This might be enough to get me to completely pull the plug.
I’ll admit it: the only reason I haven’t completely pulled the plug on my Facebook account is because I use it to promote two businesses: Flying M Air and ML Jewelry Designs.
Flying M Air has been on my Facebook account for years. For a while, I tried hard to use Facebook to share information about what the company is doing through events, offers, galleries, and plain old posts. I was checking in daily to stay on top of messages. Flying M Air’s website has an annoying pop-up window that invites visitors to like us on Facebook. (I’m still trying to figure out how to turn that off.) The only thing I didn’t do was pay money to promote a Facebook post.
And here’s the rub. Flying M Air’s Facebook page has over 1000 likes. That means that over 1000 Facebook users have indicated that they want to see new content. I don’t post much anymore — heck, there are only five or six new posts since July — so it isn’t as if I’m bombarding page followers with content. It doesn’t matter, though. Facebook isn’t showing this content to the people who want to see it. Indeed, one of my posts from last summer “reached” only seven people.
Yeah. Seven out of over 1000.
This post came out two days ago, yet was shown to only ONE person. For all I know, it could be me.
Against my better judgement, I set ML Jewelry Designs up on Facebook, too. I figured: why not? But rather than put a lot of energy into keeping its page up-to-date with new content, I set up new posts on its WordPress-based website to automatically post to the ML Jewelry Designs page on Facebook. This means the page gets new content just about every day. (I schedule posts so no more than one new item appears each day.) Now the page is less than a month old and has only 20 followers. But I’m getting the same ridiculous low reach numbers I get with Flying M Air.
So here’s the situation. Facebook users have indicated that they want to see the content posted on certain pages. But the Facebook algorithm has decides what they should and shouldn’t seen. My two business pages don’t pay for “promotion” so they’re pretty far down on the list of what gets shown. As a result, my content doesn’t appear for anywhere near the number of people who have indicated they want to see it.
So why bother posting it?
And what about the people who like a page because they want to see all of its new content? How many of them think there just isn’t anything new because it doesn’t appear in their newsfeed?
Can you see why I’m just so done with Facebook?
Maria, I went to your page and found a post about your jewelry. When I clicked on the three dots in the upper right hand corner there’s a place to select “REPORT POST”, “SAVE LINK”, etc. There’s also a place to select “Turn on notifications about this post”. I wonder what this really does.
Oh, jeez. Another Facebook tending task? I’ll check it out. Thanks.
Okay, so that option is apparently for folks who see (and not post) the post. It turns on notifications for them. So if someone comments or likes the post, you’d be notified. It lets you follow the post without getting involved. No help for the poster.
Maria,
A plug is either in or out. You must decide.
Your (and my) Dave Clark aviation headphones only work if the plug is pressed fully in. They stop when pulled (even a little bit) out. You cannot be a little bit ‘in’.
You talk about the lunacy of Facebook algorithms. Well said. Amazon is very weird too.
If you want to know about Facebook, it’s data policy and the latest Cambridge Analytica story, just google ‘Alexandr Kogan, Guardian, U.K.’
You will find the St. Petersburg links and all sorts of shoddy deals. Check out Kogan and Zuckerberg.
How similar they seem….
I’m thinking the plug is out and has been pretty much out for the past year or so. There’s a single wire loosely connected and an occasionally attempt to reseat the plug, but it’s definitely not working. The question now is whether I go through the effort to delete everything I have on Facebook or just trust them to delete it for me when my account is removed.
I suppose your experience with FB is confirmation of that old adage that ‘there is no such thing as a free lunch’.
I believe Google will sell positions at the top of a search page if you buy that exposure. Otherwise your company or product will take pot luck on page 17 or so.
The FB algo is clearly not doing much to link your audience to your new products. Have you asked them for an explanation?
I do the occasional product or film review for Amazon UK. All of my reviews have been published (they confirm this by email) but if I am critical that review might be pulled without my knowledge. In a generally positive review of the latest Bladerunner pic I noted that it was too long and that the young couple next to us in the cinema became bored, took out their phones and caught up with their pals. That was true. My review was live for a week or so but has now been pulled.