Facebook launched a new tool this week called “See First”. This feature allows users to select friends and pages they want to always see. The people you select will have a blue star by their name and will appear at the top of your news feed. Prior to this update, users could miss posts from their closest friends and brands they truly liked. This change is great for Facebook users, but not for local business pages. This new feature is natural business progression for a social network website whose average user has access to about 1,500 posts per day, but only sees 300.
The new feature reminds small businesses yet again why they can’t depend on Facebook to drive the majority of their sales. Advertisers with deep pockets will buy their way into this select See First group. Earlier this year, Facebook changed their algorithm to limit the number of people that a business page post would reach. We saw a significant drop of post views even though we continued to post the same type of content. We now are reconsidering our posting strategy.
Small businesses need to take a key lesson away from this change by Facebook. Facebook will continue to tweak their platform with the user in mind and not business pages. Facebook has paid marketing tools and products they want businesses to use to reach Facebook users. Facebook does not want businesses regardless of their size to reach Facebook users for free. I totally understand their reasoning for this change, but small businesses have been left behind and arguably tricked. Facebook intentionally or not previously gave the perception Likes were good for a business page but I don't see the ROI today for building Likes. Furthermore, small business won’t be able to compete with Coca-Cola or Amazon for attention in users’ news feeds.
Facebook was a love for many small businesses because it was a free way to advertise. Facebook now will need to be measured against other forms of advertising in local markets. The cost per thousand people reached will rise as the competition for the marketing space in the See First area of the news feed heats up.
This change builds on the core reason every business needs their own website with their own domain name. The business then controls their digital destiny and exposure. Small businesses have to understand that social networks must make a profit to operate and will continue to change their strategies to maximize their profit potential. By having a website, a small business can alter their marketing focus and channels over time to make sure they expose their message on the right networks at the right time to their target audience.
Contact Ginger Jones with our digital department, allySites.com, to learn more about small business websites. 800-247-7318
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