I used Facebook a lot for personal use, but that has changed. I now use it more for business because I am trying to build a following. It is slow. I have used the boost pages and did not get the traffic I expected. I will hang in there because it is still one of the best social media sites.

I have never really used FB for business much. I just get so annoyed with it for personal use I didn't ever make the time to seriously use it for business.

I hardly look at it at all anymore. I would turn it off completely except for wanting to stay connected to a few friends and family that live thousands of miles away.

I am getting some traffic from Quora now after only focusing on it for a week.

I don't see much value from my time on Twitter for business either. I get way more out of Quora honestly. That gets annoying too however with people asking juvenile ridiculous questions.

I have a Facebook business page but I haven't been successful with it. I thought about spending more time to investigate what I could do to make it work. From what you say, Lynne, it seems as though I've left it too late.

Thanks for your post and the information.

Posting links to a source outside of facebook is part of the algorithm. People call the algorithm "edgerank" though you'd be hard pushed to find someone at facebook's staff that would admit to it.

Try the strategy of not posting a link.

Instead, write something with no links, tell people to "like" the post. Tell them then to "comment info"

Then post your reply of "sending info via PM" and "like their comment"

I used this technique myself and one day in particular, I got 74 subscribers on my email list in just 6 hours from ONE facebook group.

What was happening?

Every time someone "liked" and "commented" on the post, it would "bump" the post up the feed in that group a little more. Key thing is not to respond to all of the comments in one go, spread them out timewise.

It doesn't always work, it depends on what you're posting. I posted my Instagram checklist and it was in a social media marketing group with about 10k members.

I recently closed my personal Facebook account, as I just became disillusioned with all the 'look at me' behaviour. I think Facebook encourages 'narcissism' behaviour. I kept another account open under my pen name, so I could have a page that is connected to my first website. I check in there from time to time, to bring attention to a new post, and to check in with a few people there. Other than that, I no longer immerse myself in Facebook life.

Hi Lynne,
I joined Facebook about 4-5 years ago and was unimpressed with just the silly nonsense on FB. But I was training for Internet Marketing at the time with another internet training company (they are out of business now) and as part of our assignment we were to run an ad on FB.

Someone from Facebook Sales Staff called me, we talked the ad over but when I saw how much they put down in charges I was stunned. It was not at all what I had wanted or agreed with the sales rep.

Maybe this was a total rip off by a third party, but I don't think so. I tried calling them back, no answer. Sent e-mails to the FB Sales department, no reply.

I cancelled the account and will have nothing more to do with Facebook as I think they are just West of being totally crooked.

Bill

I tried FB out at the end of last October, and they immediately sin binned me for some imaginary transgression. Several weeks later they decided I was ok when I continued to request them for some definition of the transgression, and continued to ask them for ads. Then i found out that serious ads for conversions cost serious money (too much).

I had marginally successful results from ads, then have been on hold for a few months. During that few months my account has been invaded by lots of unknown people who want to be my friend. It´s a very strange environment indeed, yet some people have a lot of success from it I understand.

I've never been a big user of FB. I tend to make the mistake of getting sucked into reading the stupidity that erupts in the comments.

I'm actually working on being more active there, but just like any social platform, I need to mind my own business for the most part, :)

Naturally, it has evolved over the years and marketers just have to continue to evolve with it. Personally, I intend to work with some paid ads there in the near future.

Totally agree! Facebook is dead! I've been saying this for a while now!
Ya know what's funny about it?

Facebook used to be all the rage with the "kids" and teens...but once us old folks and parents started using it, Facebook became obsolete and the cool kids moved onto the next big thing (Twitter, Instagram, SnapChat).

Ask your average high-schooler, and they'll be able to tell you what the hottest social media platform is, and it will be wherever their parents are not. LOL :-)

Facebook like the NFL today is overly political and that drives the appeal away for a lot of people. Instead of sharing ideas, it has become a platform for ideology.

That being said, it still has a far out reach that can not be overlooked. Just keep driving positivity and maybe that will over come all the noise.

I don't really trust Facebook and I try to tread carefully when I use it.

Just my thoughts...