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http://ehilpipre.wordpress.com/2011/02/25/dear-facebook-bring-back-chronological-order-youre-hurting-non-profits/ (via shareaholic)
As a Facebook Page admin I was excited for the new Facebook Page update, mainly I was excited because I would be able to interact on other Pages as the Page I admin. After updating the Page I quickly regretted it after noticing the Wall Feed no longer appeared in chronological order. After doing a search I quickly found this explanation from Facebook:
When viewing a Page Wall with the “Everyone” filter on, the most engaging posts will appear at the top. These might include your friends’ posts on the Page, other posts by people, or posts by the Page.
Now my follow up question is: How does Facebook know what’s most engaging to my organization and my fans? I manage a page for a Non-Profit and we have spent the last two years communicating with our fans and have built a strong community of animals lovers. We use the tool to help raise awareness for homeless animals, showcase our different events, and love when our followers post updates about their animals. Facebook has been a great way for us to spread our message, but after the update it’s quickly becoming more challenging to communicate with our community.
An Example Showing Facebook Doesn’t Know What’s Most Engaging to My Non-Profit:
Today I posted a photo and description of a cat that has been at the Nebraska Humane Society since December 17th, 2010. This cat needs to find a home because she has been at NHS forever. The post appeared at the top of the page for five minutes and has now been moved down the page to be the 16th post on the page, which is over half way down the page. My most engaging post should be this cat, not something that was posted over 19 hours ago!!
The Proof this Update is Hurting Our Page: (these stats are for the month of February)
Before the update: New Likes were up 59%, Post Views were up 30%, Post Feedback was up 47%
After the update: New Likes are down 20%, Post Views are down 18%, and Post Feedback is down 23%
We’ve had about the same amount of posts during that time, so the decrease shouldn’t be for lack of posts. If anything we’ve had more post encouraging our fans to post photos, videos and questions so they continue to interact on our Page.
My Way of Protesting:
Today I posted a note to our fans asking them to submit a complaint to Facebook. I provided them the link and copy so they didn’t have to write their own. I’m sure Facebook probably doesn’t enjoy me giving over 14,000 fans the link to file a complaint but I could care less at this point. I currently feel like 2 years of building a community is quickly going down the drain.
Final Thoughts:
If Facebook doesn’t fix the solution we may be forced to find an alternative way to promote our mission or ramp up our efforts on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. We’ve had fans complain on our page because of how hard it is to find the most recent information, and a few have even said they aren’t visiting our page as often because it takes them too long to weed through everything. I don’t think Facebook really thought this one through and I hope people continue to complain about this issue because instead of making things easier for Page Admins and Page Fans it’s making it more difficult.
If there are other Facebook Page Admins out there I would love to hear your thoughts on this and solutions you may have to keep fans engaged with your Page.
As a Facebook Page admin I was excited for the new Facebook Page update, mainly I was excited because I would be able to interact on other Pages as the Page I admin. After updating the Page I quickly regretted it after noticing the Wall Feed no longer appeared in chronological order. After doing a search I quickly found this explanation from Facebook:
When viewing a Page Wall with the “Everyone” filter on, the most engaging posts will appear at the top. These might include your friends’ posts on the Page, other posts by people, or posts by the Page.
Now my follow up question is: How does Facebook know what’s most engaging to my organization and my fans? I manage a page for a Non-Profit and we have spent the last two years communicating with our fans and have built a strong community of animals lovers. We use the tool to help raise awareness for homeless animals, showcase our different events, and love when our followers post updates about their animals. Facebook has been a great way for us to spread our message, but after the update it’s quickly becoming more challenging to communicate with our community.
An Example Showing Facebook Doesn’t Know What’s Most Engaging to My Non-Profit:
Today I posted a photo and description of a cat that has been at the Nebraska Humane Society since December 17th, 2010. This cat needs to find a home because she has been at NHS forever. The post appeared at the top of the page for five minutes and has now been moved down the page to be the 16th post on the page, which is over half way down the page. My most engaging post should be this cat, not something that was posted over 19 hours ago!!
The Proof this Update is Hurting Our Page: (these stats are for the month of February)
Before the update: New Likes were up 59%, Post Views were up 30%, Post Feedback was up 47%
After the update: New Likes are down 20%, Post Views are down 18%, and Post Feedback is down 23%
We’ve had about the same amount of posts during that time, so the decrease shouldn’t be for lack of posts. If anything we’ve had more post encouraging our fans to post photos, videos and questions so they continue to interact on our Page.
My Way of Protesting:
Today I posted a note to our fans asking them to submit a complaint to Facebook. I provided them the link and copy so they didn’t have to write their own. I’m sure Facebook probably doesn’t enjoy me giving over 14,000 fans the link to file a complaint but I could care less at this point. I currently feel like 2 years of building a community is quickly going down the drain.
Final Thoughts:
If Facebook doesn’t fix the solution we may be forced to find an alternative way to promote our mission or ramp up our efforts on Twitter, YouTube and Flickr. We’ve had fans complain on our page because of how hard it is to find the most recent information, and a few have even said they aren’t visiting our page as often because it takes them too long to weed through everything. I don’t think Facebook really thought this one through and I hope people continue to complain about this issue because instead of making things easier for Page Admins and Page Fans it’s making it more difficult.
If there are other Facebook Page Admins out there I would love to hear your thoughts on this and solutions you may have to keep fans engaged with your Page.
