Facebook make us pay to reach all of our friends

This is a snip of the top two posts on my Facebook news feed. Posts from my friends appear further down my feed.

Notice the ‘Like button on the 32Red Bingo page?  I’ve obviously been categorised as someone who would be likely to play Bingo online – hence the promoted post to people who currently are not fans.  Its a good attempt to get me to click the Like button.

Facebook has never delivered your post to all of the people that like your business page. Facebook delivers your page post to about 16 per cent of your fans. Facebook calculates which post to display in users feeds due to Edgerank.

Edgerank is nothing new.  It is the algorithm that Facebook uses to calculate which post you see. Depending on your activities in Facebook  some posts don’t show up in your feed and are unlikely to. The algorithm decides that as you don’t interact with the brand, you won’t see activity from them.

You don’t want your feed flooded with spam, and yet you want to see activity from 

In September, Facebook made a further ranking change designed to reduce spam complaints. Facebook now shows less posts likely to cause complaints.

You can promote your post as 32Red Bingo have. The reach will depend on your marketing spend but you can reach the other 84 per cent that your free post missed. You can even advertise your posts to people who are not currently your fans.

The challenge is for page owners to decide whether the cost is worth it – or would it be better to repeat the message over and over again and risk becoming spammers

..or perhaps you can continue your other forms of digital marketing and see which gets you more reach and engagement instead..

Eileen is a social business strategist, ZDNet columnist and author of Working The Crowd: Social Media Marketing for Business. Contact her to find out how she can help your business extend its reach.

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