We here at the Stuck Mic AvCast believe in a world where our message is freely distributed to our listeners around the world without impedance or fees. As of recently, Facebook is no longer that medium for us.
What Happened?
You’re probably aware that Facebook is now a NASDAQ publicly traded company. In an interest to their shareholders and to earn income they’ve implemented some changes to their software. One major change is the way Facebook’s algorithm determines the exposure of each posting made on their website.
For our Page with 194 “Likes” only a tiny percentage of those 194 dedicated fans actually get to see our postings because of this Facebook algorithm. And I mean a tiny amount. Whereas before all this money making, stock exchange nonsense all our fans would see every single post. But that’s simply not the way of the world anymore.
What A Racket
Now you may be thinking, “Why would Facebook limit the exposure of your posts?” and here’s why: MONEY.
The idea is that a Facebook Page owner can pay an advertising fee to “Promote” a post which allegedly generates more exposure over the limited percentage currently allowed by their system algorithm. And while we don’t take issue with a company trying to earn a profit (go for it) we refuse to let that affect what we share with you.
We’ve ran the tests, paid some promotion and advertising fees just for the heck of it, and have seen NO valuable increase to our podcast family.
So Here’s The Deal
The Stuck Mic AvCast is leaving Facebook. As of Thursday May 23rd, 2013 we will no longer be a brand that supports Facebook and will be shutting down our Page permanently.
The BEST way to keep in touch of all that’s happening at the podcast is through Twitter. You DO NOT have to sign up for an account to Follow Us but it’s highly recommended, and hey, it’s a great hangar flying community you won’t want to miss out on.
The address is: Twitter.com/StuckMicAvCast. You can visit the site from any internet device to see what we’re up to if you choose not to Follow Us. Or you could subscribe to our Tweets by using this link in your favorite RSS reader: https://api.twitter.com/1/statuses/user_timeline.rss?screen_name=stuckmicavcast.
The Big Break Up
Well there you have, we’ve said our peace, and now it’s time to part ways.
So goodbye Facebook – it’s been real and it’s been fun, but it ain’t been real fun.
PS – NO, you can’t have your favorite sweatshirt back either…
Len,
How did you hear about this limiting of postings? Does it apply to individuals also or is it just based upon the number of likes? I am thinking about dropping it too if they start messing around like that.
Doug
Hey Doug,
It’s an observation. A change of results over time coupled with new features implemented. But I’m sure any Internet search on the topic would generate a great deal of similar commentary.
Facebook is doing something similar to your personal account via different means. Every time you make a friend connection you are automatically subscribed to “Some Updates.” You have to manually configure on each individual friend whether you wish to see all, some, or none of their updates.
So by default you a missing about half of the updates from your personal connections.
My two cents for what it’s worth.
LC
We’re seeing the same thing on our pages. Well over 1,000 likes & yet we’re only getting exposure to about 150-250 people per post. Things that help improve a post’s exposure are NOT linking to anything off Facebook and including photos/videos. Some folks are saying they post info then post the link to an off-Facebook page in the comments and that’s helping their reach a lot.
Another way to get the feed working is for people to LIKE your posts. Those who do use LIKE on your posts increase the chances of your posts being seen in their newsfeed. Another reason to post interesting stuff that people are more likely to “like” as that will increase the odds of them seeing your other posts too.
Seems Facebook is becoming just another TV channel where corporations with big pockets will be dominating our feeds while the not-for-profits or enthusiast groups that we want to hear from are filtered out.
We’ve seen the same results when linking to off Facebook sites – they really want you to stay inside their walled garden. The listeners are the ones ultimately losing out on our posts so hopefully they’ll see more with this new arrangement.
It’s not a perfect situation but it seems we’ll be better off outside the blue giant.
LC