Facebook Promoted Posts sticks it to the webmaster and business owner

Have you seen twitter posts with the hash tags  #promotedposts or #dontpaytoplay in them and wonder what the fuss is all about?

Some folks are a bit steamed up about some changes at Facebook.  This is just one more wrinkle in an ongoing saga currently going on with Facebook.

At Guru 42 we try to live up to the motto "Geek Speak Made Simple."  With Facebook recently becoming a publicly owned company, we've been watching the direction of Facebook stock in recent days and listening to the many cries of disappointment from investors.

As we look at Facebook from the perspective as a webmaster, and from that perspective look at how it started, we see where this giant website may have some serious issues keeping investors and users happy in the future.

Facebook is an interesting example of a mix of technology, along with business, society, and entertainment. Facebook was not started as a business, especially not in the brick and mortar sense as a traditional store front. As we mentioned in our last blog post, Facebook was created as an online hangout for college students.

Pretty cool that something that was started as a way for college guys to connect with girls has grown into one of the largest websites on the planet in terms of users.
 
Why should you care about Facebook becoming a publicly owned company

In our last blog article we discussed how Facebook still has the perception, to many of its users, that it is still that place to hang out. This is no longer a handful of college kids running a website out of a dorm room, it is a major American corporation.

Now that Facebook is a publicly owned company, it is under constant scrutiny by it's stock holders to make money.  The goal now for Facebook is how to turn their 900 millions users into 900 customers.

Selling out the webmaster and businesses

In the beginning. Facebook was a cool community setting that allowed webmasters and business owners to create a Facebook page to promote their website or business.

Then Facebook said, if you give us some money, we will help you find folks who like your page.  So you paid Facebook for the privilege of having an advertisement about your page show up while users were reading posts on Facebook.  How cool. You gave Facebook some money, and they helped you grow the number of people who like your Facebook page.

Now you can start posting things to your Facebook page, and those folks get to see what you are promoting! Not exactly.

Huh, what do you mean not exactly?  

Only a small percentage of your fans actually get to read the things you are posting. Now if you want a higher percentage of fans to see your postings, you are need to give Facebook more money. Promoted Posts is a pricing game that increases the number of you posts that get to be seen by your fans.  The more money you give Facebook, the higher the percentage of your fans that get to read your posts.

Wow, first you paid Facebook to help you get the fans, and now you need to pay to be able to talk to those fans. If you are interested in the exact costs, check out this "Facebook Promoted Posts: A Step-By-Step Guide"

Now that Facebook is a publicly owned company it is looking for every angle it can to milk an extra dollar from its users.

Facebook has the right to make money, that is what the game is all about, but was Facebook clear in their intentions when then offered you that "free" Facebook page?

In upcoming posts we'll discuss this in more detail, as well as discuss what you can do to fight back!

So what do you think about Facebook?  Follow Tom Peracchio @Gu42 on Twitter or Guru42 on Facebook

Photo of Mark Zuckerberg, founder and CEO of Facebook cropped for formatting: "this photo is released under the creative commons attribution 2.5 license.