It’s been no secret that Facebook’s Organic Reach has been dwindling over the past 18 months. However, Facebook has never fully admitted this, until now.
A new Facebook blog post specifically addresses the decline of organic distribution.
Brands and marketers like Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks, have felt the burden of the restricted messaging and threatened to leave in the past:
FB is blowing it ? This is the first step.. The Mavs are considering moving to Tumblr or to new Myspace as primary site pic.twitter.com/tQDZjgDC — Mark Cuban (@mcuban) October 27, 2012
A quote from the Facebook post acknowledges that this decreased reach will not only continue, but will get worse:
“… Competition for each News Feed story is increasing. Because the content in News Feed is always changing, and we’re seeing more people sharing more content, Pages will likely see changes in distribution. For many Pages, this includes a decline in organic reach. We expect this trend to continue as the competition for each story remains strong and we focus on quality.“
If you haven’t seen the writing on the wall, this may come as a shocking dose of reality. Marketers that have spent money on ads to build pages and fans may never see the payoff if the distribution shrinks.
So is there any way to circumvent this issue? It just happens to be that another “Facebook spokesman” told AdAge the following:
“We’re getting to a place where because more people are sharing more things, the best way to get your stuff seen if you’re a business is to pay for it“
Clearly this is a big issue for marketers. Essentially, this is admitting that this very platform where brands and companies are building their fan base may just be another outlet for ad dollars. If the best way to “get your stuff seen” is through payments, why would brands display their Facebook info in commercials or marketing material?
This is a very tough sell for marketers who are burning calories and dollars on building audiences, only to be told to pay again to reach them. Other social networks like Twitter specifically have explicitly stated that they will never filter updates and that every Tweet will be seen.
For more see the official Facebook post and AdAge.
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