There has been much discussion amongst Facebook Page administrators as to whether Facebook is sacrificing reach for revenue. At the heart of the matter are reports from a number of administrators that they are seeing Facebook referral traffic to their website drop, even though they are increasing likes on the Page itself.
This seems to have occurred at the same time Facebook is offering Page admins the chance to reach more of their community through promoted posts, which are charged based on how many of those who liked your Page you want to reach. Facebook has been clear that they limit the reach of any post on the Page to a fraction of the total audience (7-15%) to cut down on “spammy posts”. But “promoted posts” seem to offer a way for (paying) Pages to circumvent this admirable objective of de-cluttering news feeds.
Enter Mark Cuban, the outspoken tech billionare and owner of the Dallas Mavericks. This week, he made a very public announcement that he is planning on taking his business elsewhere:
Cuban maintain that Facebook’s focus on revenue is hurting the customer experience and making it difficult for brands to effectively interact with its audience:
In response, Facebook announced the creation of a “Pages only” feed, which will allow Facebook users to see posts from Pages they like. Click here to see your feed. However, like a regular news feed, Facebook gives a higher priority to those Pages that you interact with most.
Will this be enough to assure businesses that their Facebook Pages are still an effective way to reach their audience? Tough to say. But as more people become aware that content is only reaching a small portion of their Facebook community, brands (especially small businesses) will naturally look to find alternatives.