Delete Your Facebook Business Page Already

Originally published at: http://www.sitepoint.com/facebook-algorithm-change-2015/

It seems like all everyone’s been talking (or freaking out) about is Mobilegeddon – Google’s algorithm update, which penalizes websites that are not responsive.

As it turns out, the update is not as bad as everyone made it out to be. Unfortunately though, Google isn’t the only one rolling out algorithm changes.

Facebook has just announced that its updating its algorithm too, and it looks like things are going to get bleaker than they already are for the rest of us little guys out there trying to grow our businesses.

Here are the Three Facebook Algorithm Updates

1. See More Content From the Same Source

In order for users with few friends to get better content in their Newsfeeds, Facebook will now display more content from the same source.

2. See All Friends’ Updates

No matter what your friends share or when they shared it, their posts will always be on the higher end of your feed. Facebook wants to ensure users never miss updates from their friends.

3. Friends’ Likes and Comments

The final update revolves around those annoying posts you see on your Newsfeed now that are something like: “Lauren liked Business Insider’s post.” After the update, you may no longer see those nasty status updates.

It’s Time to Give Up on Facebook Marketing

Facebook has consistently said that it wants to be the newspaper of the future, basically.

In fact, the news broke last month that Facebook is having discussions with publications such as Buzzfeed. Why? Because the wannabe newspaper possibly wants to host news sites’ content.

I dedicate absolutely zero time to my Facebook page, aside from one-click scheduling of good articles I find on the web with the Buffer Chrome extension.

And I’m not the only one who has opted to give up on Facebook. Big brands like GrooveHq and Eat24 have deleted their pages long ago.

Here’s an excerpt from Eat24’s hilarious breakup letter to Facebook.

We’d love to say “It’s not you, it’s us” but it’s totally you. Not to be rude, but you aren’t the smart, funny social network we fell in love with several years back. You’ve changed. A lot.

When we first met, you made us feel special. We’d tell you a super funny joke about Sriracha and you’d tell all our friends and then everyone would laugh together. But now? Now you want us to give you money if we want to talk to our friends. Now when we show you a photo of a taco wrapped with bacon, you’re all like “PROMOTE THIS POST! GET MORE FRIENDS!” instead of just liking us for who we are. That’s hella messed up.

Basically, Facebook is using its power to make you – us – pay the price – the “boost this post” price. And quite frankly I don’t feel like wasting my time (or money) on it anymore.

Groove feels the same way. The SaaS startup was spending one hour per week on it, and they decided they could reallocate that time (52 hours per year) to other platforms that actually generate a return on investment (ROI).

Here’s Where You Should Relocate

You’re probably wondering: Well, if I don’t use Facebook then which social media networks should I use?

Twitter and LinkedIn are pretty good, and I definitely use them a lot, but this isn’t where the real traction is at either.

The real traction is happening in niche, online communities, such as Reddit and Inbound as well as forums, such as Quora. These sites require longer posts, but if your posts are good then they’ll rise to the top naturally.

You know where else it’s at online?!

Publishing platforms is where it’s goin’ on as well.

When I type publishing platforms, I mean places like Medium and LinkedIn Publishing.

I am a huge fan of Medium in particular because it is so easy to get your stuff read by a huge audience. It’s the same type of awesome, engagement story with LinkedIn Publishing.

Conclusion

There’s no room for shallow status updates anymore.

No one cares about your page’s poll of the day or that you now have 500 followers.

What they care about is being educated.

Continue reading this article on SitePoint

I keep a business page for no other reason than some people are still diehard “Facebookers” and they just don’t pay attention to you from any other medium.

I would not make your business “depend” on Facebook, always keep the good stuff on your own website, but I don’t see any reason why a business shouldn’t have a page on there just for those people who are stuck on that medium.

Fantastic article! To be honest, I’ve been looking for a reason to get rid of my Facebook business page for years. I hate it and I find that it produces exactly 0% new business. I mainly use Twitter. To top it off, Facebook makes you have a personal page in order to have your business page. I can’t stand that! Time to get rid of Facebook 100%

Great article Lauren. I’ve closed down mine as well. You only have so many resources so best to use them where they make the most impact.

