I don’t know about you, but I’ve recently become very disillusioned with Facebook and its ability to support businesses.
In case you haven’t noticed, recent changes to their algorithm have meant that less than 15% of people that actually follow your business page see your posts.
The way the algorithm works is the greater the engagement you get through your followers liking, sharing or commenting on your posts, the greater the reach of people that Facebook shows your post to.
Facebook has never been able to show 100% of your posts to people that ‘like’ your page (formerly called ‘fans’.) If they did so, you would never see any of your friends’ posts because your News Feed would be overwhelmed with updates. However, they have made recent changes that have significantly reduced the reach of your posts.
For example, I spent some time looking at the stats for some of my old Facebook business posts. I would regularly reach over 300 people with a post- meaning 300+ people actually saw my post in their feed. More recently, however, it seems that the average reach of my post is about 120, based on my last 12 posts. The consensus amongst online marketers is that there has been a radical drop in engagement on Facebook business pages.
This article first appeared in the Summer 2012 issue of TILT Magazine ~ Therapeutic Innovations in Light of Technology.
Click here to read the entire PDF version of the Is it Time for Therapists and Coaches to Abandon Facebook article.
Clinton Power is a Gestalt therapist and passionate marketing coach and consultant who provides online marketing and business development ideas for healthcare professionals. Visit his website or follow him on Twitter @sydneytherapist, Google+ or Facebook.
Access TILT Magazine archives: http://issuu.com/onlinetherapyinstitute/docs
