Facebook sucks balls now

[Artizan]

I am posting this because I know we have an incredible pool of resourceful, intelligent people here who can be very constructive.

It is apparent to me that facebook has completely left page admins with little to zero support when it comes to actually showing a majority of our posts on the fans newsfeed.

YES, I understand, it is a business, and facebook now wants everyone to PAY to promote (actually show) posts in peoples newsfeeds. But, it has gotten beyond ridiculous.

When you are a page admin you can see how many people see your post, if they are organic, viral, etc.

We have over 37,000 fans on the Artizan page. When we started , thousands of fans would see what we post. Now, the average amount of views is FOUR HUNDRED- pathetic.

What is extremely frustrating is we are running an Indiegogo campaign right now for our Fates Warning tour in December, and the primary source we have to expose people to the campaign is facebook. Another thing that facebook does is keep track of LINKS that you post and if you re-post links (lets say once or twice a day) it shows the link to even less people each time. So, it is essentially fricking pointless.

We had three people contribute to our Indiegogo campaign yesterday right when we started. Now, since facebook wont distribute the same link to more fans, we are shooting blanks. I WILL NOT pay to promote a post.

Yep, I am frustrated, because the initial feedback for the campaign was very good. And, no , I am not whining. If the campaign fails, it wont be because of poor construction of the actual campaign.

I would love to hear from Glenn and others that run pages what your experience is with your post footprints... ideas, etc?

Our Indiegogo campaign is here: http://www.indiegogo.com/projects/artizan-fuel-our-fate/x/4764419

 

[Artizan]

Well, one super fan just contributed $250.00 to the campaign- amazing.


Anyway....

 

[Diabolik]

No, I know what you mean....I help run another metal fest facebook page and we post and very little gets seen unless you pay to promote. The key I have noticed is that it is almost best early on if people post right away under the newest thread because it lets their freinds see the post as well. Only issue unless people keep posting under it....it will fall into nothinginess in minutes with the amount of stuff that is on facebook. We have had a few threads take off with lots of post so the visibility reaches far but it just depends each time.

I have also talked to a few people who have paid to have post seen and later they found out that they were not "seen" by many. So you can't even trust that part of it now.

Basically the best solution is to have freinds "share" what ever new post you put on your page.

Sorry for not getting to much good info for you. We are suffering from the same issues as well.

 

[AeonicSlumber]

While I agree that Facebook's monitization efforts have left quite alot to be desired for the rest of us to say the least, having 37,000 likes on FB doesn't really mean anything unless those people are legitimately liking the page because they're fans of the band and want to engage with you and the page.

If you have 15,000 likes from Indonesian or Indian users that are only liking the page because social media is a major communication tool for them and they'll "like" tons of pages just because, rather than legitimate fans liking the page, that contributes to a lack of engagement. Many emerging countries with growing middle class populations will "like" pages just to be part of the larger social media conversation, not necessarily to specifically engage with those communities.

In part, that's why the whole "buying likes" thing is a crapshoot, because you're not actually getting legitimate fans, but just people who will click "like". The main focus for any band is finding ways to get engagement and communication up. The more people talking about your band - the more you will be able to combat the lack of reach your posts get. Not an easy task at all, and there's no definitive answer to achieving that, but it is possible.

 

[Jasonic]

Facebook is good for quick and dirty information..........

There are also MANY other pages within FB where you can post about the campaign.

Post it on the Fates Warning page, on every event page for the tour, etc....

 

[orcslayr23]

I'd suggest posting pictures about your campaign with the link in the picture caption. In my experiences running my band's facebook page, people generally view links the least and pictures the most.

I'm surprised your metrics are so low though. My page has just over 1,000 likes and a "good" post gets 200+ views. Seems like a really low percentage if of your 37,000 fans you only have 400 viewing it.

If you have a lot of youtube subscribers, definitely post a video about it.

 

[Artizan]

If you have 15,000 likes from Indonesian or Indian users that are only liking the page because social media is a major communication tool for them and they'll "like" tons of pages just because, rather than legitimate fans liking the page, that contributes to a lack of engagement.

That is an excellent theory, for sure. I checked the demographics; we have very few fans form India or Indonesia. I did spend time early on focusing on promoting to countries that have a large base of traditional metal fans such as Germany, Italy, France, Greece, Austria, Spain and some in South America (metal is actually huge in certain parts of South America..maybe we could tour there with Iced earth- haha), we had a lot of activity from them early on.

