Remember when you and your Facebook friends were actually able to interact with one another on walls and news feeds and you could see what they were up to and they could see what you were up to and we all talked about ourselves in the third person?
Ah, the good ol’ days.
You might’ve noticed some changes to ye olde Facebook lately. Namely, the addition of “sponsored” content. Or maybe you haven’t noticed it yet. So consider this your notice.
Facebook wants your money.
It started quietly enough, really, and then the slope of sponsorship got slippery.
At first there were ads in the sidebar. They were innocuous and tailored to the things you’d added to your interests or pages you liked. Or things your friends had liked that you might like too, because hey, you’re friends. They were easy enough to ignore (thanks to being inundated all the time with advertising) or block with a third-party ad-blocking program.
But now?
Now these posts are in your news feed, taking over your timeline. They’re even trying to take over your wallet.
You may have heard the words “Edgerank” and “algorithm” lately. “Algorithm” means “math” which means I only sort of understand that part of it and there’s about a snowball’s chance in Hell I’m ever going to understand it anyway because numbers. But in words, what it means is:
The content you’ve OPTED IN to receiving is not being shown to you because of Facebook’s “math.”
I’ll say it again: Facebook isn’t showing you what you’ve asked to see. And it isn’t sharing what we’re asking to share.
On the blogging end of things, Not Super…Just Mom has 319 “likers” on its Facebook page.
(Oh, yes, I have one of those. You can like it, too, if you want, though you may soon be inclined to ask “what’s the point”?)
Of the 319 people who have CHOSEN, willingly, to like the page because they want to see what’s posted there, on any given update, at most only about 100 to 120 people see it. That number is usually around 60.
At most, 1/3 of the people who like my page can see what I’m sharing there. Unless I want to pay money to have more of the 319 people see it. Not all of you. Just more of you.
Facebook in a viral sense isn’t this blog’s bread and butter, so as a brand, this doesn’t affect my “reach” TOO much. In general, my writings are for me and the repeat customers who read to know my story. I tend not to write things that are “share-able,” I guess.
But you, the reader/liker/Facebook user who has opted in to seeing my mundane ramblings in your news feed? You may not be seeing them. In fact, I am not even seeing all of them.
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That’s right. The Facebook updates for this blog are not showing in my personal news feed. And believe me, I’m interested in and subscribed to and have opted to see my blog’s posts in my news feed. And yet I’m not seeing them.
The fact that you’re not seeing what you’ve specifically asked to see should make you cranky.
As a “brand,” I understand that I’m technically using Facebook to advertise and as such, they are within their rights to ask me to pay for said advertising. I probably won’t pay for it because 1) I don’t want to feel like I’m buying eyes and 2) I’m sort of cheap. On the brand end of things, this is your–the subscribers–battle to fight. Because you’re pawns in the sponsorship game right now.
Rage against the machine, y’all. LIKE the posts that you do see so that you’ll see them more often. Share posts that you love by writers that you love. Get grumpy about this if you want to see the things you want to see.
But things aren’t just screwed for the little brands on Facebook.
On the personal end, Facebook has decided that only some of your updates are important enough to be seen by everyone.
Unless, that is, you want to pay up. See?
In addition to “allowing” brands to promote their posts, you’re now able to promote your personal status updates as well.
Facebook is making personal use of its services a business enterprise. In order to share that post with Grandma? Fork over the dough.
For the low, low price of $7, you can make certain that all of your updates bout poop, sports, what you ate for dinner, politics, random, cryptic song lyrics, and how you’re a special snowflake are seen by everyone instead of just…all your friends? The friends Facebook has decided are worthy enough to see them? The random 100 people of the day as decided by some funny “math”?
Wait, what?
If I’m friends with these people and both of us had to approve said Facebook friendship, why should Facebook get the say in disallowing our mutual sharing of inanity?
(Note: I’m not speaking here of being able to see the “Sally Sue liked Schnitzel Pies” things. Those are just bad graffiti tags on a highway underpass that junk up the news feed. And also, speaking from personal experience, they cause more trouble than they’re worth.)
Facebook is playing parent and censoring the information you’re presented based on who ponies up the pennies.
I know Mark Z. might need to make a buck since his stocks are in the toilet, but when you have the #1 most highly trafficked website in the WORLD, is this the way to go about it?
What do you think about the sponsored content on Facebook? Is it ruining your user experience?
It’s just ridiculous.
Totally.
Mark is eating his “we will never make you pay to Use Facebook” words. Because now, you can use it for free, but you have to pay to make it the experience you were getting before. And why? I mean, really I think he’d make more money if he said “every body pays ten bucks A YEAR”. There are over a billion FB accounts, and even though its come to light about a million of those are fake. He would make so much more if he charged a SUPER LOW fee yearly. And maybe then those 10 year olds kids that belong to friends of mine would stop sending me friend requests. No money, no Facebook.
