So, if you don't live under a rock, you know that Facebook went public. And since they're publicly traded now, they've gone all "Oh shit, we need to get some revenue!" and started holding posts hostage for page owners.
For those who aren't familiar with how this works, if you have a Facebook page (like my author page, https://www.facebook.com/sarahallanauthor) people can "like" your page and get access to your posts and updates. This is free, and great promotion. I also love it because I can interact on a one-on-one level with my "fans" (it feels so weird to call them that, but whatever), and it's a lot of fun. Please keep in mind that not everyone will see your page's posts on their newsfeed for whatever reason, be it that they simply ignore it, or it gets lost among the other posts, but on good days I reach 100+ of my 190 people's newsfeeds according to my FB stats (whether they see the post or not). And no, I have no freaking idea how this works. It could be magic fairies for all I know.
Anyway, Facebook decided to limit the number of people who can see your posts, which will force people to pay to have their posts reach a larger audience. Using my page as an example, if I make a post without promoting it, only 19 of the 190 people who have "liked" the page will get the post on their newsfeed at all. When most people don't see your post to begin with, why limit it to begin with?
Kind of a dick move if you ask me, Facebook...especially since not everyone sees my posts to begin with and your stock is tanking anyway. But I digress.
This isn't a big deal if you're Victoria's Secret, or Wendy's, or Walmart, or any other big company starting with a letter at the end of the alphabet...they have big money to drop on promotions like this. That's chump change for them. But it can hurt the little guy. I don't have the money to drop on something like this, even for big events like me promoting a book drop.
To help, make sure that if you've liked a page, make sure that the setting, "show in newsfeed" is checked off if you go under the "like" button. It's the default setting, but it's good to make sure it's not changed.
What else can we do to take advantage of Facebook promotion without having to take out a mortgage or sacrifice a firstborn? Any tried-and-true ideas? Wildcards? Anyone?
xoxo Sarah
I don't have a Facebook page, so I'm not sure what to tell you.
ReplyDeleteThat's okay. I'm sure we'll figure something out.
DeleteYeah, I saw this recently. I think they launched is what last week or so? I agree...a total dick move and an excellent argument to use Google + -- at least for the time being anyway.
ReplyDeleteYes, I think it was very recent. I'm not on Google+ (I believe it's kind of redundant when one has both FB and Twitter), but I'm giving it serious consideration. Grrrrr...
ReplyDeleteI didn't realize they'd done that. That does suck.
ReplyDeleteAnd you should get on Google+, I didn't really get into at first (and I still don't use it much), but I'm reaching a lot more people on Google than I do on FB. I know, because I get notifications when people add me to their feeds, which happens pretty frequently. Much, much more than I get requests on FB.
I will definitely consider it! When things calm down a bit here, I'll have some time to check it out and figure it out. :-D
DeleteI've seen this, pretty ridiculous if you ask me. Facebook can be nice to see what others are up, but it can also be a pain. I hope that your posts will still get seen!
ReplyDeleteI don't know how the whole Facebook thing works and I don't have the time to mess with it without sacrificing time for other things. There are too many media options and I'm not blown away by any of them. Well, I do like blogging an awful lot.
ReplyDeleteLee
Tossing It Out