New Facebook Rules Will Sting Entrepreneurs

[HappyFighter]

New Facebook Rules Will Sting Entrepreneurs
Network to Remove Unpaid Plugs in User News Feeds

http://online.wsj.com/articles/new-facebook-rules-will-sting-entrepreneurs-1417133694

 

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[Tyler K]

I've been telling people Facebook is dying for a long time, I dumped all my assets on Facebook 2 years ago as I saw this would happen. These days it's all about Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and even Snapchat.

 

[JamesSJ]

http://www.jonloomer.com/2014/11/18/quit-facebook-marketing/

For my own business FB ads far out perform Google ads in terms of sales generated and sign ups. FB is still an awesome tool and yes, you are going to have to pay to play.

Using the custom audiences to re-market to my site visitors and email lists plus using landing pages to drive people who like my pages to harvest their email addresses has been super successful and much cheaper than Google ads.

 

[wade1mil]

Nah, Facebook won't hurt the entrepreneur.

It will hurt people that are scared to take risks.
People that are afraid to pay to acquire a customer.
People that are afraid to spend $100 to see if people want what they sell.
People that rely on free traffic, viral marketing, word of mouth.
People that want to spend $0.
These people aren't entrepreneurs.

This will help the entrepreneur.
People that are willing to spend $500 to test their product.
People that are willing to lose money to sell their product to grow their business.
People that adapt to changes like this instead of complain and move on to the next hot thing.

 

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[tafy]

I was thinking the same tbh, this will help entrepreneurs or atleast the ones willing to pay to promote. And it will cut down on some of the spam

 

[AndrewNC]

Nah, Facebook won't hurt the entrepreneur.

It will hurt people that are scared to take risks.
People that are afraid to pay to acquire a customer.
People that are afraid to spend $100 to see if people want what they sell.
People that rely on free traffic, viral marketing, word of mouth.
People that want to spend $0.
These people aren't entrepreneurs.

This will help the entrepreneur.
People that are willing to spend $500 to test their product.
People that are willing to lose money to sell their product to grow their business.
People that adapt to changes like this instead of complain and move on to the next hot thing.

^The legend has spoken. I could have said it a lot better myself, but this summary will suffice.

 

[csalvato]

Wah wah wah.

Pay for ads. Never rely on free traffic sources. It's not fair to the platform, the consumer or your business to delude yourself in thinking you can get free exposure and traffic.

 

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[Digamma]

Nah, Facebook won't hurt the entrepreneur.

[...]

True. Agreed 100% percent.

Also: as a user I welcome it, because feeds are being swarmed by ridiculous commercial posts (like those the article talks about).

If your brand publishes stuff that gives value, people will share it and talk about it. Funneling that attention into new customers is your F*cking job. That's what having a Facebook page is about.
If you want people just linked to your product's landing page, pay for it, as you're using a service Facebook provides.

Those are two different things. One is to get traffic to a landing page. The other is to build audience and has nothing to do with unpaid ads annoying the shit out of the whole world.

 

[theag]

I like the direction facebook is going with those changes. Weeds out the cheapos and thus improves the news feed quality, which in turn keeps the users there, which guarantees my ROI.

That article is pretty cringeworthy too.

"Christine Lynch says she has spent $6,000 so far this year to boost Facebook posts about Women Owned Business Club, her Long Island, N.Y., service, which charges a membership fee and uses social media to promote the businesses of its 450 members."

What a useless business model... Promoting a business to feminist fans of your fb page just because its women owned and then complaining about your shit not working out? Lol.

 

[Blhhi]

What a useless business model... Promoting a business to feminist fans of your fb page just because its women owned and then complaining about your shit not working out? Lol.

Where is the dislike button?

 

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[HarryR]

I think this will decrease click cost for ads. Well worth it in my opinion!

 

[Digamma]

What a useless business model... Promoting a business to feminist fans of your fb page just because its women owned and then complaining about your shit not working out? Lol.

Judging from their website, the real business model is to separate women from their money with the membership fee, playing on the whole gogrrlz attitude.
Of course you can't say it, because if you do, you're a misogynist. Gotta love the interwebz.

 

[JAJT]

This was already the case. Sometime last year they switched from something like 50-60% visibility to 1% (something like that, I forget the real numbers but it was SIGNIFICANT).

Anyone doing anything on Facebook is probably already used to paying for visibility. I don't even use it all that much (I should though) and I already expect to pay $30-40 to get anything visible to my fans.

 

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[chipmx]

this its way you should a business that its CENTS compatible... you need to have the CONTROL over your business

 

[Shades]

Just used Facebook ads for the first time last week. Love how targeted you can get it. However I had to verify my identity by sending in a photo of my government ID. That was odd.

 

[wade1mil]

Just used Facebook ads for the first time last week. Love how targeted you can get it. However I had to verify my identity by sending in a photo of my government ID. That was odd.

