A prospective social media marketing client told me she did not want to be on Facebook even though she felt she was being left behind professionally by not participating on social media.
My response?
She could participate on social media without being on Facebook.
Let’s face it (pun intended) — Facebook is NOT for everyone.
First, though, let’s clarify what we are talking about:
There is a personal profile on Facebook for which people “friend” you (or subscribe to your updates). Then there is a Facebook Page for a business, book, brand or cause for which people “like” your Page.
Not all people who have “liked” your Page get all your Page updates in their news feeds.
This is a very important concept to consider. And while the algorithms of who sees what are of course secret, there is some interesting data I can share with you.
On our Miller Mosaic Facebook Page at www.facebook.com/millermosaicllc at the moment we have 1,019 “likes.” This gives us enough “likes” to pay for promoted posts.
What does this mean? Let’s look at statistics:
This update posted on August 9th — “KDP Select: MRS. LIEUTENANT Gets Second Chance” http://ow.ly/cRsCI — has this message from Facebook at the bottom of the update: “76 people saw this post”
This update posted on August 10th — “Change Can Be Good Especially for Online Marketing” http://ow.ly/cSLsD — has this message: “3,403 people saw this post”
For the second post we paid $5 to promote the post for up to three days from the time of the post.
In other words, if you are not paying to promote a post on your Facebook Page, only a small percentage of the people who have “liked” your Page will see the post in their news feed.
Disclaimer: Other posts that we paid to promote have not been seen by as large a number of people as the post seen by 3,403 people. But the promoted posts have definitely been seen by more people than would otherwise have seen the posts.
To make this as clear as possible — if you want Facebook to show your Page posts to more of the people who have “liked” your Page, you have to pay for the privilege.
What is more, you are not even allowed to pay for promotions until your Page has a certain number of “likes.” (I believe this number is still holding at 400.)
Now let’s return to the prospective client:
It can take a long time to build up to 400 “likes” on a Facebook Page, especially if you do this without any paid Facebook ads.
The prospective client does not want to invest a great deal of time in social media. Clearly, then, based on the above explanation of how many people may see a Page post, Facebook is not for her at this time.
On the other hand, given her business and personality, there is a social media site that she could effectively start utilizing now for social media marketing purposes.
This is why one size does NOT fit all for social media marketing — and why you can be active on social media and NOT be on Facebook.
P.S. If you are unsure of which social media platform is best for you and your online marketing goals, get our free report “What Social Media Platform Is Best for You and Your Business or Book?” on the right-hand sidebar at www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
And you can always consider a one-hour consult with us to brainstorm which social media platform is best for you. Email me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com
© 2012 Miller Mosaic LLC
Phyllis Zimbler Miller has an M.B.A. from The Wharton School and is the co-founder of the online marketing company www.MillerMosaicLLC.com
She is the author of fiction and nonfiction books/ebooks. A new nonfiction ebook of hers is TOP TIPS FOR HOW TO MARKET YOUR BOOK ON AMAZON AND FACEBOOK and her newest fiction ebook is the thriller CIA FALL GUY.
Click here to visit her Amazon author page at amazon.com/author/phylliszimblermiller
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Intriguing