Well it’s officially over. The days of that FREE Facebook business page that you created is no longer FREE. Well, let’s put it this way it’s no longer free if you want everyone to see your posts. Have you noticed recently you are not getting the responses to your posts that you used to? There is a reason for it. Facebook in their great wisdom has decided that if you have a page with over 400 “Likes” and you post something interesting, or you want your “Likers” to see, only about 15% of those people will see it on their Newsfeed. If you want everyone to see it, you will have to pay for it. The costs start at around $5 per post, and then go up depending on how long you run it, who you target, and the number of people, etc. The Bottomline…you are going to pay if you want your post to be seen.
What does this mean for you and your business page?
- It means that if you really want to see how effective your posting campaigns are you are going to have to pay for it, to guarantee the best success.
- It also means if you have a large number of people you did a “Like Exchange” with those people who happen to be your colleagues that would never do business with you, they just “Liked” your page to help built your numbers. Now, you are going to have to pay for all of them to guarantee you campaign will be seen by everyone.
- If you choose to “pay to post” you will probably lose numbers of friends because your “paid post” will say…wait for it…”sponsored”. More than likely like people will be getting irritated and rather than being promoted to, they just will “Unlike” your business page.
- If you are doing a special promotion you will need to pay for it for everyone has an opportunity to take advantage of it.
- You will need to weigh the cost-benefit ratio. What posts do you pay for and which do you not?
All in all what this means is that if you want to be competitive and you want your campaigns to work you will have to “pay to post”. You can ignore it if you want to, you can even get off of Facebook altogether. Facebook is counting that you won’t. They are counting on that by now you have invested so much time you can’t afford not to spend some money. I hate to admit it, but they are probably right.
My biggest concern is you will stop posting and only post the promoted posts. Please do not do it! Even if you are only reaching 15% of your audience you do not know which 15% don’t stop posting, because you never know who needs what you have to offer.
Here is the Facebook Video.
To your success!
Jay izso, Internet Doctor®