If I post a goofy meme picture I will actually get over TEN-THOUSAND views in 20 minutes. I wish I could embed a link into a meme so when they click the picture they go where I want --hehe...may this is possible??

 

[Element_man]

Best thing to do with the picture thing, since you can't embed links (yet?) would be to put the link in the picture description AND put the link in a comment as well, I'd say. But pictures and possibly some video will gather the most attention and get your weekly "talking about this" rating to go up, so find creative ways to pump your campaign using things besides a link share. Best of luck, by the way!

 

[AeonicSlumber]

Yeah that's another thing. For whatever reason, your reach extends farther when your post is an image or video, which is why alot of bands use their page as a vertiable imageboard. I personally think that's a horrible practice (I mean, memes and such are fine some of the time, but it shouldn't be the extent of the content posted on there), but it does generate higher engagement.

 

[Spiner202]

Just to add to what others have said, the reach is basically lower anytime you post a link. I run a review blog, so all of my content-worthy posts have a link to my review, and I'm lucky if 100 people see those posts (out of 1000 likes). On the other hand, whenever I post a random status (ex: "Anybody heard the new Death Angel") with no link or photo or anything else, it skyrockets to around 300. My suggestion would be to post the status and put the link in the comment. I haven't tried that yet, but I will be from this point.

 

[Metal_Camden]

I too have seen this happen. I do know that photos and trendy looking things ALWAYS get the most hits. When people start to like a specific photo, it will show on their friends walls, that they liked it. Therefore, if you can get people to like a photo, every time the click on it and like it, that will get said photo on their friends news feeds where more people see it.

i have seen photos not have a single like until someone finally likes it after, say 10 minutes. Once people go and start the clicking, it just shows up in other peoples news feeds and boom, starts the reaction. Instagram is also amazing for this and allows you to push one photo to all your social media outlets.

for example, sabrina's trip to MFVF, most of the photos had between 50-100 likes and almost 2,000 'reaches'. Funny picture of floor and sabe, had almost 300 and almost 6000 reaches, simply Because it was funnier than the rest. Battle facebook promotion dollars with clever, funny or trendy photos that have to do with your brand.

 

[Artizan]

Roger that. Good info above.

 

[Urban breed]

Now?
Such an unnecessary narrowing of scope.

 

[miel]

Ty, I will email you some pointers that have proven effective for the PP page.


~Jen

 

[esa]

Camden and others are correct about photos, and you are about to receive pure gold from Jen in the way of pointers.

Your blame of Facebook is misplaced, however. An average user visiting their newsfeed has 1,500 new things to to be potentially shown (source) -- that's hundreds of screenfuls of newsfeed. Consequently, all of us see only a fraction each time, and it is in Facebook's interest and their top priority to find ways to sort the content so that we are shown things that interest us and keep us glued to the newsfeed. The core of that algorithm has always been the rewarding of engagement and interactions - likes, comments, shares. This is really crucial to understand, and I mean no disrespect.

You can "earn" the high visibility for your content the old-fashioned way, over time, by being an engaging, authentic, interesting source of content and interactions rather than a (mostly) one-way billboard, or you have the option pay to promote and get stuff in front of your likers when you really need to.

 

[miel]

You can "earn" the high visibility for your content the old-fashioned way, over time, by being an engaging, authentic, interesting source of content and interactions rather than a (mostly) one-way billboard,

QFT.


~Jen

 

[King Lek]

I rarely use my news feed. I have custom interest lists that I add pages to. I do not know for sure but i seem to get most posts by those I have added to those lists.....though it is hard to tell as even they get slammed with a lot of material and I do not always go on all the lists on a daily basis.

 

[DeJumbi]

You can always make a personal facebook account for connecting with the fans. Friend the people who have liked your page etc...
RD Liapakis from Mystic Prophecy and Magnus Karlsson from Primal Fear both do this, and I'm sure it's easier to share stuff with "friends" than likers

 

[esa]

I rarely use my news feed. I have custom interest lists that I add pages to. I do not know for sure but i seem to get most posts by those I have added to those lists.....

Yep, that totally works as you expect, but you are in a tiny minority. A similar tactic has been for page owners to convince their likers to enable announcements (lighting up the earth icon) for their page.

Vast majority of FB users won't bother to maintain such customizations of their Facebook habits; compared to the impulsive clicking of a "Like" button and just scrolling the newsfeed, the user experience is just too cumbersome for most. Even if they do and the content from a page is spammy or uninteresting, they'll just unsubscribe.

 

[Metaldrumz]

I am promoting more on twitter than I used to, and its helped.