Uh, Obviously …Your Facebook Updates Are Mostly Ignored
June 23, 2011 
Author 
In 
All Facebook recently ran a story with the headline: SHOCKER: 3% To 7.5% Of Fans See Your Page’s Posts. Except Future Buzz readers are already laughing that anyone thinks this is a “shocker.”
Why? Because you already know to focus opt in at the source and de-emphasize time spent in other people’s platforms. And you already understand that stream-based platforms where you don’t control the signal to noise aren’t the same as a self-hosted community.
Only 3 to 7.5% of your fans see posts? Well, yeah, and many probably ignore them anyway.
So all we can do is continue to say what most digital marketers ignore: that the web is more than Facebook and Twitter, and that the reasons to self-publish continue to significantly outweigh the losses of yielding your presence to the stream.
Look, Facebook is fantastic place for a social outpost. Every company should be here, at the minimum to protect your brand and at least syndicate content from your social hub. But you basically give up any competitive search and social advantage if you are purely relying on Facebook to get your messages out there. Distribution platforms such as RSS and email, while not as “sexy,” nearly always have higher % views. That’s because these channels are not stream based, rather timeshifted.
Facebook is but one spoke of a broader mix of channels of distribution for your content. If you’re still making amateur hour mistakes, you’re not even ready for Facebook. Go clean up your own web presence, pivot your marketing to embrace an owned channel and build a platform agnostic community. You should never rely on one traffic source, one social network or one search engine for visitors and community.
The rules can change at any time for each of them, and not all channels are created equal. Diversify and market holistically and you will be well positioned for sustainable returns.
And yes, I made a rage comic for today’s post (thanks John for the creative input).
andrew replied | Jun 23, 2011 (42 comments)
Thumbs up for use of a rage comic to illustrate a point. For a brief moment, I thought I was on Reddit at work. Because, uh, normally I’d never do that.
Adam Singer replied | Jun 23, 2011 (597 comments)
Glad you like the comic Andrew. I feel like enough readers here are also Redditors that I could include it and it would make sense :)
andrew replied | Jun 23, 2011 (42 comments)
I should probably also point out that you make (yet again) a great point about yielding your presence to the stream.
Facebook posts don’t get seen by many people (relatively speaking). They also have no chance for a “second wind” effect like blog posts do. Posts I’ve written a year or so ago have surprised me on occasion by getting another surge of traffic long after they were originally published. Twitter, Facebook, etc., can’t provide that same result.
Adam Singer replied | Jun 23, 2011 (597 comments)
Yep. No one looks at page two of soc networks or soc news sites. Might as well be page 50. HTML pages are given infinite life by the engines and users. Anyone who actually manages websites know this. Anyone just playing in other people’s platforms isn’t building the same type of equity.
Yogizilla replied | Jun 23, 2011 (1 comment)
You’re right: no surprise there.
These reasons are why I never offer SEO or any other Internet marketing service without the other stuff that ties into it.. Still, people try to cut corners.
I find Twitter more useful than Facebook, Digg, and other comparable social platforms in that you can filter the data much more. Mentions and hash tags definitely help you get to the meat of things. Of course, putting all the proverbial eggs in one basket is crazy talk.
What we’re seeing is more noise and mass reach amplified through social media. These so-called marketers miss the social part of it all: engaging people. Someone send out that memo again. ;o)
Great post!
-Yomar (a.k.a. Yogizilla)
Renee replied | Jun 24, 2011 (5 comments)
First off, great comic. Second off, you make a great point that not only can you not rely on Facebook, but also that you should never rely on only one source for anything. This seems like common sense, but it gets forgotten frequently.
Michelle replied | Jun 24, 2011 (1 comment)
Funny that this was the topic of discussion at our company today… As much as Twitter and Facebook are “important”, focusing on what you really have to say and what speaks to what you and your clients think is more relevant. As well as, not only utilizing Twitter and Facebook as your only tools to get your ideas, etc. out there.
how to use social media replied | Jun 26, 2011 (1 comment)
This is so true. Social Media is a package deal. You can’t just decide to focus on one aspect of it as none of them are without their failures but together with other platforms, they can work well for you.
Al Pittampalli replied | Jun 26, 2011 (5 comments)
Great advice, Adam. It’s amazing brands still don’t understand this. Facebook and Twitter are great complements to your marketing strategy, but if you don’t own your tribe in a way where you have complete direct access to them, then you’re missing the great opportunity that the web provides.
Nick Stamoulis replied | Jun 28, 2011 (30 comments)
Social media is important, but it certainly should not be the be all end all of your online marketing strategy. It should only be one component. The best strategy is one that’s diverse.