Kyle, Why Are We Still Focusing on Facebook?
Let me ask Kyle, “Why are we still focusing on Facebook for business?”
For the SAC challenge this month, Kyle stated that we should all be focusing on sharing our blog posts on Facebook as his #1 recommended platform for driving greater organic engagement to our websites representing our new online businesses.
Building a business should be our #1 priority, right?
What Mark Zuckerberg Stated Publicly
Mark Zuckerberg CEO of Facebook has publicly stated that Facebook is now gone back to prioritizing personal interactions and placing LESS emphasis on Business Pages.
That means Facebook is now focusing more on "personal interactions" and LESS to help small businesses like ours.
This should come as no surprise.
It is widely known this change in philosophy from the top was largely a reactionary response due to the fallout and public disgraces Facebook suffered from the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other scandals last year.
I wrote a post back then here and reported on the scandal.
Facebook on the Hotseat
First Business Pages, Now Its Groups
Apparently the “hurt” on small business owners has now carried over into Facebook Groups.
Yesterday, Facebook announced that all Chats in Facebook Groups will be archived (read only) and in the future all members in Groups can only start new chats with people that they 'friend'.
A member here just blogged on WA about how It was announced today that Chat services in Facebook Groups will be cut off on August 22, 2019 (Thursday)…giving all Group Members only 2 Days Notice!
This WA member (Alancurtis) stated, “…..If you are a marketer in the MLM world this will likely have a huge (negative) impact as Groups are the favorite place for recruitment and team building and the Chat was often used to link and communicate with team members!”
One member who commented on Alan’s post stated he runs a group of 2600+ members, and they all buy his products. He is friends with only 12 of those members.
Facebook Curtails Chat in Groups
Our own excellent member Alenka also wrote a GREAT post about how Facebook has recently implemented a plethora of additional changes to stifle growing your own Facebook Group:
New FB Group Rules you Need to Know About
In her post, Alenka outlines several of the new engagement rules Facebook is enforcing in Groups. One of them that has stood out is the last one where she summarizes:
“Don’t share your posts from your Business Page to your Personal Profile. That is now against Terms of Service and can get you banned.”
Don’t Be Surprised: Facebook is Hurting Small Entrepreneurs
All of this should come as no surprise to anyone.
The removal of Chats in Facebook Groups and the new implemented rule changes as outlined by Alenka appears to be all part of Facebook’s broader ongoing initiative that is hurting small entrepreneurs and marketers like us.
Zuckerberg said it publicly himself.
Put this all together. Facebook has stated they are now focusing back to more "personal interactions" and this was all due to the Cambridge Analytica scandal and other scandals last year. That now includes within Facebook Groups.
NOW in order to Chat via Messenger within a Group you need to first “Friend” that Group member?
It all makes perfect sense.
Like it or not, the fact is that as of Aug 22 you can only Chat with those that you have "friended" clearly shows FB is now prioritizing personal interaction.
And doesn’t care about the small business entrepreneur or marketer like us. Facebook is too concerned (scared) about their public image and staying out of trouble with the FCC.
Regardless that Facebook is still the largest social media platform by far, Facebook is simply not as good for small businesses as I used to be.
So I ask Kyle again, “Why are we still focusing on Facebook?”
My Personal Take
What if I don’t want to be “friends” with my potential new customers?
What if I personally want to “keep my distance?”
But still want to establish a Client-Vendor relationship?
If this is the case, I can’t use Facebook.
Personally, that is why I’ve long done away with placing my own emphasis on Facebook (also had a bad experience like many others), and now engage in more fruitful platforms for business like LinkedIn.
As a small business, it is a FACT you are going to get LESS engagement on your Business Page in Facebook these days than you used to. Period.
Unless you spend money daily on Facebook ads. That’s the only way.
But not everyone wants to spend daily money on Facebook ads, or has the money invest.
Also, if I am going to pay for ads, I would much rather set a daily budget for Google Smart Campaigns than for Facebook ads these days.
I give you details about Google Smart Campaigns in my blog post here.
In closing, this is why I wrote a recent post which was so well-received.
Start Posting Blogs on LinkedIn
The reaction to my post clearly demonstrates that people are “fed up with Facebook.”
That includes myself,
However, for the SAC Challenge, I am doing my Facebook homework for Kyle anyway and posting on Facebook.
Simply to “check off the box.”
But also doing my own thing.
I know many of you “feel me” out there.
