I wish I wasn’t in the middle of scrambling to get a new/old house all ready for us to move in to, oh…TOMORROW, but I am. Since I can’t be on the computer AND working on the move, work has won out. But that doesn’t mean that I haven’t been reading each and every comment as my phone ‘pings’ me to alert me of another new comment on the Calling Out Facebook post. (And if you missed the other Facebook related posts on Knowing Your Reach, I would love for you to check it out and leave me your thoughts there too.

Two recent comments stood out as echoing my sentiments well in the vast sea of opinion and I wanted to take the time to highlight them this morning.

The first one is from Mark Tisdale (who also wrote his own take on the new Facebook promoted posts here). He said:

“This very much echoes my feelings on the matter. I’d rather just pay a nominal fee for having a page than a per post fee so that I hop past edgerank’s wall between me and the people who liked my page in the first place. I’m not surprised this has come to pass because I have been watching a very sure but certain drop in interactions and I have friends who are also page followers who have mentioned not seeing anything new lately, i.e. Facebook pushed my posts so far down they had no idea they existed anymore.

For the people who say “Facebook is a business, get over it” – I think it’s the way they’ve gone about this that bothers people. What if you paid for advertising in the first place to reach your audience? And now you can’t reach them anymore?

More to the point what if instead of finding a way to create a product that fit an existing need, you created the need first? Because that’s what it feels like Facebook did here. Rather than offering advertising to reach a larger audience, they made it difficult to reach your audience and then offered a way for them to see you again. That’s what leaves the sourest taste in my mouth personally.”

The next comment is from Adonna. She wrote:

I totally agree. Small businesses, local businesses, and “I do this on the side” kinds of little businesses are not going to be able to afford to pay to promote their posts on a daily/weekly basis. They’ve worked hard at building up a place to connect, share, and quite frankly have a pretty good time with them (outside of normal business operations) over on Facebook. I’m terribly disappointed in Facebook charging people to talk to their already existing fans. The local bookstore, the local coffee shop or bakery, your local spa, your favorite photographer for your kids – they are all going to be on the losing end of this deal.

I’d much rather that Facebook was just honest about wanting the money, charging some kind of small monthly fee perhaps based on the number of fans. Almost anyone can afford $10 or $20 per month and Lady Gaga can pay according to her own fan base size. The pricing scales that way which is what Facebook would really want to do anyway. As it is now, people must think that their fans are either suddenly totally not into their content or getting disinterested in droves. It’s just not right. Imagine just how many thousands of page owners must be in the dark about all of this.

I never really minded the ads or the *optional* ability to purchase ads. Suddenly, a business page doesn’t really have much choice do they? Those Facebook fans really are being held hostage. I for one don’t need Facebook to thin my personal feed or content at all. I do that myself already with the options they have available. I liked pages to see them. I chose carefully based on the kinds of posts that I saw on their pages in the first place so that I wouldn’t get spammed. Didn’t you?

Google+ is looking way better all of the time. What a shame.

Oh…and can I share a juicy little tidbit of information here? The reason that over 20,000 of you saw my first post on Facebook is because I DID try to play Facebook’s little game. I paid to promote that post. It lasted approximately 8 hours before FB alerted me that it was a violation of their ad policy to promote any stories implicate Facebook. Fair enough– I just hadn’t done my research. (And I am a play-by-the-rules kinda girl.) But really, it worked. You all showed up.

By the way, most of you won’t see THIS post because I can’t promote it. What a shame. And for the record, it looks like even if you DO promote your posts and increase your reach a gazillion times over, those new clicks don’t count in Edgerank (Facebook’s proprietary algorithm to determine who sees your status updates.) Despite over 20,000 hits on that post via Facebook, I have no higher percentage of people viewing my status updates~ usually between 100-200 people is the “percentage of people reached.”

What can I say…it looks like it is what it is. And what it is isn’t good.

So the whole “Calling Out Facebook” hoopla was way bigger than I ever imagined. I just sat down to vent my frustration and whoa! Who knew.

While we’re talking Facebook though, I wanted to check in with you all and have you weigh in on how the Facebook changes are affecting your FB usage. Specifically, “What do you think about the new ‘percentage of people reached’ stats showing up with each update?”

