Money rules Facebook – doesn’t it?

During the last few days there has been a wave of information over the Czech web that Facebook is getting ready for further lowering the organic range of page posts again – this time down to zero. This news comes from a study done by Ogilvy@Social, who researched a range of posts published on approximately 100 pages. We don’t see which cards Facebook is holding in its hands, but if you’d like to know how we see it here in Triad, read on :–)

If the organic reach would really stop, it would mean that for every post published, admins would have to pay just like one has to pay for the placement of banners on a website.  Fan community building would be meaningless then because even today Facebook enables paid access to users who are not fans of pages. Therefore, pages that don’t want to sponsor their posts would lose all motivation to create any new content because nobody would ever see it.

Facebook surely hopes that by going in this direction it will make even more money in advertising.  At the same time it wants to show the world that besides its high user count (multiplied by buying other services as Instagram and WhatsApp) it also has an operational business model for generating profit. This would help it in the eyes of investors and could have an influence on its share price and market value.

From Hero to Zero

Should the admins then forget the idea of addressing their fans without having a pocket full of money and should the fans be afraid of not seeing the posts of their favorite pages in their Newsfeed? Not quite.

Facebook needs active users. To this end, a social network needs any content which will interest users, otherwise it will lose its momentum and those users will gradually abandon Facebook.  A complete stop of the organic reach would make the most extended social network short-sighted because it would lose a lot of page makers who generate the viral content and keep the activity flowing. You wouldn’t like Facebook without kittens, puppies and Jarda Jágr 🙂

People want to play

The truth is that brands should have stashed aside some money for content creation and media support anyways. Contrary to pessimistic views, you can get the attention of almost half of users with interesting content (really) and with some support you can have your posts seen by all the users in your country. Of course, it would be nicer if Facebook would show these posts for free, but look at it from the other hand – when you work hard on the setup and optimizing of campaign aiming, the paid posts have a greater chance of getting to the people who interest you; plus, there’s a bigger probability of your content interesting them.

Compared to a TV spot, you can not only profit from the fact that your advertising won’t be so expensive but also from the added value you give to users. You can have them make a bet that your brew master will swim across the brewery pond if there will be enough of them wishing for it. You can have them fighting for a week over who will leave the last comment under your status to win a Smartphone… Or you can let them affect the contents of your post and thank them for it right away. The more they will remember you 🙂

What’s up next?

The time of page “likes” hoarding has definitely ended. Fans with no commitment – and by this we mean the real commitment when they take pictures with a product, talk about the brand, or make the campaign really happen, not just by liking it – are just dead souls.  Listen to them and offer them content that will make them check what’s new on your page at least once a day.

At the same time we’d like to recommend to marketers to think about the digital world in a broader scope, to also spend time and energy on other communication channels.  If you have value to offer, people will gladly read your newsletters, play on your website or Instagram which is gaining more and more popularity in the Czech Republic.