Written By: Andy Ogg – Editor for Travel Professional NEWS
Have you noticed your Facebook Business Page not getting the exposure it once did? Are you noticing that your posts seem to be seen less and less? Well, to ease your concerns, you aren’t losing your mind, it’s true.
Through the time of Social Media, we have seen many networks grow and decline, remember Myspace? There seems to be an ongoing trend with these Social platforms and it would seem that Facebook is falling into that trend. With some of these new policies we will discuss, you will learn how and why Facebook may not be your best marketing tool anymore.
Facebook once resembled the essence of entrepreneurship and now the only word that comes to my mind would be greed. The massive social network of individuals, groups, businesses, and non profit organizations has slowly began it’s move to monetize it’s features on every avenue. The decrease in organic reach has become massive and it seems that today, the number of “likes” you have has become irrelevant.
The goal of a Business Page three years ago was to accumulate as many followers as possible which would allow for your brand and message to be seen by these individuals organically. With Facebook’s new polices, unless these followers directly visit your Facebook page, they aren’t seeing your products, messages or promotions. Now, with that said, marketing on Facebook isn’t dead but it will cost you.
Facebook’s decline or organic reach has resulted in their option to “boost” a post. There are many customizable options in this and even the opportunity to create a campaign in an ongoing effort to continue your reach and promotion. However, it isn’t free and like most things in today’s world, you get what you pay for. We have personally seen great ROI when a post is “boosted” to selected demographics, however it hasn’t been free.
“Boosting” a post on your Facebook Page is relatively easy and can certainly reach the clients you are targeting. Once you begin a campaign, there are several guidelines you must follow that are outlined in their agreements. One of the harder ones to overcome is having an image or meme that can not hold more than 20% text. Now this may not sound hard but from my experience, even the world “Sale” in large and bold font could fall under this 20% rule making it harder to create a graphic that strikes the audience and initiates action. There are many guidelines in the “boost” area and I suggest that you educate yourself on them to ensure you receive the highest ROI possible.
Here is a link to the latest policies by Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/business/help/www/223106797811279
Facebook’s decrease in organic reach for Pages has had a hard hit on small business owners, entrepreneurs and non profit organizations. Many of these smaller organizations have either backed off of Facebook or deleted their Business Page altogether due to the extremely poor ROI with the organic reach. This leaves an opening for competitors to strike if the funding is there and the product or service is close enough to attract and keep those recently opened customers.
With these new changes on Facebook, it is important to not only be informed but to also make a conscious decision on what marketing and exposure has and will continue to work best for your business. If Facebook has been successful for you, maybe creating a budget for “boosting” posts is your next move, if you have never had a great ROI with Facebook, maybe it’s time to spend an afternoon developing a new plan of attack to expose your expertise, business and skills.
What to do now with your social media marketing? Well, unless you have a large budget to continue “boosting” on Facebook, an examination into other outlets will be needed. For the next few months, we will be examining other social media outlets and how you can learn, utilize and grow your business on them. Survival isn’t always the fittest but sometimes those who can react and adapt most efficiently.