Blogging in Facebook’s world

Every time Facebook makes a little noise, marketers everywhere do the “freak out” dance. I find it funny every time it happens.

For awhile now, marketers have lamented the decline of organic reach on Facebook. In other words, when you post something to your page, less and less of your people will actually see it. Until you pony up for cash.

But, then a couple weeks ago, Zuck made a big wave. And it all started out with the most ironic statement of all…

So, Zuckerburg started with this….

“One of our big focus areas for 2018 is making sure the time we all spend on Facebook is time well spent.”

HAHAHA! Time well spent, he said! But… anyway…

He basically went on to say that they want Facebook to help connect us because relationships improve happiness. And he wants Facebook to be more about helping you connect to the people you know than passively looking through videos, articles, etc.

Basically, more friends. Less of the stuff that content creators and publishers put out. And, they’re going to make some big changes to accommodate that. And Zuck even said that he DOES anticipate that this could mean people spend LESS time on Facebook.

So, publishers obviously get alarmed by this. Many bloggers might, too. Hell, stockholders did, too, since Facebook’s stock value dropped after the announcement (it did recover, tho).

So, what does all this mean?

Well, in short, your level of engagement and traffic from Facebook might drop even more than it already has. The way to avoid that is to make your content engaging and make it so that it is likely to spark conversation between people. Honestly, as much as politics on Facebook sorta sucks, it is one of the reasons politics always seems to go viral faster. Because people feel compelled to REACT and have conversations. That content then gets around, whereas some run-of-the-mill blog post won’t.

Here’s the deal, tho…

Relying on organic social media for traffic is for fools. These days, to get any real results from Facebook, you have to pay for it.

The internet of 5 years ago is dead. Things have matured. And, we do live in a world where Google and Facebook control a majority of traffic. The good news is that both sites sell traffic. You simply must be able and willing to run advertising these days to have much of a shot.

This is why I FIRMLY believe that monetization today isn’t something you do once you have traffic….  it is something you do SO THAT you can get traffic.

Everything has changed.

And, this latest Zuck news isn’t anything new. It shouldn’t even get your heartbeat up.

Just recognize the world we’re in. It isn’t a bad thing, either. It is just things maturing.

And you?

You should be doing everything you can do to build and own your own platform. Build your email list. You own that. It is OWNED media.

Build your platform. Build your list. Build your community.

And, don’t do it on Facebook. Instead, USE Facebook to bring the people to you. And, learn to live with the fact that to do that, you’ll likely need to pay or it.

We’ve got the Facebook Ads Blueprint inside the Lab to help you adapt.

– David