I try not to write articles like this, as social networks have played a large roll in the success of my company, but ever since Facebook introduced “Promoted Posts” for Pages, many small businesses, like my own, are no longer able to reach our full audiences.

Facebook’s Promoted Posts

Not too long ago, Facebook became a public company, backed by investors like you and me, and like any public company, investors are looking at how they are making money. Queue, Promoted Posts.

Facebook’s idea, is that it’s able to algorithmically judge which of your Fans will be interested in your posts, and which Fans could care less. So in return, only a portion of your Fans will see your posts in their News Feed.

Facebook’s Solution

Of course, Facebook doesn’t see this as an issue. After all, according to it’s all-knowing algorithm, it knows exactly which posts your Fans will/will not be interested in. However, if you actually want to reach your full audience (crazy thought, right?), Facebook has a solution!

PAY FOR IT!

Promoted Posts for Pages allows a Page owner to pay, in order to reach a larger percentage of their own audience. Yes, let me repeat that. If you actually want your post to reach your own fans, you must pay to promote that post. Let’s take a look at what that looks like.

Current Reach

Currently, I have just above 33,000 Fans. That’s 33,000 people who, I assume, found me through my website, YouTube, Twitter, etc. 33,000 people who, I assume, are interested in Photoshop tutorials. Yet, out of 33,000 people, it seems that a maximum of 9,000 people are actually seeing my posts in their News Feeds.

“Well, maybe the rest just don’t check Facebook.”

That’s a valid argument, but I have been able confirm with several people who have Liked the IceflowStudios Page, that some of my posts do not appear in their News Feed, even with the infamous Most Recent sorting option turned on. They are only able to see those missing posts by navigating to the IceflowStudios Page.

Promotion Options

So, let’s assume you want to reach a greater number of people, including those who have already Liked your Page. What options are available? Well, the price range varies based on how many Fans you currently have. The more you have, the more you’re going to pay. In the graphic below, you can see what options are available to me.

If you’re having a hard time understanding the graphic above, if I want to reach all 33,000 of my fans, I would have to pay Facebook $30 for that one individual post! And even then, it’s not guaranteed to reach all 33,000 Fans. It seems it’s a ‘give or take’ estimate.

The second option is if I want to reach ‘people who like your Page and their friends’. This one I can understand, and have no objection to. If I had any interest in promoting my posts to a new audience, I would have no issue paying for advertising.

Conclusion

Paying to promote your posts to a new audience, I can completely understand, but paying to reach your own Fans is beyond ridiculous. Facebook users “Like” a page for two main reasons.

One, they enjoy the work that is produced by that company/artist.
Two, they want to be kept up to date with any future happenings from that Page.

Facebook’s new change strips content from many Facebook users who are looking forward to new updates from their favorite brands. It should not be Facebook who decides what their users are interested in. That should be solely up to the user. If they find the content from a specific Page to be lacking in quality, the user has every right to “unlike” or limit what appears in their News Feeds.

Follow Me!

If you want to be sure that my new posts get in your hands, make sure you follow me on Twitter, YouTube, etc. All those links can be found at the top of your browser, above the IceflowStudios logo.