Who declared open season on Facebook? Lately, it seems as if everyone has. So in this Social Media Insider, we shall jump on the bandwagon by recounting all of the ways that advertisers and agencies
can hate on Facebook, just because everybody’s doing it. Oh, and we shall also look into whether this is all hate for the sake of hating, or something deeper and more troubling. Let’s get
to the whining, forthwith:
- The chances of advertisers gaining organic reach
are dwindling. Two years ago, Facebook told advertisers that only 16% of posts in newsfeeds were actually seen; now the percentage for posts from Pages is reportedly down to as low as 2%, per Social@Ogilvy. No wonder the agency titled its study on organic reach “Facebook
Zero.” Ouch.
- The astonishingly low organic reach has an obvious corollary that is really easy to hate on: If organic reach is dead, long live paid reach! Except
that of course advertisers don’t want to pay to reach the fans they already have.
- And then there’s Nate Elliott from Forrester Research, who, after originally
setting off alarm bells about Facebook advertising late last year, summed up the whole hatefest thusly:
“Just four months later, the debate [about whether Facebook serves advertisers] seems to be over. Is there any doubt now that Facebook has abandoned social marketing, and that its paid ad
products aren’t delivering results for most marketers?”
Kinda sounds like Elliott has zero doubt. However, as is almost always the case with trend-driven digital marketers,
it’s important to take a step back and ask whether the advertising community may be falling out of love with Facebook, just cause it’s time. There are so many other enticing social
platforms out there just dying to be loved, and Facebook may be yesterday’s news. If this can all be chalked up to advertiser boredom, it certainly wouldn’t be the first time.
Much
as I still love Facebook on a personal level -- and have defended its ad model in the past -- this time I have to wonder if the hating has a basis in reality. As more people and products have come on
to Facebook, the newsfeed has become hopelessly clogged. Even as individuals, we feel it. When you combine that issue with algorithms that boost popular content -- and downplay so-so content --
you have a massive reservoir of content that never gets seen.
I certainly don’t have access to the huge amounts of data that most of you do, but anecdotally, I’ve seen this at work
in my own small circles. Just yesterday, a woman in the town where I live asked me whether I’d seen the invite to “Like” a page for her business. I hadn’t. And then I
found myself giving her advice that seems in sync with what hours upon hours on Facebook have told me is true: focusing on “Likes” probably wasn’t worth it for her, unless she
was willing to pay a little to get her posts seen.
A far more fruitful route, I told her, was to do something I’ve increasingly been doing in my work for my local library: posting
content directly to our very active local Facebook group of about 1,100 members. As Facebook has gotten bigger, these groups are often Facebook in microcosm. Engagement is higher both because the
content is targeted and because it isn’t competing with everything else that’s out in a feed. It’s rare to see a post there with no “Likes” or comments.
This
organic reach strategy works for me, and I hope it works for her. But it won’t work for most advertisers because it doesn’t scale, nor can advertisers buy their way into most of these
mini-Facebooks. Even if they could, the backlash in these small groups would be incredible.
Which still leaves Facebook with a big problem. Don’t ask me what the solution is.