Blogger: Janet Kobobel Grant
If you’re like me, when you head to a social media site and discover it’s been revamped once again, you feel your blood pressure rising. Partly because you’re weary of how often changes occur but also because you suspect you’ll need to fight your way back to connect with potential readers and fans. Building a social media presence is hard work, but when the “wizards” behind the site keep changing the rules, our challenges increase.
Well, Facebook recently announced a makeover, which is to be instituted in January 2015. Here’s what you need to know about Facebook’s latest revamp to keep yourself connected to other Facebookers.
In essence, Facebook tells us these changes will make your wall feel less promotional. It will be harder for “organic brands” to appear on your wall, even if you’ve liked that brand’s page.
FB decides if a post is too promotional using three criteria:
1. Posts that suggest people buy a product or install an app.
2. Posts that encourage people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context.
3. Posts that reuse the same content as ads.
Facebook did mention in its announcement that brands can buy ads. Um, if I feel overloaded with ads that pop up on the side of my wall and more and more frequently in the middle of regular posts, I’m not sure FB is protecting me from exposure to companies’ messages.
I get #3, but #1 and #2 would seem to limit an author’s ability to mention a new book release with, say, a link to Amazon. Or for an author to increase email subscribers through contests, as #2 would suggest. (I don’t know what to make of “no real context.” I guess that means I can offer a free stack of books, but could I offer a basket of goodies?
Don’t get me wrong: I’m all for Facebook going back to feeling like the genial, laid-back point of connection it used to be, but the decision to only allow certain posts to show up on my wall strikes me as more and more confining for Facebook users. Corporations still can be visible to me, but people I actually know and care about have shrinking visibility.
To read in detail about these changes, here’s a helpful article. Be sure to read the comments as well, since they provide various perspectives.
In another new move, Facebook has created an app that you can use on your mobile device that enables you to view only posts within specific groups. So, if you’re very connected to a FB group and often go to Facebook to check out that group’s conversation, this app enables you to head directly there.
For authors who have created a group for fans, for those who have street teams, and for FB users who have writerly groups with ongoing discussions, this app could prove very helpful.
You can read more about it here.
What do you wish Facebook would do differently? How do you use Facebook to “up” your professional presence?
TWEETABLES
What do Facebook’s upcoming changes mean to authors? Click to tweet.
Facebook revamps the rules once again. Click to tweet.
I wish Facebook would give users the ability to decide what content they want to see for themselves. On an art website I’ve used, DeviantART, it gives users the ability choose what they want to see when they watch someone. (Users have journals, art, and collections.) This allows the user to decide if they want to see what the person collects/likes, if they’d rather see the person’s photos, or simply watch the journals. On Facebook, it chooses what it thinks I want to see, which means I miss a lot of stuff I do want to see, and I see things I don’t want to see. It used to be better about letting the user choose.
For this reason, I do not yet have a Facebook page.
Jessi,
I couldn’t agree with you more. Facebook should allow users to choose, not choose for them. In fact, ALL social media should be this way.
But Facebook has to find a way to make money, so they’re going to give priority to companies that purchase space over people that just want to connect.
Hmmm, the phrase “no real context” needs some context.
I started my own Facebook page, but I never launched it–I have two major concerns: Do I have the time to use it appropriately? Can I be sure it comes across the way I intend? Your post, Janet, raises more flags about the second issue. Thank you for the early alert.
I agree, Shirlee, that “no real context” seems subjective. How does FB determine context?
There’s a high probability I’m naive, but, as a crazed and obsessed Facebook page user, I’ve found there’s usually a way to work within Facebook’s new algorithms. Granted, compared to the “old days” of FB when anything and everything seemed to receive equal attention, views have declined. Yet, still and going forward, the more interaction we have with those going to our page, the more views we receive (and shares). So, while more changes bring yet more challenges, I’m up for it. FB and I get along. But then, I’ve probably had too much coffee this morning and my rose-colored glasses have turned a brilliant shade of ruby-red 😉
Jaime, it’s nice to hear your perspective. I feel as though it’s harder and harder to be visible, and I wonder why I keep having to learn new tricks to be visible. I really think FB’s answer to my frustrations would be to pay for ads. But, wait, I’m not actually selling anything; I just want to connect.
*like* 🙂
Janet, thank you for keeping us up-to-date. I use Facebook to share inspirational nature pictures and words as I do on Twitter and my blog. My purpose is to bless others and draw in a potential readership that is genuinely curious about what I will eventually have published.
It sounds like I’d better set aside money if I ever plan to press the “Boost Post” or “Promote Page” button. Isn’t Facebook getting clever?
I’m so glad that God’s top and bottom line is love.
