Fellow social media managers: It’s time to have a heart to heart about Facebook and our industry in general.
If you follow the chatter online, then there’s a really good chance you readForrester’s article on how Facebook and Twitter are a waste of time to marketers. At the heart of the story was the idea that Facebook has killed organic reach.
You can spew off statistics all day about the declining organic reach on Facebook, but what did we really expect? The social media industry has spoiled us, softened us and perhaps even ruined us (gasp) as marketers. This is the thing:
Good and effective advertising / marketing has never been free. While it might have seemed like we were basking in the glory of free marketing for a while, it was all just a dream. The brands that won and continue to win on social media have always understood that it takes time, money and resources. Social media marketing is not free. Today, that couldn’t be truer.
You can’t get away with cutting corners in our industry anymore. The platforms and consumers have finally caught up. It’s not that Facebook is killing organic reach, it’s that Facebook and our consumers are demanding more (as they should).
I’m not sure where Forrester read that Facebook is killing organic reach, because I’ve never actually read that. Instead, Facebook simply warned that people would be seeing less PROMOTIONAL CONTENT on their News Feed come January 2015. Read this snippet (and note the highlighted section) from Facebook:
Facebook isn’t killing organic reach, but crappy content. And, promotional content is very different than good content. Promotional content says buy, click, watch, view, me, me and me. Now Facebook is forcing brands to create content that is engaging, relevant and useful content (as it should) to their audience if the want to be seen. Additionally, you also need to pay to play (think targeted and strategically).
So let’s make a vow to wipe our hands clean of the whining. Instead, let’s focus on doing our jobs and adding value, not clutter, to all social media platforms. If you’re strategic about how you approach each platform, create content that is valuable and meaningful to your target consumer and pay for promotion strategically, then I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised at the results.
Reaching and winning the hearts and mind of your consumers has never been easy, but the work required to do it is worth it. Trust me.
