly to the FB page to view posts. What we’re discussing here are the organic views from the news feed.
It’s a drastic change.
Granted there was never a contract put in place that promised free reach to the fans you worked so hard to build. But there’s a bit of a “bait and switch” feel that’s got business page creators heated.
In a recent article in the Wall Street Journal Lindsay Gonzales, a small business owner and FB page user had this to say
“It’s a waste of money because even if you pay they still regulate who sees your posts,” she says, adding that her business, Making Memories Photography, has about 1,400 Facebook fans.
source
Are promoted posts worth it?
Well that’s tough to say. There are a lot of factors to analyze like your average conversion rate on FB click thrus and average commission/sale earned per conversion. Figuring that out will help you get a feel for whether or not paying for reach is feasable.
One thing’s for sure though – Facebook is changing the rules of the game without much regard for whom it hurts. Will it work? Right now it seems as though it is. Only time will tell. If that kind of thing works for Google, why not Facebook?
This is why Facebook can %^#@ off.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but the Promoted posts feature has absolutely nothing to do with what people see on a Fan page normally. Using the new feature (and ponying up the money for it) creates a “Sponsored” post, not unlike the ads we already see in the sidebar. Your normal posts are still seen just like they always were.
It’s not working the same it always has been. Reach #’s are dramatically reduced since they’ve implemented the promoted posts feature.
Seems like a good idea. I think the guy Dustin skewed what is really happening here. Think about it for a sec. Google has sponsored links on top of their search results. It doesn’t stop you from “searching”. If I had 1500 fans and wanted to really promote something and pay for a post to be on top of everything for a week that’ll be worth it!! This is a very smart move.. I laugh at some of the response to this. They act like they have to pay to SEE the posts lol..
Well I can speak from experience. Typically 1200 or so would see the daily post (before promote posts went live). Now we are averaging 150 – 250 people reached on a daily post. That means 2% of people who “liked” the page actually see the content. Who’s the one skewing things now? I say it’s FB.
I’m not saying Facebook is the almighty. I just like the idea is all. I think they messed up with the whole timeline thing. I guess it’s not the same as before, now they have the pressure/responsibility to make money for their shareholders. You act like you lost a source of traffic and are just blaming facebook’s new concept. I just call it like I see it. Cheers.
This article is an accurate.
I can still see a lot of post from big fanpage and noticed thousands of likes and shares.
Yes you’ll still be able to see some page’s posts in your news feed. The point I’m trying to make here is that the number of posts you see has been dramatically REDUCED, not completely removed.