Many businesses recently noticed that although their reported “likes” may have increased, only a portion of their posts were actually reaching their followers.
Now, in order for organizations to reach their original Facebook fan base, they have to pay Mr. Zuckerberg a hefty sum. Only Facebook and big business seem to “like” this new feature. “Sponsored Stories” also affects the average Facebook user since they no longer will receive some of the posts they come to enjoy and expect, since many organizations cannot afford the fees. A recent article by Dangerous Minds, “Facebook: I Want My Friends Back,” states:
Consider this, if they’re charging a blog the size of Dangerous Minds $200 per post, what would a major metropolitan newspaper, with dozens of sections and hundreds of individual daily articles and blog posts that relies heavily on Facebook for web traffic, have to pay out to them just to get their old traffic back? It would amount to tens of millions of dollars per year. Facebook are angering not just indie bloggers, small business owners, non-profits and rock bands, but people employed by mainstream media outlets who have seen their hard-earned traffic shrink by as much as 85%.
Could it be that since Facebook’s stock market launch was such a disaster, they had to resort to extortion for their new revenue model? Maybe that’s a little harsh. We’ll let you decide.
