Facebook company greed could hurt small businesses..

http://dangerousminds.net/comments/face ... iends_back

A lot of business use Facebook to connect with their customers and now FB is charging for businesses, bands, blogs, etc to post otherwise only 10% of your followers or "likes" will see the content. For something like a goofy food cart with 735 "likes" (me) they want to charge 5 bucks a post. For someone like say, Texas Roadhouse? It's a HUGE expense. This article sheds light on the insane greed.

Thoughts? Should businesses abandon facebook? Does anyone use facebook as a primary marketing effort? Would you pay to post?

From what I am reading this is only if your page offers a coupon or deal or ad. Not basic posting. The fee will be assessed based on how many people your business caters to. It's basically a 'Pay to Promote' feature that can get your item more 'air' time. All regular features will be free to both people and businesses.

http://articles.latimes.com/2012/sep/20 ... s-20120920

The writing was on this wall when Facebook went "public" and then promptly tanked.

Yes, you can still post for free but only 10% of your audience will see it. Otherwise, you have to fork up the dough. My traffic on my goofy little page went into a coma after I posted Monday. Like a free fall in traffic.

It should act as a great example of how greed can destroy.

The writing was on this wall when Facebook went "public" and then promptly tanked.

Bingo! Did anybody really think businesses would be allowed to post and promote for free indefinitely? Not as long as there is a dollar to be made. You get what you pay for.

So I'm in a position here that I never thought could possibly exist- I'm gonna have to side with Facebook on this one. That's right. Mr. Pro little guy, anti corporate left winger server-sider-wither kinda feels that it's fine for Facebook to do that. I mean, they are providing you a service. It's got to be paid for somehow. You weren't born with inalienable rights to Facebook, if you get to connect with customers build a larger base and profit as a result, why is it terrible or "greed?" In fact, I would argue that it's more than fair considering that you only pay $5 and a larger business has to pay more. Yeah, it feels dirty, but I can't see what Zuck is doing wrong here.

So I'm in a position here that I never thought could possibly exist- I'm gonna have to side with Facebook on this one. That's right. Mr. Pro little guy, anti corporate left winger server-sider-wither kinda feels that it's fine for Facebook to do that. I mean, they are providing you a service. It's got to be paid for somehow. You weren't born with inalienable rights to Facebook, if you get to connect with customers build a larger base and profit as a result, why is it terrible or "greed?" In fact, I would argue that it's more than fair considering that you only pay $5 and a larger business has to pay more. Yeah, it feels dirty, but I can't see what Zuck is doing wrong here.

Jeremy,
I thought this and I have to agree ( but hated to post it as a Corporate Marketing left-winger ). I totally support small businesses getting their message out- but it has to be paid for somehow. It is kind of sneaky of Facebook to start off with a free service, then transition to "paid for business use" once the user base was established and we felt like we "needed" Facebook, but that's a common model for electronic-based communication. Other marketing communications ( ads, print, TV, mail, etc) cost money. It was the plan for Facebook to monetize their offering at some point.

Adam,

I feel truly bad for you as I know your model was built on Facebook to tell people where you are. Have you looked in Twitter to get your current location out?

Deb

So I'm in a position here that I never thought could possibly exist- I'm gonna have to side with Facebook on this one. That's right. Mr. Pro little guy, anti corporate left winger server-sider-wither kinda feels that it's fine for Facebook to do that. I mean, they are providing you a service. It's got to be paid for somehow. You weren't born with inalienable rights to Facebook, if you get to connect with customers build a larger base and profit as a result, why is it terrible or "greed?" In fact, I would argue that it's more than fair considering that you only pay $5 and a larger business has to pay more. Yeah, it feels dirty, but I can't see what Zuck is doing wrong here.

I guess the problem I have with this whole thing is it feels so bait and switchish.

Facebook allows you to feed all your users all your content and allow businesses to effectively advertise for free......as long as it benefits Facebook. By that, I mean it looks like a lot of this activity was instigated pre-IPO which benefits Facebook by driving traffic to the site. More users should equal more IPO dollars.

They milk the market for all they can in an IPO that promptly crashes and face huge pressures on new ways to monetize the site. Users and businesses who are ingrained and may have spent significant amounts of money developing Facebook campaigns now face a dilemma.

They don't affect me one way or the other, I'm an old IT dude that doesn't use Facebook personally or for our businesses. I'll just say that Facebook has done nothing illegal or immoral, but based on the way Zuck acquired the site and so much of what they do with their user data since then just doesn't pass the smell test for me.

My .02.

I'm in that bait and switch category. We've used Facebook for the past several years rather successfully to get our message out about events and new products. I've even bought ad space from them a time or two as well to help pitch in for what was a free product. I've seen a big drop in the number of people receiving our posts since this has come into play. I'm going to be curious to see what it does to Facebook traffic in the end when businesses stop using the service, or do not pay for the service and use the 10% model.

I'm guessing they could not make enough money selling the ad spaces that they have and decided that they could make more money this way. We'll wait and see how it works for them in the end. I guess I'm going to have to get people to follow us on Twittter (@KegLiquors by the way) since that is still free for now.

So I'm in a position here that I never thought could possibly exist- I'm gonna have to side with Facebook on this one. That's right. Mr. Pro little guy, anti corporate left winger server-sider-wither kinda feels that it's fine for Facebook to do that. I mean, they are providing you a service. It's got to be paid for somehow. You weren't born with inalienable rights to Facebook, if you get to connect with customers build a larger base and profit as a result, why is it terrible or "greed?" In fact, I would argue that it's more than fair considering that you only pay $5 and a larger business has to pay more. Yeah, it feels dirty, but I can't see what Zuck is doing wrong here.