Blessings ~ Wendy ❀
I wonder if, for those of us who aren’t selling anything, we won’t just give up on Facebook, as our ability to connect grows ever dimmer, and move onto some other venue. As ads increase, won’t we become ever more disenchanted?
Do you have another venue in mind, Janet?
Jenni, I don’t, but I haven’t really looked. I’m sure there will come a day…
I just heard about Ello “Asimple, beautiful & ad-free social network.Ello’s minimal design puts emphasis on high-quality content, and makes it easy to connect with the people you really care about. Ello does not allow paid ads, and will never sell user data to third parties.”
I’m in the process of setting up my account right now (multi-tasking!). I’ll be curious to see how it plays out.
Amelia, thanks for mentioning Ello. I checked it out; it looks beautiful and uncluttered.
I’m planning on having a book giveaway on my blog after Thanksgiving. I hope to still be able to advertise it on FB … 🙂
You should, Shelli. The changes are slated to begin on January 1, 2015. 🙂
Ah, thank you, Jeanne … I missed that. 🙂
Thanks for this breakdown on the upcoming changes, Janet. I read the email that came this weekend, but your article and the one you linked to helped me see the broader changes coming.
I wish I could still see more friends’ posts. When Facebook changed what posts showed on my wall, I found I was missing out on updates from people I care about. I also wish it was easier to get my author page more notice. I’ve done a few things, like post when more people in my circle tend to be on Facebook, but it’s still hard to get it noticed. 🙂 These are just small things.
I’ve navigated their previous changes and I’ll navigate this one. I will agree with Wendy above that Facebook is definitely getting creative in getting people and businesses to a place where it’s much more attractive to buy ads to be seen on Facebook.
I don’t know about you, Jeanne, but my wall has so many entries, sometimes I don’t realize that people I want to keep up with have dropped off. Then weeks, maybe months later, I’ll think about someone and realize I have no idea what’s been going on with them. Since I indicated to FB that I wanted to keep up with that person, I’d appreciate it if FB took my decision to friend someone seriously. Instead, Pottery Barn is bound to be on my wall several times a week.
Yes, I’m with you. I just found out about a friend who’s chronically ill. I never saw it on my wall, and hadn’t checked theirs lately. It seems like Facebook is making their social network more and more about what they want and less and less about those who people it and want to connect with . . . people.
And Pottery Barn? That’s frustrating.
I have no idea what I’m doing on facebook. I just post stuff and hope someone will enjoy it. Sounds like even the people who know how to work the system are ending up like me and having to relearn. So I’ll just keep plugging along.
Fortunately, if we search online, we generally can find articles that help us to crack the Facebook system. But it’s work to find those articles and then to employ new practices.
The game keeps changing. It certainly makes my head spin, to keep up with so many different sites!
Thanks, as always, Janet, for your helpfulness. I was just wondering over the weekend why the top of my newsfeed is filled with updates that are 48 hours old. And why do I see so many videos all of a sudden? As if Facebook wasn’t time-consuming enough already. Still, I’ve connected with many, many people I never would have met otherwise, so I think I’ll study up and try to make the best of it.
Meghan, notice that on your FB home page, all the way to the left is a tab “News Feed.” Have you noticed that? If you click on that, you have a choice to see “Top Stories” or “Most Recent.”
Somehow, even when I hit “most recent,” it always reverts back to “top stories.”
But that partially keeps all the OLD updates from showing up. 🙂
Thanks for this tidbit, Shelli. We all need to help each other.
Thanks, Shelli. Going there to try it now.
I’ve got a love/loathe relationship with Facebook. I loathe it because I cannot control exactly how *I* want to use it. But I love it because it’s been my introductory contact with hundreds of other writers and readers, and the day to day contact with friends I rarely see, and family members I love and miss. The wildest thing? I’ve made friends with people I’ve fangirled from afar. Who’d ever have guessed I’d chat with Magua over the perfect sentence to instill fear.
Jennifer, the connections are wonderful. It’s just that they’re becoming harder to make to begin with and then harder to maintain than they were in the past. And we won’t be going back; in the future, they’ll be increasingly more difficult, as FB works harder to make more money.
When I get frustrated with FB not giving me the contact I want, I remind myself that my FB page is not really my page. It belongs to Mark Z and others who own FB. I use it, but it doesn’t belong to me like my website/blog or email list. Thanks Janet, for discussing FB’s recent changes.
Davalynn, thanks for reminding all of us of that stark truth. It feels as though we own our space on FB, but we’re just renters (who aren’t paying rent even!). If we want serious control, we can attain that only on our websites and emails. But depending on what the government decides about the Internet’s future and with bandwidth, we might be relegated to the lowest of the low compared to the gigantic online presence of corporate America.
I found it really interesting lately when I posted an image advertising a big contest I was running to celebrate the launch of my new website. I clicked “Boost Post” and opted to spend $20.