That might be new. I've heard there is a new guy in charge of the advertising department. Lots of changes coming.

 

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[JAJT]

That was odd.

If you knew what games are being played on Facebook from the "high roller" crowd you really wouldn't be THAT surprised.

 

[contract]

I see it as fraud.

If people paid via ads to obtain/build 1,000 likes or 100,000 likes; they should be able to reach ALL of them, or at minimum 50%.

To change the terms now at this point in the game is a total deception. No one was given notice it would be reduced in the future.

It's a smart move though.

Con businesses into thinking they'll reach people if they build their likes up running ads.

Flip the table and tell them everything they spent money on is now worthless.

If you want to reach the audience you already paid for, well, pay us again.

Every single time, over and over.

I'm surprised this isn't the milestone where FB gets sued and suffers a massive loss.

 

[JAJT]

Facebook is a business. They exist to make money.

Facebook is asking the people most able to pay (businesses) to pay to reach their business goals just like ANY OTHER SERVICE.

If you want to look at it another way, there is nothing stopping your 100,000 fans from clicking on your business page and seeing 100% of what you post.

Facebook is merely saying "If you want us to take your posts from your page and put it in front of your potential customers in any meaningful way, you need to pay". One could even argue that the 1% that gets through is nothing more than a veiled "free trial" of the full service they offer.

Do I wish, as a business, that I could make money for free by just sending out messages to my fans? Yeah, that would kick a$$. I'd like a unicorn at the same time while we're at it.

 

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[wade1mil]

Some businesses spend money to acquire new customers and then spend even more money targeting their existing customers.

I'll take a unicorn as well.

 

[Esquire]

I think it is a brilliant move on Facebook's part. They are going to make a killing on this ... and as they should.

I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for people bitching about having to pay for something of value.

Just because you get something for free for a good long while ... does not mean it's a birthright.

I'll gladly pay to play ... or just get more creative in my marketing.

Either way ... it's all good.

 

[MJ DeMarco]

Facebook's #1 stakeholder is their shareholders, not their customers. One of the biggest advantages of being an entrepreneur is this relationship. Any entrepreneur who puts customers FIRST ultimately will gain marketshare as the aforementioned relationship is deleterious to user growth and user satisfaction.

I don't have a whole lot of sympathy for people bitching about having to pay for something of value.

While it stings, people with real products and real business models shouldn't be impacted too much.

It's no different than those people who whine after Google changes their algorithm and their sales suddenly plummet from $1000/day to $10/day. If you're margins are so paper-thin that you can only survive with a ZERO advertising budget, you probably have a product problem.

 

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[csalvato]

I see it as fraud.

If people paid via ads to obtain/build 1,000 likes or 100,000 likes; they should be able to reach ALL of them, or at minimum 50%.

To change the terms now at this point in the game is a total deception. No one was given notice it would be reduced in the future.

They paid for what they got, Facebook likes and opt-ins. I see what you're saying, but when you want free distribution, you need to understand the rules change.

You can target ads to people who have "Liked" your page, which will be a very different ad to those who HAVEN'T liked your page for a variety of reasons. There is still a very high value on likes if you run Facebook ad campaigns.

 

[Lauryn]

Facebook is not a strategy. And really, we've known this company has needed to make money since going public.

 

[Gale4rc]

I hope 'entrepreneurs' quit Facebook because of this and it makes less competition for me.

 

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[JasonR]

This shouldn't shock anyone.

Facebook has become the premium traffic source for many advertisers.

BREAKING NEWS: Facebook Traffic converts really well.

For real, I believe FB traffic will become some of the most expensive - as long as it still converts well.

Will it Facebook last forever? Likely not.

This only hurts Entrepreneurs with a broken business model. Nothing is "free" in business, including traffic, be it SEO or anything else.

If you rely on free traffic, you won't last.

 

[Dinho7]

I'm starting out with Facebook ads for my new eCommerce site. I was originally planning on paying for likes to build a list of relevant fans on FB, but with these new rules I guess it is better to direct traffic directly to my website, and possibly capture them by a newsletter popup offering value? What do you guys think?

 

[theag]

I'm starting out with Facebook ads for my new eCommerce site. I was originally planning on paying for likes to build a list of relevant fans on FB, but with these new rules I guess it is better to direct traffic directly to my website, and possibly capture them by a newsletter popup offering value? What do you guys think?

Yup, thats a bad idea. Send traffic directly to a landing page with a lead magnet or tripwire.

 

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[BigDreamer]

Just used Facebook ads for the first time last week. Love how targeted you can get it. However I had to verify my identity by sending in a photo of my government ID. That was odd.

OK yeah, now that does seem quite odd. Used FB ads for the first time also a few months ago, but sending a photo wasn't requested. Perhaps it's something new.