With the advent of the new Timeline launch on Facebook at the end of February 2012, Facebook released the estimate that most posts were reaching approximately 16% of the brand page’s “likes”. By using Page Insights, page managers can review the virality of posts and what content seems to garner the most attention and schedule their posts accordingly.
Facebook now seems to be on the hunt for new profit opportunities (which could have something to do with the new IPO) and a few days ago, the Facebook Promoted Post began rolling out to Facebook Pages.
From Facebook on Promoted Posts:
By promoting a post, you’re increasing its potential reach so an even larger percentage of your Page audience and the friends of those interacting with your post will see it.
When you promote a post, it will be shown in the news feeds of more of the people who like your Page than you would reach normally. Friends of the people who have interacted with your post will also be more likely to see the story in their news feeds for up to 3 days from when the post was first created.
This could be a great opportunity for you to promote special posts or events on your Facebook page.
Here is the sticking point for me … as Marketers, we work hard to drive the traffic there and gain “likes”. It was disappointing to see the 16% reach estimate due to Edgerank. Now, we can reach those who have connected with the page by paying. To be fair, Facebook owns the platform and we use it for “free” but to effectively optimize, it looks like Facebook is increasingly going to be a Pay to Play game. And I will be paying and playing!
How about you? Will you be taking advantage of the Promoted Posts?
Get more info on Promoted Posts from Facebook:
Great post. I wrote something similar today, too.
As a consultant and marketing person, I take a little different approach than most. I don’t see it as “bleeding us for dollars” (or any of the other things that I see being said). I see it as just another opportunity I can utilize … or not. If I have something big that I want to promo and increase the reach, I’ll definitely use the paid promote tool. I see it as a benefit.
Jacqueline Wilson (WritRams) recently posted..Facebook Still Isn’t Moving to Paid Membership
Thanks Jacqueline! It can be a very powerful little tool that does not require a large ad budget – and as always, we will see how it shakes out! xoxo
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