They came back and said I couldn’t boost that post because there was too much text in the graphic.
Seems to me if FB wants to make money they would let me boost a post even if it has text in it. Instead they rejected my $20. Thankfully, the post still garnered enough attention that the number of people reached ended up being about the same as what they predicted it would be had I received the “boost”. So the good news is I saved the $20. But it left me scratching my head.
Karen, wow, a rejected “boost”!? How odd. If you don’t have sufficient text to engage people and get them to respond as you want, what would be the point of a boost? The scenario turned out fine for you, but I don’t even know what to think about the rejection. Oh, maybe they knew you were an author and decided rejection was a part of a writer’s life anyway? (Just kidding. I know TONS of readers love your books and so does your publisher.)
Ha! Maybe. I think there is some rule about text in the graphic itself. The post accompanying the graphic can be as long as usual, but the graphic itself has to be less that 20% text or something. Maybe they are wanting to encourage ad sales at a high price point than a simple boost? Not sure. But it seemed odd that they turned down my money.
Karen, I suspect you’re right: The goal was for you to buy an ad rather than a boost.
Absolutely true! Facebook does all the choosing for you. In fact, it also chooses what you can see. How many of you knew that? If you post something too many times, or something they don’t like, they remove it or penalize you. What happened to freedom of press. Meanwhile, at the same time they show twisted, vulgar photos that advocate animal cruelty.
Thanks for sharing!
Regards,
S.J. Francis
While I understand that Facebook isn’t owned by the vast majority of its users, it’s still frustrating that FB is controlling what is shown to me.
Janet,
I’m so with you on this! FB has become extremely frustrating. Yes, I get that it’s THEIR venue, but their increasing changes and tactics seem sneaky to me. And heaven help us if we have more than a few hundred friends–we rarely see their updates!
I miss connecting with those special folks I once did because I no longer see what’s happening in their world. Or if I do, it may be days later.
I do refresh frequently, as Shelli said above, but “Most Recent” content doesn’t quite work like one would expect.
FB may be the biggest kid on the block for now, but as we all know, “big” things don’t always last forever. We’ll see.
Just another reason for authors to have a blog or at least a home base, as Michael Hyatt recommends. That’s ours–we get to choose how to use that medium and we have control over the content.
Thanks for speaking to this!
Cynthia, I so agree with all you wrote. I think Facebook has become too convoluted to know how to use to bring the results we want and makes changes too often. It’s exhausted to try to keep up, and most people want SOMETHING to stay the same on social media.
Perhaps this latest approach will challenge authors to be more creative in their Facebook postings. I won’t mind at all if I never have to see “buy my book,” or “check this out” again. I’m hoping “you won’t believe what happened next,” and “when I saw this, I laughed until I cried” will go away too.
What ever the medium . . . . the core of author marketing remains:
Figure out where your potential readers are gathered.
Go stand in front of them.
Make lots of “Noise” until they notice you.
(Try to be funny also)
I wonder how long it will take for another social media platform to TRULY rival Facebook? Facebook wasn’t built in a day. It’s taken years, and all the features we rely on – especially Facebook pages – were not available to begin with.
I hadn’t heard of Ello until I read this post, so I’m intrigued to try it out. Another one I have heard of recently is Tsu, and have just this week signed up for an account. https://www.tsu.co/KiwiElle Feel free to join me!
My only connections on there so far are 2 family members LOL. Not much different really from when I first started on Facebook several years ago. I don’t see many of my other Facebook friends on there yet, except for a few CCM musos.
It must be only a matter of time before there exists a viable alternative to Facebook, as a social media platform that appeals to readers and writers.. without it being another Goodreads. So in the meantime, I’m happy to try out these other ones for a while and see if they appeal, while still continuing my presence on Facebook – where the majority of the audience still “hangs out”. 😉
Ellie, I think we’re all hanging out at Facebook for now. But I, like you, am keeping my eye on the door to see if a new “version” of FB emerges that at least starts out uncomplicated and just happy to have people come join the party. I’ll check out Tsu. Thanks for bringing it to our attention.
Thanks for this Janet. It’s good to know the changes in simple language rather than the mumbo jumbo of long terms & conditions. And it is frusstrating the way the rules are always changing to make it harder to connect with our fans/readers.
BTW there is a facility on FB called Interests – in which you can add the public pages you are interested in. I have one called writing & add writing related pages. Then, by clicking on ‘Writing’ (on the left hand side of the news feed under groups) I can see the notifications from the pages I’ve selected. It helps me but is somewhat complicated to explain to fans. Another thing that helps, though is not infallible, is making sure you click ‘get notifications’ on pages you are interested in.
Jeanette, thanks for those user hints. I’ll give those a try and see if my wall stops offering me so much that I’m so little interested in.