Social Media Column: Leave Facebook alone!

Published in the June 19, 2012 issue of The Edmonton Sun.

Linda’s social media column can be found every Tuesday in the Edmonton Sun.

Leave Facebook alone!

It always makes me laugh a bit when people complain about changes to Facebook.

It seems as soon as Facebook starts rolling out some new features or a new design, without fail, everyone attacks it.

People complain, question why it had to change, threaten not to use it anymore, and then they accept it. Because what else can you do?

Facebook is free. We should be so lucky as to have such a thing in our lives – for free.

My fiancé recently complained about all the ads on his Facebook feed. I just shrug it off. As long as I can still go about my regular Facebook activities, I don’t care if there are a few ads on the side of the page.

Then I heard some complaints about Facebook’s new ‘Promote your Page Posts’ feature.

This has some Facebook Page owners up in arms. The feature launched this month and allows page owners to pay to get their posts seen by more of their fans, because apparently page posts don’t actually show up on too many people’s feeds, even if they ‘like’ your page.

At first it seems like a huge money grab from the social networking giant. How dare they hold back my page posts from my fans, this isn’t fair. But that’s not actually the case.

Facebook has assured me nothing has changed about how your posts are shared with the people who like your page. A lot of activity happens on Facebook and most people only see some of it in their news feeds to begin with. They may miss things because of timing, how many friends they have or pages they like, or which accounts they’ve given priority to in their feed.

The local business owners I spoke to aren’t thrilled about the feature but also aren’t as concerned because they don’t put all their business eggs in one Facebook basket. Smart move.

If you want more people to see your page posts, there are a few things you can do:

-Ask your fans to interact on your page more. The more they interact, the more likely posts will appear on their feed.

-Ask your fans to add your page to their “Interests” list.

-Timing can be key, make sure your posts aren’t going out late at night when less people are on.

All in all, let’s remember Facebook is free. They can add or remove whatever they want and there’s really not much we can do about it.

Let’s just be thankful we don’t have to pay to have people see our status updates.

Some tweets of the week:

@KikkiPlanet: Oh, High Street! I lurv you so much. #yeg #shoplocal

@thecolinium: There are few things I enjoy more than the Saturday breakfast. Makes me wish I had a bigger space so I could invite ALL you people.

@MacsTracks: There are only two seasons in Alberta – winter and construction season. We are now in the latter.

@Wildsau: Does anyone else automatically turn into a ninja when someone touches their phone?

@DKSkittle39: Just had a wonderful lunch at It’s All Greek To Me! & it was amazing! Very good chicken souvlaki! #yegdt #yeg #yegfood

Click here to read the column on the Edmonton Sun website!

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

If you're Edmonton area, subscribe to my newsletter for hyperlocal recommendations on what to do, eat, and things to know this week!
If you're Edmonton area, subscribe to my FREE newsletter for hyperlocal recommendations on what to do, eat, things to know this week, and more!