Oh Facebook. We’ve come to love it over the years, but 2014 we aren’t loving it quite as much. With the growing social media world, Facebook thinks it’s now cool to make us pay for all of our fans to see our status updates and new stuff we have to share. But, I’m not a fan of that.
There are over 41,000 of you that have liked my Facebook page (THANK YOU SO MUCH!!). But now, with Facebook’s new algorithms and crazy ideas, only a handful of you actually see anything I put on there anymore. It’s a bummer for sure because I love interacting over there with you all!
I got asked where are all of the pretty pictures that they are used to on my Facebook page? Well, no one can see them so it feels like a waste of time. Unless I pay to have y’all see it.
Some posts might be worth paying to promote, but regular status updates about my random finds at the thrift store or Target now not so much.
Have you wondered why you haven’t seen some of your favorite sites come up in your news feed anymore? This is why! Argh.
Why am I mentioning all of this? Well just to give you all other options of where we can “hang” out. I will still continue to put my new posts on Facebook so those of you that DO see them still will, but here are other social media places you can find me as well:
- Instagram (@decorchick1) I am really loving IG these days!
- Google + -we are using a different Google+ page so be sure and follow that page instead. We are not using the Decorchick Google page. We are using the Decorchick Emily one. Yes, Google+ still confuses me too.
I think that’s it? Where are you all hanging out these days the most? I do love Facebook so I hope they will change it back one day!
xxoo,
Decorchick!
I too am frustrated with Facebook – as a little blog (only 240 facebook followers) I rely on that to try and grow my blog. I don’t have sponsors or paying posts yet, so I too have taken to google+ and other social media outlets to get this little blog off the ground.
I’m not sure why there’s such an expectation that Facebook would provide a free service for bloggers to promote themselves, where I’m guessing they are making money on those ads I see on their blogs and through affiliate links shared with readers. I’m not saying this personally against you — I also manage a page for a nonprofit and we’ve been throttled, too. It is frustrating to see that our posts are reaching such a small percentage of our fans. But Facebook is a business with investors, not the free happy sharing place it used to be. We are all providing valuable content to our fans and readers, but I guess I don’t get why we should expect that to be unlimited and for free. And I absolutely can’t stand “like” and “share” farming that is taking place now with many bloggers, magazines and the like. “Share this to save it to your timeline … and so I’ll increase my reach.”
I still see your posts on Facebook – sometimes the same post several times (the ICYMI-type, which I understand why you do). I’m not on Instagram (I have an account, I just don’t use it) and I use Pinterest mostly as an online recipe box. I have Google+ by the virtue of my Gmail account but I never go there. Ditto for Twitter; I use it for work but most of my personal use is for contests.
Hi Kristen, I did say I don’t mind paying for a few posts. I was more just talking about regular conversation and status updates that I regularly do over there, that i cant and won’t pay for. I guess after working hard and building up your page for 4 years and then all of a sudden people not see it was difficult to swallow. I understand though, business is business. I am just trying to give and find different alternatives so I can still connect with everyone because that’s my favorite thing about blogging!
This is just a shot in the dark, but I bet we can combat (at least with our own fans) the tendency to get lost in the new algorithm. Most times when a radical update comes along to a site, they try to offer a way to keep things the way they were with some special setting, and Facebook is no different.
You can sort your feed on Facebook based on ‘most recent’, which used to be the default. The feed goes back to being a natural timeline. For those people who miss your posts (or for those you want to remind that you’re still around), just simply ask/remind them to change their “Sort” to “most recent”.
There’s no use wasting the last 4 years of effort, and your fans are a simple click away from bringing you back into their feed! If you give it a try, I’d love to hear about the results, too!
-Scott @ Sir’s Fabrics
As a reader- the whole FB thing frustrates me… LET ME SEE THE POSTS of the PAGES I *LIKED* in the first place!!!! I don’t just like any page- or maybe I do- but I like to scroll at leizure through my newsfeed- not be forced to read the random crap I didn’t subscribe to. But every once in a while something I forgot I *liked* shows up and I’m all like- WHOaaa. I knew I was missing something. It’s very irritating. I have several design and/ or recipe pages I LOVE, and I have to put too much effort into liking every post and commenting to get it show up regularly. ok- so yeah- some of that comes naturally- but COME ON FB!!! I have to #$%@$#% SEE the page to do so. UGH!!!
*rant over*
I blog as well and FB is really frustrating. They are now just a company that wants money. I won’t do it. I too don’t post as much there as I use to. Now if everyone ‘likes’ or ‘shares’ or ‘comments’ on your blog you will see it in your new feed it is just a matter of where in your news feed. Example – you post something at 9am but I don’t check FB till 9:15 – I may not see it, even though it is in my feed, if I don’t scroll down all the way. Now with that said you can get automatic updates – here’s how… Go to FB – access your page and hoover your cursor over the ‘like’ button. You’ll get a dropdown – choose ‘get notifications’. Then you’ll be notified each and every time your favorite pages/bloggers/friends post…HOWEVER and this is a BIG however – if you have FB on your smart phone you’ll get a beep each and every time one of your favorites you asked to be notified of posts… every single time – even 2am! So click that ‘get notifications’ with caution! But it is an option if people want it. Victoria
I have notifications set up like that for a few sites whose posts I was missing and I don’t get them on my phone; if you go into the FB app, you can adjust how you get notifications to your phone under “mobile push.” Your version of the app might be different but in mine, I go to More on the bottom right of the main screen –>Account Settings –> Notifications –>How You Get Notifications –> Mobile Push. If you still want the notifications but not the noise, you can edit “Sound for Push Notifications” and turn the beep off.
Kristen, THANKS! I didn’t know that… See all the great info we get here! Victoria
Boy am glad I don’t have that problem. I get your blog and 4or 5 others thru EMAIL… and then click on the heading to get to your site. I don’t know what all this other is about and I don’t care. I go to facebook to see what my kids are doing and that is is enough. (and to get some funny cat pictures too)
love your blog.
Oh I hear ya! I don’t really sweat it too much when it comes to my blog FB page after they started doing this, it got too frustrating, but heck! I want to see my family and friends posts on my personal page, and most of the time I am seeing ads or the same posts from the day before. I always have to hit “most recents” to get the latest updates . I love following you on IG…but didn’t FB buy them out? I wonder how long it will before they start messing with IG! UGH.
Totally over Facebook these days. I’m totally addicted to Instagram. I love all of the instant feedback. I find that on FB fans are a little stingy with the likes. Just sayin’. Of course, it could be that they’re not seeing them. Who knew!
Emily, I never have used facebook, but I enjoy Pinterest.
I follow another blogger, Creative Kristi, who shared an interesting Youtube video. It demonstrates how Facebook does business and how their “paid” promoting works (or doesn’t work). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag&feature=youtu.be.
I really enjoy your posts and because of my schedule I have very little time to deal with all the different social media sites. The video really is worth taking the time to watch. It explains how purchasing likes actually lessens the number of your actual followers who will be able to see your posts.
I’ve also heard that if you “like” your own posts, then those posts will be pushed out to more of the people who follow you. Not sure if it actually works but it’s better than paying for nothing.
Maybe we should continue to build out blogs and just use FB as an extra. There is such better content and pictures there and I do believe that maybe we should stick with what was working in the first place!
Wondered where those suggestion from Target were and why they stopped. I had rather use Google plus.