What are your thoughts?
Cheers,
Kaju
Recent Comments
198
I have many who are still using their groups, yet most are also into other platforms in social and in search engines as well. I started on computers back when Netscape and Safari were tops in search engines, then the mighty alphabet came along. So changes happen no matter how big, and either adjust or end up losing the market. IBM found that out also in the 90's.
Pinterest and YouTube are very beneficial in promoting niches and certainly beating my Facebook traffic.
Change is an eventuality which we in business encounter daily, and our strategy is to recognize and have various plans to either embrace the changes or move on to different solutions.
Good post overall.
Take care,
Bill
Yep, I'd go with Instagram Pinterest and LinkedIn myself.
Change is inevitable of course. That's also the same reason why WA needs to change and update their social media recommendation in the SAC, Bill.
And take Facebook out of the equation for business.
Kaju
Life in the business world. It requires constant change and adapting.
Those unwilling to change are going to get left behind.
And then, sometimes with the speed of change in the online world, we have to be understanding that it make time to update training materials.
This is perfect example of why I like dates on blog posts and news articles. It allows me to see when a recommendation was given so that I can determine if if it is still relevant.
Yep, Sondra. And that's the trouble with the SAC, it's dated to 2018. It should have been updated to not focus on Facebook for business. They changed their model back to person interactions.
The “heart” of FB has always been social, they build an empire collecting social data. Then businesses adopt it because it is an easy way to aggregate groups of people. Therefore, FB does not see their “vision” to be helping entrepreneurs, so not surprising to see changes that disadvantaged entrepreneurs in favor of keeping social engagement top priority.
Thanks Stanley, I know that, but after 2012 there was a paradigm shift with Facebook. They focused on making tons of ad money from small businesses, and this helped both small businesses entrepreneurs and Facebook.
Since the scandals of last year, Facebook has gone back to their original paradigm, not because they wanted to, but they had to mitigate the negative publicity.
Sad but true. Wouldn't it be great if there was a good alternative to Facebook. LinkedIn is great but it isn't Facebook and doesn't reach nearly as many potential customers. I use a ton of social media outlets, not just Facebook. I think that is the smart way to get around this issue.
As far as SAC goes, I do the tasks and learn what I can from them. So far, I haven't learned anything new.
I do the same Chender, I do the SAC tasks as get whatever I can from them. But truth be told, the SAC is dated, and needs more serious updating.
Its smart to use several social media channels I agree:)
Interesting post. I couldn't post on Facebook even if I tried. Facebook has banned my Bootcamp site sometime ago and considers any content I post with that url to be against their terms and conditions. Even if I use Bit.ly or any other shortner to "hide" the url. This is mostly likely due to me posing in Facebooks groups a while back. So, I have been using Linked In as well as Flipboard in addition to Twitter.
Good going Ramr, yeah they will ban you out of Groups at the "drop of a hat." And with these recent chages I've mentioned, its only getting worse.
I can't comment on FB cuz mom said if I couldn't say something nice, not to say anything at all.
It is indeed a worrying trend with Facebook. Personally I think that it will not be long before small business owners start moving away from Facebook altogether and that will be the beginning of the end for the platform.
Things come and go in this online world. Once you get so big that you forget about the people that got you to where you are, you are on the slippery slope.
I wonder who will be the next Mark Zuckerberg and what the next Facebook will be!!??
Facebook is virtually useless now for small business owners Jon. They have gone back to the Personal model out of fear that they would get deeper in trouble with the FCC and to stem the further onslaught of negative publicity.
You're right its a shame, but we have to move on. And they should stop recommending to use Facebook for business in the SAC training.
Kaju
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It has been a downhill struggle on Facebook ... most interactions have been curtailed ... posts are not being seen by more than a few people (even with thousands of "friends") I am finding more and more that platforms like Facebook have no real long-term vision .. they are constantly changing things, to the point the system is broken and unmanageable, and will never recover. In my opinion, Facebook is no longer worth the effort for marketing a business (Remember it was not long ago they were encouraging business use of Groups!)
Allan, Zuckerberg publicly admitted this himself. Why should we be surprised. The system is broken, and now virtually useless for small entrepreneurs who want to garner greater organic engagement.
Moreover, why then is WA still recommending #1 to use Facebook as the go-to social media platform for business? The SAC needs some serious updating!
Thanks for comment and bringing that important Group Chat issue to light:)
Kaju