I’ve seen versions of this message posted on a lot of Facebook business pages that I follow:
I am in no way picking on the Bangor Roller Derby. I have seen this at least 20 times in the last few weeks, which is why I thought it would be a good blog article. The rate at which it spread made it seem like some chain letter, so I looked into it.
A few things:
This will work… but differently than you think.
So people can create ‘Interest Lists’ which are basically Facebook versions of RSS feeds. Just to see what this would do, I went to a Maine-based publication and put them in an interest list I created called Maine. Where do these updates go once I do this? Scroll down you Facebook page and look left:
To get to the Interests feed you just created, you have to look low and left on the page. The updates aren’t just in your regular news feed.
Most people won’t understand this is where they need to go to see their subscribed pages, much like most people don’t know about the fact that Facebook has multiple inboxes/folders where users can get messages. In other words, we can ask ‘fans’ to add these features but if they don’t know how to use them, it won’t do a lot of good.
If you concentrate on posting good information people care about, you’ll get more interaction on your page.
There have been countless articles telling Facebook page administrators that number of fans is not as critical as interaction on the page. If more people like, comment, and share your posts, that means they are reading and enjoying the material you are putting out.
Pay to reach your fans when it will pay you back.
Facebook pages with over 400 fans, you have the option to ‘promote’ a post. This means you can pay a nominal fee to make sure more of your fans see your post. If you are holding an event or have some other business-y post that you think would generate a return from increased exposure, I say go for it.
For someone who ran tests with a low budget spends and compared them to no-spend posts, check out this blog article: http://www.momdot.com/paying-for-promotions-on-facebook-worth-it
Asking your fans to do this above and beyond step won’t yield much.
By asking fans to take some extra steps to do something they don’t quite understand, you are making them work harder. As people who own the Facebook page, it should be up to us to provide useful information. And as most people have their own lives, on and off of Facebook, while they likely care about your business, they aren’t going to go out of their way.
For someone driving home this point a little stronger: http://www.jonloomer.com/2012/10/18/your-facebook-fans-dont-care-about-reach/
Facebook makes the rules, we follow.
Facebook is going to change its algorithm, just like Google and other information aggregators do from time to time. We can analyze every little change or just keep doing what we’re doing, enjoying the use of this free and effective platform. We’re doing the latter.
So if you want to add Breaking Even’s Facebook page to a list of interests, feel free. But you don’t need to do it to prove you care.