Guest post by Gray Blue, founder of Lumberjack Marketing
Many have started petitions in an attempt to get the multi-billion
dollar social corporation to change their current EdgeRank policies,
particularly as it relates to how posts from a brand or business show up for fans
(users). The biggest complaint seems to be along the lines of, “I’m not going
to pay for something I’ve once used for free”. Yes you are. Accept it.
Whether
it’s in time or money, you’re going to pay. If you want a social platform – ANY
social platform – to work for you, you’re going to have to put something in to
it. The biggest issues here is that the vast majority of pages creating these
posts have been approaching their business on Facebook all wrong, without
strategy or forethought. All that is seen now is, “Well my reach number went
down, and now they’re asking me for money!”
Whether
it’s in time or money, you’re going to pay. If you want a social platform – ANY
social platform – to work for you, you’re going to have to put something in to
it. The biggest issues here is that the vast majority of pages creating these
posts have been approaching their business on Facebook all wrong, without
strategy or forethought. All that is seen now is, “Well my reach number went
down, and now they’re asking me for money!”
And
then there’s the threat of exodus; that somehow if I have my business jump ship
to another platform, this will solve everything. Not the case folks. Nothing
replicates the possibility for reach as Facebook does.
There are a couple of
other points here that you need to be aware of:
1. At any given point in time, on almost any platform, there’s only a limited
portion of your followers that will see your content. This is the nature of
social media. There’s a lot of noise out there, and if you want to be
seen/heard, YOU are going to have to cut through it. You can’t expect to be
placed on a silver platter in front of your users – unless you want to buy the
platter.
2. Interest lists (on Facebook) don’t work. Just stop it. You’re trying to get
your fans to add you to an interest list, which most have no idea what that
even is, and then somehow get back to that interest list to see your posts? Think
about that as a user, not a page owner. Are YOU using interest lists? Doubt
it.
3. Every social media platform is a business – just like you. You need your
business to make money, and so do they. And every platform is either rolling
out their plan to get you to pay to use their service, or figuring out what it
is – and it will happen.
4. Iteration and the lack of perfection: online platforms and business “ship”
regularly. Shipping means rolling out new features or ideas. This happens on
regular timeframes, typically once a week or once every two weeks. Two
statements best exemplify the nature of digital shipping. The first, from Facebook:
“Done is better than perfect” and second, from the new Digg: “Fuck it, ship it”
– EVERYTHING online is a test, an experiment – the consumer internet, in the
15-ish years has grown in ways that no one ever saw coming, and what works and
does not work changes every single day. But behind all of that is a need to
TEST. Developers, and the businesses around them thrive on data, and no idea is
dead until the data say that it is. So yeah, this may not be perfect –but it’s
what is going to happen right now, and you’re using the service for free –
you’re along for the ride, period.
This brings us back
to the point I raised earlier – one way or another, you’re going to pay, either
in time or in money. Good content strategy, and engagement-driven content
on ANY platform, is going to give you organic growth, and change how people use
your content online – to the benefit of your business. And it takes some
time.
So, as you look at
the social platforms you use, and how you use them, and what things cost, you
must consider this question: How are you investing in your business – in money,
or in time (or both)?
—
Gray Blue is the founder of Lumberjack Marketing. Follow him on Twitter: @GrayBlue
