We expect organic distribution of an individual page’s posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site.
In other words, all that effort you go to to populate your Facebook page with useful content is increasingly wasted. Even Facebook acknowledges your distribution to the very folks who raise their hands to “like” your page will increasingly thin over time despite their willingness to receive that content in their feeds.
Why? Because Facebook wants you to pay for distribution of course.
By “meaningful experience” they mean some definition other than yours and that of your fans.
As social media consultant Derek Halpern points out, while it may indeed make sense to pay to boost distribution for pitchy posts, it doesn’t necessarily pay to boost all the other posts – the ones that make liking your page worthwhile in the first place. That means what your fans will be left with are pitches only – in the unlikely event you pay to boost any of your content.
And if you don’t boost, look for the 20% of your fans who receive any given post to continue to drop and drop and drop.
Yes, I know that better Facebook posts can help beat this trend, but vaulting over a raised bar can’t be the only answer because some brands and brand managers just aren’t bar-vaulters.
Derek’s fix to this is something I have been talking about for a long time, too: “If you’re not building an email list, you’re an idiot,” he says.
Um, yes.
No, not a contest entrant list – and for God’s sake don’t call it a “database.” I’m talking about a list to communicate via email directly with people who are fans of your brand. That’s something you control. You will no longer be victimized by the algorithmic and P&L whims of Facebook and their like.
How is it that radio brands can go so over-the-top for Facebook when they neglect an asset that is under their own control and ideally subject to higher open rates?
How many fans are on your email list?
And what’s your strategy to leverage those relationships?
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