This is a subjective opinion. Yeah, most of internet educated people knows that on facebook theres only funny images and some noone cares news. But there are people that doesnt know any social media except facebook.

So imo no need to delete your page. You can just use it to share link to your article.

Regarding Medium, the only way I’ve found to get your articles read by more than a few people is if Medium itself recommends them.

After spending hours and days writing and tweaking content and then seeing only two people look at your article, let alone read it?.. Meh. No point in wasting all that time on a platform that just feels rigged.

I quite Facebook a year ago; I’m about to do that with Medium too.

Can I read your Medium stuff first?

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How long have you been publishing on Medium?
Are you tagging your articles?
Also, are you sharing them on other sites and with your network?

It’s been a while since I’ve been publishing on Medium, and I just received my first few recommends last week. I think it’s improving, but it just takes time.

Not long, just a week. Yes, I’m tagging and publishing to my (admittedly small) Twitter followers (not sure what you mean by network?), and my first article was actually read by over 6,500 people because Medium recommended it. I wanted to be upfront about that so it doesn’t sound like I’m whining, or complaining about it. Yes, I am new, so I may be completely wrong about everything; I’m only going by what I’ve seen and experienced. Perhaps I just have no idea what I’m doing, and if that’s the case, then the site designers failed, because I actually do find the site confusing.

When publishing an article I’m not finding it anywhere except under where it’s tagged, and after it’s been online for a couple days I may only see that 2 people have read it. What I’m experiencing is a lot of what appears to be sponsored content, or content from established writers or famous people plastered on their home page. I see an article that was published two hours ago and is already recommended by Medium, but an article that’s (subjectively) better written by somebody who (I’m assuming) is unknown, not being recommended even after 3 days.

How is anybody to find quality content on that site? It kind of reminds me of Tumblr in that regard: it’s almost like you already have to know people to find people.

I find it the complete opposite. I go to Medium to find great articles before sites like even Quibb shares them. Here’s an ebook that just came out on working Medium, and here’s a blog post on the same thing.

More resources:

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Facebook has the best video engagement on the web and has surpassed YouTube and has just introduced Instant Articles for publishers (Buzzfeed being one of the first to use it) which looks great and should provide an all-round better user experience.

Facebook also has one of the most powerful targeting systems to be found on the web. OK, so if you want to get noticed on the site then you really have to pay but so what? You also have to pay for AdWords which for small businesses is really not that great (see why Dropbox binned AdWords as a case in point). Facebook was a free marketing resource and now it’s not but that doesn’t mean that you should ignore it as a platform for connecting with fans and customers.

It remains the most widely used site online and for that reason alone, it’s worth keeping. Sure, organic reach is now almost unattainable but the free party is over - brands shouldn’t ignore the advertising platform just because it’s no longer free to use.

Thank you so the links, and for confirming I have no idea what I’m taking about. I have some reading to do! :grinning:

I just realised, I’ve read that chair article before, and I only tend to go off what’s listed on the emails they push out - someone likes you…

I’ll never look at a ventriloquist the same way ever again…

The take aways from this for me are two things… 1. The SEO community got (over) excited about the recent Google updates (again) and 2. Good old fashioned word of mouth and business networking still provides results immune to the changes and fallout of the various ‘(Anti) Social Networking’ platforms :slight_smile:

I agree with this article, but i think Facebook is still good for local businesses who want to create paid adverts, especially in a visual field such as mine like photography

Facebook or any other social medium can benefit only when its used through proper channel. Need to define strategy, the quality of information, your community, groups and friends interest etc because Facebook is not business or professional network its a personal. You can used it to interact with your visitors and followers.

Great Article !!!.. Its really really helpful to everyone. Thanks you for sharing.

Good article.
On a slightly different FB note, I personally have never understood why even large businesses would place SO much emphasis on advertising on FB and in a lot of cases only a FB link (check us out on FB and that’s the ONLY contact) and not their own properties. I see this everywhere for both small and large companies and I believe it’s incredibly short sighted. They’re basically saying FB is where we send everyone with all their marketing which may help them ???, but, absolutely helps FB. It’s really bizarre because they spent money to build a site / campaign / what not and then they advertise FB and hope? I don’t get it.

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