Is Facebook fading?

[PithAndRootStudio]

Thought I'd throw this out for people to chew on, especially for those who rely on Facebook more than other forms of social media to market their business.

I recently read an article on the New York Times suggesting that engagement with Facebook is dropping. The feeling is that people aren't as likely as they were in the past to check in all day long. Rather, they post the big stuff, maybe even logging off for longer times before they check again.

Do you find this to be true and have you adjusted your strategy wrt Facebook? Are you relying on other social media outlets more as FB fades? Has anyone tried paying to boost their posts and what were the results?

What kind of strategy truly works these days when marketing through Facebook?

Here is the New York Times article, if you're interested:

http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/11/16/still-on-facebook-but-finding-less-to-like/

[ohmyclumsyheart]

Facebook for businesses definitely is because of Edgerank.

Facebook is the only social media site that regulates who sees what with the reasoning that if you 'like' a lot of pages it's "too much information" to see on your timeline. This means Facebook ranks content based on various (often unknown) factors, resulting in content being omitted altogether in a lot of cases.

Facebook wants to make profit from businesses through advertising and the way they get businesses to pay for that advertising is by limiting the page's reach. If they do that then businesses feel they must pay for people to see the content they have already said they want to see (by 'liking' the page).

It's all a little corrupt and there are plenty of websites explaining Edgerank and how it effects business pages. It's worth googling.

(source: I work in marketing/social media)

[PithAndRootStudio]

Yes, I find this extremely frustrating about Facebook, but I felt like I would go along and try to make it work for me. So that means posting at different times, hoping to get that boost with a "like" or two from a follower, just trying to catch people while they are online (and trying to avoid paying to boost my posts.)

I guess what I find insurmountable is the idea that, on top of the Edgerank policy that they have, there also seems to be a drop in people even being on Facebook.

So, is it better to expend my precious resources and time on other social media sites and forget about Facebook?

[Former_Member]

I have definitely noticed people being less active and present on FB.

I have also heard from someone who specializes in social media advertising say that it is expected that eventually the business pages on FB will NOT be free, and potentially not cheap. Not a matter of if but when.

[ShadyLaneDesignz]

I think that is true. I have teenagers and they don't use Facebook at all and neither do their friends. The younger set posts more on Instagram and others. I believe this may be true for younger adults as well. My daughter told me that only "old people" use Facebook. LOL. But I have seen less postings from friends and family as time goes on.

[ArteOfTheBooke]

Interesting. I rely on FB a lot, as I already use it personally and it seems a logical extension to use it for my business--and a lot of my target market is already there.

[MerlinMN]

So Facebook is going the way of MySpace...interesting.
It conjures up the bad joke about the future merger of YouTube, Facebook and some other site.
Its rude, but funny, and even tho' I use FB, It sums up my 'old fogey' feelings about 'social media'. There is nothing 'social' about it and ceratinly no privacy issues.

[PiecesOfMePaperCraft]

For what it's worth, I'm on FB several times a day. If you don't like or post comments to the status updates of business pages on a regular basis, they show up less frequently on your news feed. If you have a business page, you need to try to encourage people to like and comment by engaging with them. I'm far from being an expert - my page only has 39 likes - but I always try to post something that will hopefully encourage a response. I may not have many followers but I can say none of them were acquired with the "like my page and I'll like yours" strategy. I don't believe that to be a true indication of page popularity.

[Former_Member]

We've got over 800 people who have liked our Facebook page and we have pretty good responses, but I've definitely noticed a drop off recently. I do think that Facebook is trying to get us to advertise, but we haven't advertised in 17 years, so we're not planning to now. I hate that they are screening our posts from people who seem interested in seeing them. Not sure what I'm going to do once Facebook makes us pay. We do have a few hundred followers on Twitter, but they don't seem to interact as much. We've had lots of people come to our brick and mortar gallery to buy stuff based on what they saw on Facebook. So we'll keep on keeping on for now. Thanks for this thread. I'm interested to read what y'all have experienced. Good luck!

[Former_Member]

Oh, and for anyone interested, we're at www.Facebook.com/TaylorArts

[PithAndRootStudio]

Interesting responses. I also use Facebook for my business because I'm already on there every day, so it seems to save a little effort. I know I see more older people posting and commenting on Facebook and the younger crowd more active on Instagram and so on. It's exhausting to change over every few years to something new. Maybe that makes me officially old!

I don't think Facebook will go away altogether, because it's now the best way to stay in touch with everyone in your life. However, I've always been dubious of whether it was the best place to find people in a "shopping" mode and that seems even less so now.

I wonder if George Takei will lead an open revolt if they do decide to make us all pay? Lol.

[Former_Member]

I run three businesses, including Matt's jewelry shop here, and in my research and after trying out FB pages, I quit using FB for business visibility and engagement. Edgerank is a problem, as was the the way FB did search until very recently.

I agree with Heather's comment that folks seem less likely to be in shopping mode on FB. Also, the young people are leaving or minimizing their use. I've seen other articles on this as well as seeing it in my family.

The main thing I use FB for right now is groups about things I'm interested in. I'm hoping that I can grow some community stuff on Google+ instead. G+ is smaller, but it's where the younger guys are, and a lot of Matt's coin rings are more for the male crowd. I'm also an editor by trade and have run a freelance editorial service for many years.

My visibility priorities are: Shop/site, blog, then social media. I pick the ones that fit me/us and our products/services (for example, Twitter has active interest areas for my editing stuff, Pinterest is good for Matt's coin rings, Google+ is kind of my catchall). I really think it pays to check out the different social networks and just find two or three that resonate with you. You won't get much out of systems you don't enjoy (like Twitter has that 140 character limit and you need to post several times a day, whereas the others have more space, you can post pics directly, and you don't have to be on there all the time). It really pays to do research and then be selective, I think.

And most important is to make cool stuff and keep a good shop! Social networks are just marketing and customer engagement outposts.

Joanne, MMM shop manager

[Former_Member]

Hello all! I am a social media marketing manager by day, and I can say that Facebook isn't the greatest place to drum up sales for businesses like ours. Twitter is great, but EdgeRank makes Facebook a tough sell for those who cannot afford (or refuse to pay) the advertising fees that come along with Facebook.

It takes a lot of effort to have your posts viewed from a Facebook page. I have almost 4K fans, and I generally have 300-500 'views' for my really good posts that do well. I know 300-500 seems like a lot to some (and, really, it is), but that's a lot of work for an average of only 15% of your audience.