FaceBook

This is just a FYI for restaurants using FaceBook to post upcoming events and alert their patrons.
It's a great idea. It doesn't always work. I missed two events over the weekend because the posts did not post on my FaceBook account until late Sunday evening. I missed another event last night because it did not post until this morning (Tuesday). Just be aware in case your numbers for any given event are less than what you thought they should have been.
Sigh
Would have been fun.

[Robin Garr]

Here's another good idea: Post your event here, too.

I operate two Facebook pages, one for church and one for my travel business. One of the great misconceptions is that everyone who likes your page sees your post. Not true at all. Without likes, interactions, and shares, very few people will see it. Which is why Facebook offers the "boost" option where you get to pay them so the people who like your page will see your posts!

I operate two Facebook pages, one for church and one for my travel business. One of the great misconceptions is that everyone who likes your page sees your post. Not true at all. Without likes, interactions, and shares, very few people will see it. Which is why Facebook offers the "boost" option where you get to pay them so the people who like your page will see your posts!

I'm seeing the posts, I'm just seeing them too late to take advantage of them. So it would seem the "boost" you spoke of is of little use. Unless you post waaay in advance.

[Robin Garr]

I'm seeing the posts, I'm just seeing them too late to take advantage of them. So it would seem the "boost" you spoke of is of little use. Unless you post waaay in advance.

No, Kris is absolutely right. Facebook makes money by forcing organizations to buy "sponsored" posts. It's horrifying how few members of a page actually see every post. They throttle it in hope you'll pay tons of money to get the word out. But most little non-profits don't have that kind of money. Facebook is good, but for organizational promotions, it's not perfect.

General thoughts:

1) If you don't have so many that you can't do it, interacting with your "liked" members will increase the chances they see your posts without need for a boost. This is especially true of chat.
2) If you have a relatively engaged community, you can ask/remind them to change their like setting to "see first." As long as you aren't posting four times a day, this is rarely intrusive, and the views will go up significantly.
3) If you haven't already geographically/demographically targeted the scope of your posts, that will also (minorly) help.
4) Facebook, like Google, still values unique content/posting, so avoid sharing generic things. As a great example, I don't have The Hub in Jeff set as like first, but see their posts every time. Other local pages that I have liked that share news articles, etc., as a means of just having content, I rarely, if ever see, even though I'm often at their location.

(Shrugging)
I don't have a great many people I share my Face Book listing with. I don't get a ton of postings everyday. All I'm saying is that I continue to get postings from the few restaurants that I have " liked " and wish to follow on a regular basis long after the post was vital. Sometimes times days later. Monday morning I received a posting , " Join us Friday for...." And the event was LAST Friday. So I got it 3 days late.
Am I to understand that if I have been "friended" by someone or some business that I might not recieve all their posts? It seems so arbitrary.

[Robin Garr]

Am I to understand that if I have been "friended" by someone or some business that I might not recieve all their posts?

That is correct.

It seems so arbitrary.

It's about the Benjamins.

There is some portion of the Facebook algorithm that shows older posts, often in bunches. Twitter has a similar feature but at least they tell you that it is not the most recent news.

Boosting is the only way a business can guarantee posts show up. The higher the number of followers, the more expensive it gets. When this feature was launched, Mark Cuban had a quote that it would cost an insane amount of money to reach each of the Dallas Mavericks followers. Im not convinced the "show first" option shows all the posts, particularly when they have boosted posts from a similar group/business.

As a business owner, I have found Facebook "boosts" to be an effective use of marketing dollars. Much more effective than traditional (radio/tv/print) media. We are able to get in front of customers that are interested in what we sell.

(Shrugging)
I don't have a great many people I share my Face Book listing with. I don't get a ton of postings everyday. All I'm saying is that I continue to get postings from the few restaurants that I have " liked " and wish to follow on a regular basis long after the post was vital. Sometimes times days later. Monday morning I received a posting , " Join us Friday for...." And the event was LAST Friday. So I got it 3 days late.
Am I to understand that if I have been "friended" by someone or some business that I might not recieve all their posts? It seems so arbitrary.

Yes. Facebook prioritizes based on the frequency of your engagement with and the commonality of the people involved, not just for liked pages, but also for friends. "See it First" or "Close Friends" is the solution on the consumer/friend's end, but you cannot drive that from above without requesting interaction. Alternately, while it isn't foolproof, if you change your news feed setting to "most recent" instead of "top stories", you will see almost everything everyone you have contact with has posted in order, without filtering. The "top stories" option, which is both the default and will be set back every time you close Facebook, filters to just the "top", which is determined by an algorithm.

As a business owner, I have found Facebook "boosts" to be an effective use of marketing dollars. Much more effective than traditional (radio/tv/print) media. We are able to get in front of customers that are interested in what we sell.

We have had the opposite experience, though we're in an industry for which social media does not currently apply as much. The last boost I did, even with very restrictive demographic targeting, generally got burned up by people outside the area or age groups defined clicking/liking our boost. Relatively frustrating.

Forget just businesses, I don't even see half of my friends' posts (and I don't have many FB friends, so it's not like the posts are getting lost among all the others).I finally had to put my two best friends on alert, so that I actually get an alert when they post because otherwise they don't show up in my feed.

Wow! Just wow. I had no idea.
First allow me to sincerely thanks those of you that took the time to explain those Face Book inconsistencies. That took much of your time but I am grateful for it. I had no idea the whole FB thing was so vastly tiered. I had assumed it was a little more cut and dry...."like us and friend us and you'll get all our posts." Guess not.

Now, as an advertising medium, I like FB even less. It puts the burden on me to continuously interact with the restaurants FB page before I am notified of special events even after being "friended" by them and liking their page. Hey, I love some of those places but with a full time job, two kids to look after and family spread all over the world it's all I can do to stay in touch with them. No thanks. I'll just keep getting texts from the little Mexican restaurant in St. Matthews regarding their margarita specials. That seems to work well.

Just liking posts helps a lot. It helps us on the business side see how many people are seeing and engaging with our posts and it helps you see more of what we post. Clicking "like" is quick and painless. I often boost posts for $10 and see 3x-4x the return on engagement. The trick is figuring out if that translates to sales. I just boosted a post last week. My normal engagement is about 400 people. With a $10 boost I got 1466 views on my post. Sadly, money talks.

But again, the more posts you "like," the more you will see, is the short answer.