Jay Leonard
I think Facebook page managers are in for a serious reality check.
This reality check is going to be brought on by two new features Facebook is trying out.
Feature 1 – Get Notifications
Yesterday Inside Facebook reported on a new feature Facebook is rolling out. This new feature will let Facebook users get direct notifications from their favorite Facebook pages, as opposed to relying on the erratic nature of the News Feed.
The feature is called Get Notifications and it’s only for pages. It works just like the “Close Friends” option for personal profiles, that lets you receive a direct notification every time a close friend posts a photo or changes their status.
When you Like a Facebook page, you can then opt-in to Get Notifications from this page every time they publish a new post. See the photo below from Inside Facebook.
From Inside Facebook
Feature 2 – Pages Feed
Jon Loomer and Lisa Jenkins wrote about another feature Facebook is experimenting with – a Pages Feed.
Lisa Jenkins reported on her blog that she saw something new in the Pages section of her Profile, just above the Like Pages link. It said “Pages Feed” (see image below) and when she clicked on it, she was direct to a special News Feed of all the updates from the Facebook pages that she has liked – no friend updates included.
From LisaDJenkins.com
These experimental features prove (at least to me) two important things.
1) Facebook is listening. Yes, everyone hates EdgeRank. I believe that Facebook is trying to help its users (and its page owners) by responding to the outcry over the recent EdgeRank changes.
2) Facebook loves businesses. As a public company, Facebook has an obligation to create revenue for its stakeholders. It needs to make money. Why would it want to alienate the millions of businesses that rely on it to connect with the customers, generate leads and raise awareness?
The reality check for Facebook Page Managers
I have not been able to see either of these new features so I can’t vouch for how they work and if they are user-friendly, but if they become standard practice across Facebook, they will have serious implications for Page Managers.
1) You can’t complain about EdgeRank anymore.
After all, Facebook is now providing you with supposedly (not yet proven) full-proof ways to reach 100% of the fans that want to connect with you.
The fans will have a choice to receive all of your status updates either as a direct notification or in their Pages Feed.
2) You will have to spend extra time and resources to convince your fan base to use these features (and to show them how).
I believe that these new Facebook features won’t be explored or used the way they are intended.
Jon Loomer put it perfectly in his recent blog post about the topic:
No one will use the Pages Feed… Facebook provides tools that could make everyone’s lives easier. Whether it’s privacy settings or friend lists or Interests Lists. Very few people use them. The rest complain about how much Facebook sucks because of X (problem that could have been solved by using one of these things).
We have the options and the tools to control the News Feed, our friend updates and the way we see content on Facebook. But the majority of us just don’t care enough to do the work.
3) You will have to get your fans to care about you and your page – again.
We spend so much time and energy getting people to Like our page, we forget to convince them to stay and engage with us after they do.
The vast percentage of the one billion people currently using Facebook today are not going to take an extra step – either by clicking the Get Notifications button or checking the Pages Feed – to hear every single update from every single brand page they like.
It’s survival of the fittest (which is what EdgeRank was designed to do). Those pages who get the most fans to opt-in for direct notifications will undoubtedly perform better than those that don’t.
Be careful what you wish for
Page Managers – Facebook heard you, loud and clear. You said that your fans hate EdgeRank and that they are not seeing your posts. You claimed that they were upset about this.
With these new features – asking your fans to directly opt-in to direct notifications and by providing a streamlined News Feed jus for pages – Facebook is calling your bluff.
If these features are widely implemented, page managers will not be able to hide behind Facebook anymore and blame the company and its complicated algorithms for lack of interaction, lack of engagement, lack of interest.
Having great content and providing value to your Facebook fans (and your entire online community) is more important than ever.
Only this time, if you are not reaching your fans in the way you would like, you will know that it’s your own fault, and not Facebook’s.
What do you think of these proposed changes? Post your Comment below or on my Facebook Page. Thanks for reading!
photo credit: Durotriges via photopin cc
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Jay Leonard.
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Firstly, I don’t think too many page managers would appreciate your tone.
Secondly, I think you’re grossly over estimating the impact of these changes. Uptake is going to be very low for opt-in notications. As is anything that requires time and effort on behalf of the user. Also, for most Facebook users notifications are personal – I don’t think anyone would want brand pages to meddle in that space. Further, no one currently uses the lists feed, so similarly no one is going to use the Pages feed. If anything it’s just giving Facebook users more power to filter *out* brand pages from their feeds.
I’m a page manager myself and I think we all need to realize that the changes Facebook is making are meant to help us, but we have to get our acts together. (Not all of us, but most of us.) Sorry if I offended you. My point is that users do not want to do anything requiring time and effort. But the fact that Facebook is going to try out Pages Feeds makes me worry for brand pages – perhaps they are going to take page posts out of the regular New Feed altogether.
I, too, agree that a lot of Page Managers wouldn’t like the tone of savvy marketers’ posts on this. Many are fueled by major posts that convincingly (to an untrained eye) are making the case that Facebook is changing. A few months ago, George Takei himself started posting about this months ago. But these posts and articles are cathartic to frustrated page and business owners, and frustrating to marketers who know better.
I do agree that opt-in solutions aren’t the answer, because as you and Jason say, people don’t use what’s already there.
We covered some of the issues here: http://www.searchinfluence.com/2012/10/facebook-promoted-posts/, when we saw a post shared (on Facebook) about “losing” reach due to EdgeRank. I’m not particularly convinced that a large algorithm edit happened (though I looked a much smaller set of pages), but I am convinced that Sponsored Stories and Promoted Posts (to a lesser degree) are a great way to reach out to new people who wouldn’t normally see your page.
Interesting, and I see your point. What I’m talking about is page managers’ tendencies (mine too!) to blame Facebook and EdgeRank when they don’t get the response and engagement that they think they deserve. Instead of blaming the tactic, maybe rethink the strategy – does your content stink? If you are providing content that your online community finds valuable and wants to interact with and share, then you will not have a problem getting in front of your fans (of course, not all of them, that would be impossible, unless you pay). Make sense?