Some businesses are just now beginning to market themselves on Facebook and creating business pages. Well, it might be too late to begin those efforts.
Lately, Facebook users have been a lot more picky about the pages they choose to “like” because of the way that these pages become linked to their profiles.
When Facebook introduced the new profile layout, users could choose which pages they wanted linked to their profile. I “unliked” a lot of pages simply because I didn’t like the my profile looked.
Before, I would become a fan of just about everything – to be support my friends, to satisfy my curiosity, or to participate in a joke. Now, I am much more judicious about what I “like” on Facebook.
Lately, I have noticed that my Comma ‘n Sentence page has been rapidly losing Facebook fans. Wisdom would dictate that the fans who stick around are my loyal fans. However, casual fans can be useful too, and I don’t want to lose them.
Have you ever been a casual fan of something, and then one day saw something that really struck you? I am losing people who might be interested in one thing I post in the future that might convert a casual fan to a loyal fan. Your business/band/organization needs casual fans.
As a business owner, you can’t really do anything about Facebook’s policies. More than likely, people aren’t leaving your fan page because of you. They are just freaked out about privacy and reconsidering the choices they make.
I know it’s kind of dumb to talk about Facebook fans like they actually mean something, but if the changes Facebook makes negatively impact businesses that are trying to advertise and create a presence there, those businesses are going to be less likely to use Facebook as a marketing tool.
Facebook is sabotaging its own business model, which may not have been right for the site in the first place. If Facebook developers had let users dictate the direction of the site, would it be a better social networking tool today? Would they have found a way to monetize it?
Twitter has evolved based on user interaction and feedback, but Facebook has been pushing new policies and usage mandates down users’ throats. You can only try to fit a square peg into a round hole for so long.
(Photo by lanchongzi)
I don’t use Facebook that frequently anymore, but I did clean up the pages I “like” when they changed the layout (you made the cut).
The main reason why I did this is because I feel the way these pages are now presented makes it seem more like you actually support every single thing you “like.”. At first, I became a fan of things I simply wanted to keep tabs on, whether or not I truly liked it. This included local politicians I don’t personally support, local businesses I don’t actually frequent, etc. Once the new layout came, I removed most of the things I didn’t truly like.
This is definitely counterintuitive to what a business would hope to accomplish by having a Facebook page. Sure, they want to make sure their devoted customers feel appreciated, but ultimately they want to use it to bring in new business and it’s not going to do that for them if they’re only broadcasting to people who would be their customers regardless. If I were a small business looking to establish myself in social media today, the Facebook page is still a must simply because of the size of the potential audience, but I think it’s clear that Twitter and Foursquare are the best outlets for businesses today.
I do not believe this to be counterintuitive in the least. Granted a business has people already searching for them but that is where the power of “like” helps their brand grow. For a business who has a Facebook page the game is to have their fans engage their brand and share what they like with their friends. It is what is referred to as The Branded Viral Loop. I “like” something, my Facebook friends see it and if they are interested they click on it. They get directed to the brands page or website and in turn they can like that page, brand, article, etc. The Viral Loop.
Thanks to the Open Graph when I now visit a site I can see what my friends were interested on that site as well. Take CNN.com for instance, there you have an excellent example of the open graph.
An argument can certainly be made for Twitter but Foursquare in terms of being an outlet for driving customers into a business has not yet emerged.
Just my 2 cents…
When facebook changed the setup of our profiles, I found myself appearing to like music I didn’t even listen to. A few of my friends have pages for their music projects that I supported simply because they were my friends. Once facebook pulled the profile overhaul on us, I unliked anything that made its way into my “likes and interests.” If it stayed put under “show other pages,” it was safe.
Here I am commenting on something over a year old, but Google led me to you for a reason (praise the Google, praise…). Ahem, yes, anyway, I’m feeling the sting of some unlikes on my podcast’s page, which on a roundabout way brought me here.
To answer your question, the biggest thing that makes me unlike a Facebook page, or unfollow a Twitter account, is too many posts all at the same time which are largely self-serving. Case in point from Twitter – I’m a fan of an independent artist who’s really talented and I wanted to show my support for her, but when I go look at my Twitter feed and find her repetitive ads clumped 6 in a row over and over filling up my stream, I finally had to go put an end to it. Doesn’t mean I dislike her … I just didn’t appreciate her lack of marketing etiquette.
Hope this helps! Especially since you’ve probably long-forgotten this post.