I think that they do EXACTLY what FB wants them to do: they make us crazy and, in turn, want to spend money to promote our posts that so that more people will see them. In a nutshell, it all still makes me feel manipulated.

I loved your comments that we should start our own site for small business owners, but sadly, the beauty of Facebook is that small business owners are able to connect with their friends and customers who aren’t on FB simply because of the brands that they follow. Rather, FB works because we can(or at least used to be able to) get all of our information in one continuous stream of information right on our home feed.

Facebook should take a cue from Twitter here. When I “follow” someone on Twitter I see all of their tweets– in real-time– because I opted to read what they have to say. It seems logical enough for me.

Is this not logical to the folks at FB?

Are YOU finally seeing the promoted posts and people reached statistics on your pages? I’m so curious.

In other news, have a lovely Tuesday! I’m off to paint trim. Come on over. I’m taking volunteers who have skill-z with a paintbrush.

{Edited to add: OH MY!!! When I wrote this little post yesterday I NEVER expected this sort of response. I’ve been away from my computer for the entire day on a road trip to take my daughter to her grandparents for the week, so I apologize for my absence in the discussion. For the record, I do want to add that I am more than good with paying for the utility of my Facebook business page (yearly fee, monthly fee, etc.); however, I would certainly appreciate some clear and forthright communication on what exactly our fees encompass. Following is a screen shot of the FB FAQ page regarding the protected posts that apparently a huge number of people still cannot access. I need to clarify that even a promoted post does not guarantee that it will show up in ALL of your fans feeds, but rather here are the details straight from Facebook: “When you promote a post, it will be shown in the news feeds of more of the people who like your Page than you would reach normally. Friends of the people who have interacted with your post will also be more likely to see the story in their news feeds for up to 3 days from when the post was first created.”

I am still disappointed about how our interactions impact our reach now too. I don’t regularly “interact” with my favorite online fabric shops’ FB pages, but I sure do want all of their posts to show up in my feed because I value having their information. I just don’t have either the time or the inclination to comment on everyone’s updates. It’s a conundrum for sure.

Oh Facebook…what am I going to do with you?}

I don’t get riled up about too much. Well, maybe inwardly, but almost never enough to even say it out loud. But today Facebook crossed the line.

If you happen to have a business or fan page of any type over on Facebook you may or may not have noticed over the past few months that it seemed like not all of your fans were seeing your posts in their feeds. If it felt that way to you, you weren’t losing your marbles, you were right! And today it all makes sense.

When I just skipped over to my Lovespun Studio Facebook page to share a blog update, I had a little notice waiting for me about new “Promoted” posts. Here’s the gist: Right now only certain fans see your updates in their feeds. However, if you now PAY Facebook $5 for an estimated reach of 900 fans or $10 to reach approximately 1600 fans, then your status update will show up in the feed of everyone who “likes” your page.

Here’s my problem. When I like a page, I assume that I will see all of their updates so that I know what is going on with sales, new products or even just be able to interact with that business. I also assume that anyone who likes my business page wants to keep current on all information too. So needless to say, I’ve been frustrated for a while realizing that my updates never ever reach even close to the full number of people who like my page, but today when they touted the ability to reach them IF I pay for it– well, that just made me crazy mad!

I think that advertising is invaluable. It’s worth the price. BUT, not on Facebook. If I want to advertise on Facebook, I would set up an ad to run in the right hand ad-bar.  I don’t want to advertise to my fans. I want to interact with them. I want to be friends with them. I want to get to know them and hear what they want to see from Lovespun Studio. I do not want to feel like there is no way to keep in touch with them aside from PAYING to do it. It feels cheap. And I feel manipulated and completely duped!

What are your thoughts? If you have a Facebook business or blog page, have you noticed this yet? It appears that they are rolling this out slowly and incrementally. This link tells you more, but lots of my friends couldn’t open it.

Such a disappointing day for Facebook.

{If you’d like to read more, also in this series:}

Facebook: Knowing Your Reach

Calling Out Facebook Part 2: My Favorite Comments {and a juicy little secret}