Let’s do a little mind experiment. Imagine a really small-scale act of violence. Maybe it’s terrorism, technically, but no one’s hurt. Around $100,000 in damage, probably. Could be, like, a federal dumpster in Provo, Utah or something. But it’s really clear that this is an “Attack on America” (if for no reason other than that’s what the news networks put on their graphics).
And on the same day that happens, Facebook changes the way the News Feed works.
What are you more upset about? Be honest.
In the ten years since Facebook’s launched, there hasn’t been a lot that’s drawn our country together more than impotent outrage at tiny tweaks to the way a free website works. I’m just referencing John and Jane Average User, there. If we’re talking about content and inbound marketers, we have a tendency to go full straight to the ol’ “guy complained about not having enough time to read, survives a nuclear blast, finds a library full of books, then breaks his glasses”-level “that’s not fair!” meltdown.
Change is hard. As humans, we really like routines. As people who are trying to turn social media into something we can make money off of, we need those routines. We need to know what return we can expect, we need to know how many potential customers will see our ads, and Facebook keeps finding new and interesting ways to make that really, really hard for us.
Digital marketing might be the only place in the ad world where we’re willing to live with so much confusion. TV and Radio ads don’t work like this. You buy a certain number of spots during certain programs, and you have a general idea of how many people are tuning into those programs. You can do the math and decide whether or not that’s worth it for your company. Same general idea works for newspapers. For billboards, there’s a ballpark figure for how many people are going to drive by your ad every day or month. Either that number works for you or it doesn’t.
Even with banner ads and pop-ups, there’s some pretty straightforward calculations. Either it’s cost per impression or cost per click, but you knew (and know, I guess, if you’re still doing that) exactly what you were getting.
Facebook’s been the biggest shift away from that sort of model, and it’s causing a lot of us to lose our minds. For a long time, everyone thought that scoring Page Likes were enough. You’d spend your budget getting likes and then you’d have a captive audience to push your message out to. However, Facebook disagreed, re-worked the way organic traffic worked, and created a situation where companies have to pay to be seen.
And this is the point where everyone decided that Zuckerberg and Co. were basically terrorists. Accusations of lying, deception, and an obscene, overwhelming greed were thrown around like so many pokes so many years ago. How could they do this? How could they betray the people who helped built this platform that’s worth approximately a million billion dollars?
The greatest trick the devil ever pulled wasn’t convincing people he doesn’t exist; it wasn’t convincing women that they look better in they’re make up—it’s letting Zuck get away with using the term “Facebook Friends.” This ain’t about friends, this is a business, and if you’re one of those marketers who’s crying about getting “taken advantage of,” there’s a clear message.
Put on your business pants and get to work or go back to selling knives door-to-door.
Facebook, Twitter and a million other social networks have built their strength by building giant audiences. They haven’t been worried about coming up with a business model that works because they haven’t had to. With the “get big and get bought” model and its close friend, the “get big and figure out how the hell we’re going to monetize this thing later” model, investors were more than happy to keep pouring money into these companies as long as the number of users kept rising.
And now it’s time to pay the piper. Facebook and Twitter are going to be alright, guys. Facebook has more than a billion users. (That’s 1,000,000,000.) Twitter has right around 240,000. They’re already finding companies willing to pay to reach that audience. Big companies like Gatorade and Amazon get that advertising and marketing isn’t free. And Facebook, Twitter and the other social media companies understand that they need to start bringing in some money.
So, where does that leave you, small-to-midsized company, and you, “social media expert”? It leaves you standing in front of Facebook’s till, wallet open. If you want to access this audience, you are going to pay.
And here’s the kicker – that’s exactly how this should work. Facebook and Twitter have built an audience for themselves the same way TV networks and radio stations have done, by serving up content that draws that audience in. For networks, that’s been live sports, The Tonight Show with Jack Parr, and Seinfeld, all beamed straight into your living room, for free. For Facebook, that’s the photos of your nephew’s preschool graduation that they’re willing to host for free.
You, as a company with a message, would like to reach that audience. You don’t show up at the TV station, complaining that the airwaves are public property and it’s your right to tell everyone about your two-for-one mattress sale. Advertising costs money, everywhere.
If you’re shocked by Facebook’s move away from organic traffic, you’re upset that your free lunch is over before it started.
Success in marketing and advertising on these social networks isn’t about tricking people into liking your page by voting for which puppy photo is the cutest anymore. It’s the same principles that drive everything from print ads to outdoor ads to television and radio spots.
Know your audience, create content and ads that speak to them, and pay the people who own the media to make sure that audience gets there.
This isn’t terrorism. It’s business. And if you want business of your own, it’s time to be honest with yourself.
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