Facebook Fan Page

[Nutty]

Hola

Do many of you business owners have a Facebook Fan Page? How are you now getting on since they did their update which basically means you now have to pay for your "likes" to see your updates?

About 10% of my 4,500 audience see my posts, whereas before it was a well over 50% and my fan page was more active with fans and moderators replying to posts/updates, now I am lucky if 10% see my posts and interact with me - this is very disheartening as I worked so hard and paid to get the fan page to the high numbers I have.......I wonder now if that was worth it......so many of my fans are frustrated and broke off to create closed groups of their own, they find it difficult to find and reply to people and eventually some just gave up!

My fan page is a support group for Scoliosis (non-profit) but it is now NOT supporting the members because when a fan posts, the fans do not see this update, it seems that only when a moderator posts do the fans see it. Back in the day, a fan would post and fans would reply along with moderators, there was a lot of support and chat happening on the main wall, since the latest update, the chat is ceasing, despite the many posts created by the moderators, in fact, it would seem that only the posts created by admins are seen by the fans.

Perhaps I should change all my members to be moderators and be done with it hahahaha and then everyone will see the updates!

I appreciate that social media means you need to interact and work hard, but wasn't that the whole point in the first place, advertising to get the fans, interacting with them so they stay and keep growing? Now I cannot interact with all of them unless I pay, does that seem right to you?

How do others here view this situation, should you create a Fan Page or a Profile page and run your business from that, below I have written about the profile page vs the fan page.

Fan Page
Fan Page - Friends/Likes: unlimited fans
Fan Page - Personal Life: Keep private
Fan Page - Search Engine Results: Indexed by Google
Fan Page - Tagging: Fans can tag the page
Fan Page - Facebook Insights: Great analytics
Fan Page - Facebook Tabs: Yes
Fan Page - Facebook Contests: Need to have Tabs for this
Fan Page - Advertising - Ads through a fan page is more effective and very targeted
Fan Page - Moderators/Admin Connections
Fan Page - Location Services: Check Ins for the Fans
Fan Page - Promoted Posts: Stronger than personal page boost posting
Fan Page - Showcase: Show the other pages you like
Fan Page - Newsfeed Marketing: regular updated fan pages will notice their news on newsfeeds, key to gaining more fans (only 10%, however, see the posts)
Fan Page - Comment as Brand: Yes

Profile Page
Profile Page - Friends/Likes: Capped at 5,000 friends
Profile Page - Personal life: Unless you create the profile as the company name as a fresh page (which Facebook don't like you doing) you are shring your personal life also
Profile Page: Search Engine Results: Indexed by Google
No analytics
Profile Page - Tagging: No tagging
Profile Page - Facebook Insights: No
Profile Page - Facebook Tabs: No
Profile Page - Facebook Contests: Software & third party apps are just not there
Profile Page - Advertising: Fan Pages only
Profile Page - Moderator/Admin Connections: No
Profile Page - Location Services: No fan/friend Check In
Profile Page - Promoted Posts: Yes but not as powerful
Profile Page - Showcase: No
Profile Page - Newsfeed Marketing: Better with profile you don't have to pay to boost, you appear in your friend's newsfeed
Profile Page - Comment as Brand: No

If we look at a small business who may not get to 5,000 friends for a long time wouldn't they be better creating a Profile Page vs a Fan Page, at least with a profile page ALL your friends would see your updates (except those who remove you of course), but more than 10% would see the updates, so, what is the point in the Fan Page now apart from the obvious advertising, check ins, contests, promoted posts, analytics...

I can see that they have got you between the short and curlies here as every business would like to have some form of advertising and you just cannot do it as well if you run a Profile page. Facebook advertising is very targeted after all.

I would be interested to hear from other companies on this situation, I do live in hope Facebook will someday change the way the fan Page works, but as they are a business as well then perhaps the "pay to post" situation from a Fan Page is here to stay!

Oh and don't forget that $5 won't increase the readers by much. I have to spend a minimum of $30 per post for all my 4,500 likes to see the update. Considering I used to make over 50 posts per day (including my fans) I would need a budget of $1500 per day to engage with all my fans!!

Who has this kind of money in a credit crunch, is Facebook worth that much in terms of revenue, should we even bother to guide clients to have a Fan Page?

Nutty

[PatprecisionE]

This is a long one but worth the read. Thanks, Nutty!

"I would be interested to hear from other companies on this situation, I do live in hope Facebook will someday change the way the fan Page works"

I doubt that Facebook would change this for fan pages for 2 reasons: 1. They probably don't want to have people's newsfeeds cluttered with nothing but fan page posts (at least not more so than how they are now) 2. They want to encourage advertising.

[Nutty]

Hola Pat

Thanks for the reply, I guess I was spitting feathers when I worte that, I understand they will keep the "boost" post due to revenue, it is just a shame for fan pages like me that spent a fair amount of money to grow the page and then cannot communicate with the fans - way back when, it was so much easier and the fans got support and help with their needs - I will keep my fan page as I would let people down even more if I gave up, but oh boy are they making it harder and harder

Nutty

[OS Research]

Originally Posted by Nutty

Hola Pat

Thanks for the reply, I guess I was spitting feathers when I worte that, I understand they will keep the "boost" post due to revenue, it is just a shame for fan pages like me that spent a fair amount of money to grow the page and then cannot communicate with the fans - way back when, it was so much easier and the fans got support and help with their needs - I will keep my fan page as I would let people down even more if I gave up, but oh boy are they making it harder and harder

Nutty

Nutty,

Is it worth building if someone llike me was new in the game?

[Nutty]

Hola

I don't see we all have much of a choice, however, I would concentrate my efforts on Google+ if you are new to the game, there are positive reports about it, I like using it and because it is Google's social platform, well it ranks quickly

Facebook does rank quick also but bear in mind that once you grow you will have to pay to boost posts so all members get it

Nutty

[Brainpulse]

Great Nutty. You give nice information about the profile page vs the fan page.

[OS Research]

Originally Posted by Nutty

Hola

I don't see we all have much of a choice, however, I would concentrate my efforts on Google+ if you are new to the game, there are positive reports about it, I like using it and because it is Google's social platform, well it ranks quickly

Facebook does rank quick also but bear in mind that once you grow you will have to pay to boost posts so all members get it

Nutty

Thank you Nutty - I'll start building it up.

[Nutty]

Hola

Thanks, I should have said and I apologise for my typo!

I don't see we all have much of a choice

Nutty

[shirleyheatherl]

Thanks a lot nutty it's a good information to differentiate between fan page & profile page of facebook

[Nutty]

You're welcome I was having a bit of rant that day as I was going insane with it all

Nutty