Am I the MEAT on the Facebook Bone?
Facebook has officially started to dig their own grave!
They are now trying to charge businesses to SHOW their posts to people that have already liked them. I am not sure the logic behind this, but don't people like you for a reason....because they want to see the things you have to say and your activity.
Welcome EDGERANK...
Facebook has recently revealed the true reach metrics (percentages) right within your storyline on business pages. Up until now you were in the dark as to exactly what sort of limited results the EdgeRank algorithm was having on your reach within the news feed.EdgeRank is Facebook’s internal algorithm that determines what makes it to the News Feed by assigning a value to every story...I mean seriously if all the activity from every friend was put onto the news feed, then it would be an overwhelming experience.
This value is based on affinity, weight and time. Affinity is the relationship between the user and the page or friend that created an item. Weight is affected by the type of story, for instance, whether it is a photo upload or a comment on another person’s status.
Facebook now tells you what percentage reach you are getting. Take a look at my some of my recent posts:
Average Example
Highest Reach Example
It is quite discouraging now that the data is there as to how little reach you have as a business. An average post will lead to around 10% exposure (to the people that like you) and on the high end you will be reaching around 18% based on my data.
Facebook knows very well your exposure is limited and has aimed to monetize this through the new “Promote” feature on business pages. Now for $5, $10 or sometimes $15 you can gain additional exposure to your website.
This is OK, however should a business have to pay to connect with people that are already essentially “friending” their service and conversely, should the “users” within the system be inundated with promotions just because someone has paid for them.
First there were ads, now there are more ads. Are the users going to have to pay to remove these posts soon?
Why Facebook Might Fail and Google Won’t!
Google has it right.
Facebook HAD it right.
Google has remained so successful over the years because their focus has remained on usability over profitability. Search engines have come and gone and tried to fight for some of Google’s users, but Google was able to fend them off.
The reason? Their ongoing focus on users.
Yes they are vastly profitable business and yes they run their operations as a business, but their service is free for people that are "searching". That has been their focus over the years and by focusing on the "USERS" that drive the system, they have remained the top search engine.
I remember how peeved off people were when they found their Adwords accounts had been suspended (over 1 million people and counting). This is a testament that Google was making a decision for their users, and not the money.
The minute people stop using their search is the minute they no longer have a business. The minute Facebook starts losing users to other mediums that build for users (and not business) is the minute they will start losing the handle of their business.
Is Facebook a social network? The more I use it is beginning to feel less and less social and more and more commercial enterprise. Only time will tell...but I can assure you that we will not be paying to promote a wall post any time soon.
The grave may be dug one shovelful at a time.
Recent Comments
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hi kyle please help because i cant sent private message and i cant use forum, i always receice this message ( you not authorised to use private message)
That's because you're on the 10 day free trial. Once you pay Wealthy Affiliate $47 for the monthly fee like I am right now, then you can do it.
You can PM prior to become a full paying member actually...you should be able to do this via the PM button. There is an intermediate page that you will need to scroll to the end of to get to the PM part.
I don't think this is the end of Facebook but it is a step backward. For users and businesses like us we see the ridiculousness of something like this but for the average user they won't know or care. Facebook needs to prove it can raise funds right now (I'm sure you're all watching the FB stock go down..I won't go into how that all happened but I'm sure you have some ideas) and this is just one of those quick attempts.
This does kind of show that they really need to find someone that knows how to monetize Facebook because this is a very poor attempt (not that it wont work because it probably will, but user wise..seriously?).
Of your last comment, you are absolutely right, Facebook is becoming more and more commercial but its to be expected. As much as Zuckerberg wants to think he's going to keep it his little dorm room experiement, Facebook thrives on the venture capitalists that fund the project and we all know their main goal is money, money, money.
The had to go public in order to appease to their VC's (the payday) and now they have to retract to appeal to their users again...but unfortunately they can't. They are no longer a user driven system, they are a financial driven system always look to create the next uptrend in their stock price. If they continue down this path, a social medium that is user centric is going to step in.
I agree with Carson. This is ridiculous if you ask me. I think Facebook's starting to abuse the people within there directory. One of these days some apps going to be made for transferring to a new social medium, then Facebook will be sorry. There's been a lot of other issues in the past revolving around Facebook with illegally tracking people's cookies and storing pictures in a back-up server where you could, in the past, directly access pictures with the correct permalink.
Unless Facebook starts calming it down & stop having the big head, they sure have some tough times ahead.
I get 50 app requests every day, I swear. The problem is that many of these apps are invasive and have control to share on your wall (and can access your data in many cases). People have shared information that they typically wouldn't have probably shared...and now facebook is opening up the doors to a lot of it through their app engine.
great post, you showed a lot of experience on this subject!
here in brazil, "orkut" (which belongs to google) was by far the social network with most users and it lost almost everyone to facebook...
looks like google is coming back with g +
i think every social media, as well as any innovation or product, etc., has its time, maybe fb's era is coming to an end soon, who knows?!
i've already seen facebook as a too much focused on money enterprise but i've never stopped to think about google from your point of view... interesting!
Friendster...MySpace...Facebook...??? Who knows. As I said, I think it is their market to lose not necessarily someone elses to gain. It will be interesting to see how this one pans out.
I have been stepping away from Facebook for a while now. Finding that my posts have not the penetration that I thought makes me very disappointed in this network. I have noticed that postings that used to be well received have little or no impact with my followers now. I get lots of requests to join games and add my name to various apps but have resisted this. I'm not on Facebook to play games, I'm there to keep up with family and friends. I haven't been a fan of the new timeline or the feed that I have seen lately. Somewhat disillusioned with this platform right now. After reading your post I guess I have been reacting to their changes on a visceral level without knowing what the problem really was. Buy Exposure....I think not. Not quite ready to drop my account but I'm not a fan.
Yeah, I have noticed lately that user engagement is not what it once was. I think a lot of people are still reeling from the Timeline update and a lot of people simply do not use FB in the way they once did. It has gone from primarily a photo discussion and status update site, to app spam and news feed spam which you are required to download in order to accomplish anything.
The next 12 months will be an interesting one in the social space.
Also a reason I'm thinking I need to learn about G+, it seems to be gaining popularity!.
Poor Zuck's got allot on his plate right now, lets see if he pulls a rabbit out of his hat!.
It is gaining popularity...I have always said the usership at Facebook is theirs to lose and if they continue down the path they are going, people are going to start moving of to G+ (whom is quietly making their social interface better and better).
Very interesting and it's a completely different angle that Facebook is taking with allowing people to BUY exposure. FB is going to have to be careful of spam because people's WALLs are going to start becoming inundated with promotions. Sharing value is one thing but giving anyone the opportunity to pay for exposure seems like it could get out of hand quickly. It will be interesting to see how this works out.
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As they say, if you're not buying a product, you ARE the product!