The very famous saying ‘The Rich becomes richer & the
Poor becomes poorer’ is an apt quote for Facebook’s new statement &
algorithm which officially kills organic reach for brands. Here are the reasons for why was it the most ‘expected’
news, boon for the so called ‘rich brand pages’ and bane for the poor ones.
Open for All
Today, every Tom, Dick & Harry has a page on Facebook.
Be it the local barber, street food joints, NGOs, communities or the bigger
brands (every possible domain) are having a basic/ advanced page. When it
started with a strategy of expanding its base, it was all together a great
platform and they did not really imagine the scale of it. And thus it all began
as a free promotion tool to come & open a page. From personal to brands to
communities to groups, everything was free because they were testing the
platform’s profitability. There itself
the issue started. Everyone thought of it as a cheap medium to advertise
because offline and other modes are too expensive.
Changes Often
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| Facebook Algorithm Changes |
From the timeline way of interface, bringing organic reach, people who saw your
posts, news feeds, posts with image will have higher visibility, reducing the
reach to 50%, then 20% something, followed by 10-15%, then 8… 2 and now 0. It
was literally news which was not news. 2% is almost 0 isn't it? There
algorithms on search, reach, personal pages, business page and they changed
once/twice a month
Show me the ‘Money’
baby
 |
| Facebook Monetiztion |
Page, posts, events, fans and reach - everything has been monetized.
Nothing is organic at all on Facebook. Not to quote but sometimes I feel
Facebook promotes itself as wh*re – selling itself too much. I had written a
blog last year in Feb where the concern of Facebook policies on going overboard with
monetization was raised. Nothing has changed in fact it has become worst.
For the Riches
 |
| Paid Fans |
Weren't the brands (the popular one’s) already paying for
everything to be on top of customer recall, on top amongst competitors and socially
extremely active. Whether it was stamp ads, promoted page, promoted posts, paid
apps, event promotions - the brands continue their investments because Social Media
had taken a pie of overall marketing share. So why do we think that this move of
Facebook will affect boardroom decisions now. It would be considered as ‘what
next’ but for some more time the investments will continued on Facebook.
What's in Store for me?
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| Organic Pages |
OK so here we talk about the brands that are completely
organic & have not high fan base but they are fine with it – they are SMEs,
level 2 & 3 brands, NGOs and causes. They are purely driven by interests of
people who have liked them. And they are the ones who are ‘worst hit’ because
with every policy change their reach of messages became less and now it will be
almost zero. Unless the social media team is extremely motivated to continue
their efforts, tag people, comment, share information often or the fans are
dedicated to content that they themselves reach out to read what is new on the
page – the reach will be minuscule.
Predictions, Truth
& Future
Concluding it by writing ‘as if we did not see it coming’, we
all can analyze that popularity of Facebook is dying. And some brands are continuing
their efforts to stay while others feel it is foolish to be on it. Many popular
brands even exited from Facebook while some are just continuing to stay with
daily posts. It is like living your life when you know your last day (remember Last
lecture). In the end, it will be their brand’s vision & strategy that will
define how they are tackling with situation and staying/coming out WISELY.