Two years ago I argued that Facebook Is Not The Internet, Nor Should It Be.
The last few days of furor surrounding a very well written “Dear John” letter from Eat24 to Facebook (a beautiful piece of content marketing if I’ve ever seen one) has certainly proven that many are now awakening to this fact. I’m not going to say, “I told you so.” I’ve been wrong about social media before. I’ll be wrong again. Unfortunately, I don’t think you needed to be able to read tea leaves to get this one right. You just needed to take off the blinders that social media marketing gurus asked you to wear and stare at reality with open eyes.
“Over the past several months, Facebook has been reducing the organic reach of Pages, Victor Luckerson stated in his piece for Time entitled The Free-Marketing Gravy Train Is Over on Facebook. “Even if a person Likes a company or organization on the social network, they’re unlikely to naturally see that Page’s content in their News Feed.” The rumors of this have been flying around for some time, but it appears that this is now an irrefutable truth. Guess what? Facebook is not going to change, because it’s never been different.
“Facebook has always been that kind of network,” Mathew Ingram wrote yesterday. “It controls the signal-to-noise ratio, not you.” Understanding how Facebook’s Edgerank worked has always been a key to understanding how to reach your followers. This used to be true of Facebook Business Page. Getting people to comment and like your pseudo-business posts was a key to getting them to see the more hard hitting business stuff you really wanted them to see. This is still true for people who use their personal profile to generate business. Most of the open-ended questions you see people asking on Facebook are designed to build edgerank. You know the ones, “If you were a color, what color would you be?” Here’s a secret. They work.
Edgerank tactics don’t work on Facebook Pages anymore, and that has people pissed off.
Should they be? My friend Daniel Rothamel doesn’t think so. “Why get mad at a global corporation when it acts like a global corporation,” he asks? And my favorite comment on the Ingram’s GigaOm article is from DuncanPredicts, “If you use Facebook as a form of advertising, don’t be surprised if they want to charge you for that.” And nobody would be pissed if it were just that simple. People aren’t irrationally mad because Facebook is acting like a global corporation. [pq align=right]People are justifiably mad because Facebook is acting like an unethical global corporation.[/pq]
Let’s consider this piece of evidence from Veritasium: “The US Department of State spent $630,000 to acquire 2 million page likes and then realized only 2% were engaged. I thought I would demonstrate that the same thing is still happening now by creating Virtual Cat (http://www.facebook.com/MyVirtualCat). I was surprised to discover something worse – false likes are coming from everywhere, including Canada, the US, the UK, and Australia. So even those carefully targeting their campaigns are likely being duped into spending real money on fake followers. Then when they try to reach their followers they have to pay again.”
Watch this. It’s worth 9 minutes.
If ever there was a time to wake up and understand that owning your own content is critical, it is now. “Facebook knows that independence is critical to the future of the Internet, and has created tools to insure it’s a major player there,” John Battelle wrote two years ago. “My advice: use those tools inside your own presence on the web. But put your taproot into soil that you control, soil that is shared by the millions of other independent voices on the web. That insures you’ll be part of a free and open ecosystem where serendipity and opportunity can create wonderful new possibilities.”
If you were one of those people/companies that listened to the throng of experts telling you that you don’t need a website, it’s time to realize that was exceedingly bad advice to follow. The days of using Facebook pages as a free service to advertise your business are over. And if you think Facebook is going to continue to allow people to do the same on their personal profiles, I would suggest you are equally mistaken.
Jeff I loved this post! I have never been a fan of FB and did not buy “fake followers” tried creating my own business page….my take was most people who were on FB were not really engaging it reminded me more of an Old Bulletin Board….you pin something there and hope some one will read it and get back to you….so with that note what is your take of G+? I prefer that seems there is more interaction or am I wrong?Endre
Yes. You are wrong.
So let me see if I get this. Facebook is a publicly held company. Their priorities are: increase earnings; increase shareholder wealth; increase market share.
They own your content, you agreed to that as a condition of posting on Facebook.
They’re doing what they want to do with something they own to help them address their priorities, achieve their goals and keep their jobs. It’s different from what they used to do that pleased you. You’re pissed.
This is America. You vote with your wallets and your patronage. Stop bitching and start voting. When there are enough votes to make a difference, someone will listen and act. Their priorities don’t change, only the strategies to address them do.
I think that is what Eat24 did, Bill. They voted. They voted by deleting their FB page. I cast that FB page vote a long time ago. Eat24 did so in a very public way so as to take advantage of the press. It appears to have worked, both to garner attention for them and to bring attention to tactics FB is using that appear to be less than forthright.
Bill maybe you should re read Jeff’s post, I did not hear Jeff “bitching” instead he presented in a very logical and reasonable tone his point, my take is your tone is a bit harsh anyway just thinking out loud feel free do De-Friend me in just in case we are “friends on facebook”:))
Diversification is key in all things: investment, marketing, life … you name it. All eggs in one basket, no matter how pretty the basket, is never a good plan (but I’ll be the resulting omelet is tasty).
Jeff and Endre,
I made a mistake in saying “You’re pissed,” which conveyed that I was referring to Jeff. My mistake. My intention was to direct my comment to other folks that might be a bit naive about how most public companies go about their business (and I’m a former CEO of a public company). Jeff and Eat24 are, in my opinion, on the correct side of this discussion. I apologize for my clumsy wording and the misunderstanding that I created.
I love it when you use the Royal You, Bill. Get down with the King’s English. 😀
This is when I wish I could “like” a comment here with one click. 🙂
Melissa,
I’m down, I’m down. I’m so down that down is starting to feel like up.
As a kid, we made house rules for certain games just to make it more interesting. I think it was good preparation for business life as change is the only constant.
Business Rule #6: If you are #1 in your industry, it’s better to act, think, and innovate as if you are #2.
off topic but…. Mike we used to play a version of monopoly where we dealt all the properties out before the first die was rolled… the game turned into one of sales and negotiation… lots more fun…
To continue the hijack: My family’s house rules for Monopoly involve having a reason when you land on “go to jail.” We call the game Mafiapoly. The game is brutish and short, but much more fun this way. Negotiation doesn’t even begin to describe it. 😉
Feel free to come to my house for your conversations any time you like.
Only one or two percent of your friends will see it anyway. 😀
At best. 🙂
The best one or two percent, yes.
Apparently the NEW secret to Facebook success is puppies and ice cream.
I saw something in Dan Zarrella’s “The Science of Marketing” saying of all the pages they have access to data from, the pages that had puppies and ice cream in them still had decent levels of engagement and reach.
I recently bought a puppy to test that theory. Pretty sure he’s correct. That damn dog gets more likes and comments than anything I’ve ever posted (granted it IS on my personal profile), plus she’s proven to be an excellent conversation starter when I meet face to face.
So there you have it folks. Get puppies and eat ice cream and you’ll make millions off of Facebook! 😉
So based on this intel, the perfect business for a Facebook page would be combination pet rescue/ice cream parlor. Brilliant!
And touching the breast of an unsuspecting successful hot wife with horses. #dropthemic
It was actually the look on your face that was priceless. 🙂
Well, you made some points for me to understand, ….
Why Facebook limits my likes to 5000. I maxed that out some time ago, and really WOULD like to be inundated with posts feeding my extremely diverse and eclectic nature. I LOVE the stimulation, and oddities. I AM engaged as much as possible. And I do hoard information and links. (Yes I am also ADHD ;0))
So the greedy ones, both consultants and Facebook itself, have ruined my ability to get and share the information I love with people of like interests..
I am losing faith in this corrupt world! :0(