As a consequence of a change in Facebook policy I’ve decided to drop the Facebook widget promoting my Facebook Artsnova fan page from my blog’s sidebar. I also plan on changing how I use my Facebook fan page. The policy change that has led me to this course of action was Facebook’s decision to limit how many of a page’s fans actually see the posts in their news feed. This was done so that Facebook can monetize posts. You see you can still reach all your fans – if you are willing to pay for it. This is implemented via the relatively new Facebook Promote option.

With this policy change, unless you pay to promote your posts the reach of your posts is decreased by approximately 85 percent on average. Quoting from the article Paying For Promotion (referenced below):

Dave Seligman, founder of popular geeks culture blog Geeks of Doom told me recently that "Of the 18,000 fans of our Facebook page, only about 900 (5%) of them ever have the opportunity to view one of our posts at a given time."

My Solution

My solution going forward will be to use my Facebook fan page only to post announcements of new posts on my blog. Also, instead of creating short original content posts on Facebook, I will move those posts to my blog. Who knows – perhaps Facebook’s policy change is a good thing for me since it will mean more new content on my own blog rather than on Facebook.

Reference Links

• FACEBOOK: I WANT MY FRIENDS BACK, Dangerous Minds, 2012/10/24
• Broken on Purpose: Why Getting It Wrong Pays More Than Getting It Right, New York Observer, 2012/09/11
• Paying For Promotion: Facebook Sponsored Posts Are Killing Bloggers’ Traffic, New Media Rockstars, 2012/10/22
• Facebook Now Letting Users Pay to Promote Their Posts, Time Magazine online, 2012/05/30
• Artsnova Facebook Page

Goodbye Facebook widget. Note that I never liked the way you munged my posts to fit your widget anyway.