Paying to Use Facebook

By 2015-01-16Featured

Facebook Page Changes

That’s right, we said it. You will now have to pay to use Facebook. After Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said in a May 24, 2010 article he wrote for the Washington Post, “We will always keep Facebook a free service for everyone.” Despite the fact that this page on Facebook’s site currently promises free use. After enjoying a decade of free use, you will now have to pay for your social media services. Well, that is, if you are an individual using Facebook to maintain a business page. At least, that’s what we’ve been able to infer based upon carefully reading an article Facebook put out on its own site in November of 2014.  It never opening states, “You will have to pay,” but it does point you in the direction of paying to boost posts or buy ads to maintain your reach. Let us be clear: profiles for Joan Smith or John Doe, etc. will remain free to use. However, starting in January 2015, Facebook will begin reducing the reach of Facebook posts made by business page users. That is, unless you pay to “boost” the posts’ reach, or buy an ad for your content. That November 2014 Facebook article received 6,523 likes and 232 comments in less than two months. Here’s a quote: “Beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content in their News Feeds. As we’ve said before, News Feed is already a competitive place — as more people and Pages are posting content, competition to appear in News Feed has increased. All of this means that Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.” The issue has garnered national media attention, spurring several news articles, including this one in The Wall Street Journal on November 27, 2014. Now, don’t panic. Facebook isn’t over for businesses, and it certainly isn’t over for the clients to whom we provide social media services. What it means is, you will now have to take your post content to a new level.

As former newsies, our E.H. Anderson PR team members always challenge ourselves to write posts that are interesting and engaging. In other words, we try to tell a story. According to Facebook, posts with key words like “sale”, “half-off”,“clearance”, etc. will be largely limited in the number of news feeds they reach, unless, their author pays to “boost” the post. It lists the image at left as an example of what not to do.

Of course, Facebook has not yet revealed how it plans to screen posts, or what objective criteria will be used to distinguish between what it considers substance and spam. And, it seems to contradict itself in its “Page Posting Tips and Best Practices” article by giving an example of a post of a company offering a promotion for free products to new customers. (See image by “Plated” below.) That being said, E.H. Anderson PR has developed its own tips and best practices for you to get around these looming changes.

E.H. Anderson PR Tips to Surviving and Thriving Amidst Facebook Page Changes

1. Don’t use posts as ads. This doesn’t mean you can’t put ads on Facebook. Just realize you will either need to make a post on your page and then boost it, or buy a separate ad for the content. 2. Avoid key words associated with sales. This means “sale” (obviously), “free”, “discount”, “buy”, etc. 3. Make your posts about telling your company or organization’s story. Use your business page posts to engage its followers and obtain new followers. Introduce them to your employees by sharing their background and experience. Show photos and videos of your daily work in action, or your products being made. Talk about upcoming events, and why they would appeal to or benefit area-families. 4. Grow your follower base to increase organic reach. By having a larger base of followers to begin with, you can help maintain your posts’ reach. Start using your page to interact with other business pages. Do this by liking, commenting on and sharing their posts, and checking-in to their locations. Like their page to follow them, and chances are, they will follow you back. Use your personal profile to invite friends to like/follow your pages, then share posts from your page to your own timeline. Maybe even tag certain friends. Why these Facebook page changes? Well, Facebook said it in this line, “News Feed is already a competitive place — as more people and Pages are posting content, competition to appear in News Feed has increased.” It is a business trying to better serve it’s customers. And the fact that it will make a killing off ad sales increases doesn’t hurt their reasoning either. But social media is a world of constant evolution, and following the tips above will help you navigate this change successfully.