R.I.P. The Death of the Facebook Business Page for Small Business

    If you are a small business with that “FREE” Facebook Business Page…it is in a coma…and soon DEAD!

    RiP Facebook 1Remember the good old days.  Facebook allowed you to build a business page for free and people could voluntarily “Like” your page and if they did, when you posted something it would show up on your fans news feed?

    Then you remember when Facebook decided to limit the number of people who could see your posts from your business even though they “opted” in because Facebook wanted to make money?

    So now Facebook is saying, “yeah, well we are just going to stop that whole organic thing, if you want really anyone to see your posts from your business page you will have to pay for it…pretty much all of it”.

    In an article from AdAge Digital Facebook has made it clear that organic results will be done away with, and you are going to have to pay if you want your posts to be seen.  I get it’s Zuckerberg’s company he has the right to do what he wants.

    However what he has really done to the microbusiness and solopreneur with limited funds…is basically given YOU the finger, while smiling at you and telling you “you’re welcome”.

    Facebook says, it’s because this isn’t what people want to see.  This is an in your face mishandling of the facts.  The fact is if we didn’t want to see it, we would opt out of it by “unliking” the page plain and simple.  Besides if we really don’t want to see why not eliminate business pages altogether?

    Now there is no reason for me to “like” a page because it means that the business owner is going to be forced to pay for me to see their posts. I do not, as a small business advocate have any desire to force a business to spend money, especially make them pay for something I volunteered to see.  Time for me to start unliking, and it may be time for you to ignore your Facebook business page, forget it, move on, and take a different strategy.

    So what do you do as a small business with a limited marketing budget?

    pull_em_in_magnet_800_clr_125471.  Make your personal page a priority for building relationships that translate into business.  As a small business or any business for that matter the backbone of business is real relationships with people who like you, know you, and come to trust you. Your personal page can be your best source of new business and evangelists for you and your business to bring you referrals.

    holding_big_smart_phone_icons_800_clr_91322.  Ask your employee to go to the business page and when appropriate share post on their personal timelines.  Not everything is relevant so you cannot demand this.  However, if you are doing a giveaway or a promotion let them be part of the game of getting your posts to their friends.  Remember, your employees are or should be influencers for your business.

    3.  Time to ramp up Google+.  Google+ as I have said is going to be the big winner for users and business.  They have not promoted themselves much, they have not talked about what they do, they just simply gplus laptopsit back and watch as Facebook and Twitter to fumble around with the lives of people.  Google+ is free.  It is powerful especially when you add the Google Authorship component to your blogs and other content that your share on the web.  Google is search.  No one still competes. Google has no advertising.  Yeah that may change, but I think their priority is going to be on the user experience.  Why?  Because that is what they have done all along with search.  Besides they are already profitable they don’t have to have advertising.  Now this may change I am fully aware of that, but if you are looking for a place to build your business page.  I highly encourage you to look at Google Plus.

    Look I am not advocating necessarily deleting your page.  However, what i am saying is soon any FREE value that you had with it will soon be gone.  For many small businesses this was a FREE source of advertising…and for those businesses it is in fact  D-E-A-D.

    Stay Successful My Friends!

    Jay Izso, the Internet Doctor®

     

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