So you would pay to post for your band? I wouldn't. From my understanding, and it is limited yes, they make advertising dollars based on the millions of page views they create (those little ads on the right?) similar to google ads. But after the stock price tanked then they start this. And really I wouldn't be so perturbed if they were just not so dang greedy.

I'm small fries. But! 5 bucks a post (I usually post everyday sometimes twice) for five days a week is 25 dollars a week. 4 weeks a month that's around 100 per month. 1200 per year which is more than my insurance. It's a ridiculous marketing expense for a service that was free, that made them BILLIONS, and so now they wait until every business out there for the most part has a page and now they want us to grab our ankles. No. It's silly when they are already making money off of advertising. If it was a reasonable price I would consider it but not a 5 dollars a post no way.

Facebook is not worth the expense. Twitter is more direct and immediate. I get a way better response from Twitter. It's just sad that they have to be so greedy and not reasonable.

So you would pay to post for your band? I wouldn't. From my understanding, and it is limited yes, they make advertising dollars based on the millions of page views they create (those little ads on the right?) similar to google ads. But after the stock price tanked then they start this. And really I wouldn't be so perturbed if they were just not so dang greedy.

I have, yes.

And i have to say I think there's a lot more speculation about what the plan is/was than actual knowledge. I'm gonna bet this was in the works long before any IPO.

I've seen this post by a few business websites, so there might be away around the new policy.


ATTENTION! Facebook now requires page owners to pay to promote updates if we want our content to be seen by more of our fans. If we don't pay to promote our posts, only about 10% of our fans receive updates on their Facebook homepage feed.

To keep RECEIVING ALL POSTS FROM US you have to open our page, hover the mouse on the "Like" button near the gear symbol. In the pop-up select "ADD TO THE INTEREST LISTS". Then create an interest list (Make a Name for your sites). Then when you select that interest list you will see ALL of our posts.

I've seen this post by a few business websites, so there might be away around the new policy.


ATTENTION! Facebook now requires page owners to pay to promote updates if we want our content to be seen by more of our fans. If we don't pay to promote our posts, only about 10% of our fans receive updates on their Facebook homepage feed.

To keep RECEIVING ALL POSTS FROM US you have to open our page, hover the mouse on the "Like" button near the gear symbol. In the pop-up select "ADD TO THE INTEREST LISTS". Then create an interest list (Make a Name for your sites). Then when you select that interest list you will see ALL of our posts.

Soooo... you are putting the burden of YOUR advertising on your customers? Hmmm...

You guys need to understand how Facebook works before you criticize them.

They aren't blocking your posts. Most people only display highlights on their walls. If you go to Facebook you can sort your wall by "Most Recent" or "Top Stories". The default is "Top Stories" and in fact it will switch back to "Top Stories" even if you change it. "Most Recent" shows everything in chronological order. Nothing is hidden. All your posts show up. "Top Stories" only shows you close friends and what Facebook wants you to see or what someone has paid to make sure you see.

So the problem isn't Facebook. The problem is your users don't know how to see what you post. Also, if they go to your page they will see everything. Yes, you can pay Facebook to put your post in their "Top Stories" and make sure it is seen (just like you can pay Google to put you at the top of their search results, as you can Bing, Yahoo, Twitter, etc...). Do so if it's that important to you. Or explain to your followers how to use Facebook properly, or have them go to your page if they love you so much.

The second article is just a Groupon like service FB is going to begin offering that you will have to use if you want to offer coupons or deals to your followers. They are offering it for free at first, then will begin charging for it. If you want to offer coupons of discounts through FB you will have to use that service.

It's funny to me to watch restaurant owners who charge $3 for a soda complain that Facebook is trying to get a return on their investment. Did you think Mark Zuckerburg created Facebook just to make the world a better place?!?!?

Understand the technology if you are going to use it.

You guys need to understand how Facebook works before you criticize them.

They aren't blocking your posts. Most people only display highlights on their walls. If you go to Facebook you can sort your wall by "Most Recent" or "Top Stories". The default is "Top Stories" and in fact it will switch back to "Top Stories" even if you change it. "Most Recent" shows everything in chronological order. Nothing is hidden. All your posts show up. "Top Stories" only shows you close friends and what Facebook wants you to see or what someone has paid to make sure you see.

So the problem isn't Facebook. The problem is your users don't know how to see what you post. Also, if they go to your page they will see everything. Yes, you can pay Facebook to put your post in their "Top Stories" and make sure it is seen (just like you can pay Google to put you at the top of their search results, as you can Bing, Yahoo, Twitter, etc...). Do so if it's that important to you. Or explain to your followers how to use Facebook properly, or have them go to your page if they love you so much.

The second article is just a Groupon like service FB is going to begin offering that you will have to use if you want to offer coupons or deals to your followers. They are offering it for free at first, then will begin charging for it. If you want to offer coupons of discounts through FB you will have to use that service.

It's funny to me to watch restaurant owners who charge $3 for a soda complain that Facebook is trying to get a return on their investment. Did you think Mark Zuckerburg created Facebook just to make the world a better place?!?!?

Understand the technology if you are going to use it.

Facebook was already making money hand over fist because of all the data mining from users. Where do you think Zuckerburg got his billions before this fee went into effect? The users on FB were already "paying" FB with the amount of data they allowed them to collect. This is just greed plain and simple.