I agree. I can’t say I’d pay, but I’d appreciate a paid subscription service more than what we’ve got going on right now.
I think this is ridiculous but I do wonder about the numbers. I’ve easily hidden 50% of the blog pages I liked at one point or another. And some people don’t log in to facebook everyday. And people follow lots of things. So, lets say I was friends with 200 people and liked 100 pages. I choose to scroll though about 30 things before I get bored of scrolling. So in theory, a big part of the number could be things that were never loaded on timelines because people never got to them.
I’m not defending facebook (well, technically I am), but I could see how some of the low number is organic and possible, especially because I don’t think we ever got that same number for stats before they implemented sponsored posts. I think a part of it is scare tactics. (This is just re sponsored posts, I’ve heard sponsored likes actually do work)
Some of it probably IS organic, like people just not scrolling through the feed or not being online at the right time or whatever. But views and interactions HAVE dropped, at least for me. It just feels kind of like a slap in the face to the little people of Facebook who maybe can’t afford to pay for their posts to show up in everyone’s news feeds.
(I mean sponsored posts on facebook, not that YOUR post is ridiculous)
Well, you already know how stabby the whole thing makes me.
Dumb. Just plain dumb.
I have a Facebook page for my Etsy shop with over 1900 fans. All these new changes means that only a few of my fans actually see my posts and my business has been significantly hurt. Which sucks because my boutique is my job and I need to make money from it to do silly things like diapers, and food, and medicine. Just to let you all know though, if you like or comment on business FB pages, it will help increase their traffic! Help those WAHM’s out and hit like every once in a while when a post from one actually hits your newsfeed.
Gah. I’m sorry to hear that. Really. THIS is the kind of situation where this sponsored posts business just sucks.
And yes! Comment, comment, comment! Like posts!! Share them!
I got a bloggie award, and so I’m passing it on to you! I’m sure you probably don’t share these kinds of things on your site, but I wanted to let you know I gave you a nod on mine.
((hugz))
Happy blogging!
Thanks for the nod! 🙂
I use Facebook for “keeping up” with friends & old classmates — heck, I think I have a Daddy Runs a Lot page, but I don’t even think I have my new posts (what that they were) posted there anymore.
I, honestly, don’t ever see myself paying to promote a post. But I also don’t ever see anyone I’m “friends” with paying to promote a post, either . . . I subscribe, by txt, to the status updates from those that I feel that I “need” to keep up with, so the actual “Facebook experience” is, kind-of, lost on me. I just don’t see this actually affecting me.
I don’t see me ever paying to promote a post either, unless it was something I was really, really passionate about and was a social good post or something. Then maybe I’d do it.
And if you’re not using Facebook as a way to grow your blog’s audience, then no, it’s not going to have a huge effect. And anyone who would pay to promote their personal posts/pictures of dinner/attention whoring should maybe have their egos checked, you know?
I am very unhappy that Facebook has made these changes. I am just growing by blog, and my family and friends “liked” my blog’s facebook page so that they could receive notices when I posted something new. My numbers have dropped significantly and I don’t even get notices every time I post something on the page. I agree that they should be able to make money with advertising, so the side bar never bothered me. But my page is not advertising to strangers in hopes of pulling in business. These people actively chose to like my page and get posts from me. Aargh!
It’s really the fact that people have opted in to my content and now may not be seeing it because of Facebook’s math that’s the most troublesome to me. If someone chooses to see something, let them see it without having to jump through hoops.
You know facebook is going to try to get money from you anyway they can
. It is so sad that the fun ole days of just checking facebook to keep up with friends since highscool and college has become ” big brother”, censor, and give me give me money!!
::sigh:: The good ol’ days.
Hey chickees! On the german facebook version there is a solution for that problem! And I just checked – it works in the US version as well: Just ask your readers to add your site to their “Interest List”: – click on the cog next to “Message” and choose “Add to interest list” and you will still see all the updates straight on your wall!
I’ve seen this advice floating around a good bit, and if it works, that’s awesome. The larger issue, at least to me, is that people shouldn’t HAVE to do anything extra to see a page’s updates, you know? You liked it, you see it. It should be that simple.
Great post. My favorite line: “Rage against the machine, y’all. LIKE the posts that you do see so that you’ll see them more often. Share posts that you love by writers that you love.” Sharing with my blogging group…
I wrote my own little letter to Mark about his issue, too: http://everydayepistle.com/2012/10/12/dear-mr-zuckerberg-the-customer-is-always-right/
Loved your post and said as much over there! It’s really just…this sucks, you know?
Thanks for sharing.
loved this! linked up on my post today: http://www.masteringmommybrain.com/nterest-groups-and-subscribing-can-you-see-mmb/