Column: The evolving face of Facebook as a marketing tool

In 2004, Facebook went live. Its original purpose was to provide a platform without advertisements or promotions that would allow college students to easily communicate with each other. By “friending” one another, a user could create a post that was able to reach a wide number of friends. Almost from its onset, Facebook”™s rate of growth was enormous, garnering a million users by the end of 2004. The following year, it added the ability to upload photos.

As Facebook continued to grow, it began attracting the attention of both investors and companies wanting to improve their online presence and business. Riding on the rapid growth and growing acceptance of social media by business, Facebook launched fan pages in 2007 and the “like” button in 2009. These were revolutionary changes that reflected Facebook”™s desire to be a market leader and key player in online business, its major asset being the enormous ”“ and rapidly growing ”“ number of users that truly makes it the 800-pound gorilla in the room. Key additions over the years have included a news feed, timeline, mobile app, advertisements and, through a purchase, Instagram.

The news feed has been an important part of the organic growth of friends and followers. Unlike Google, whose search algorithm is top secret, Facebook”™s news feed algorithm is publicized by Facebook. Like Google, these algorithms are frequently modified, usually at least several times a year. In part, this is to strengthen the algorithms and prevent people from taking advantage of any weaknesses. In other instances, the algorithms are modified to affect user action.

According to a study by Edge Rank checker this month, the reach of organic Facebook posts dropped from 16 percent in February 2012 to an all-time low of 6.5 percent in March 2014. In a nutshell, this means that your posts are reaching fewer people. A quote from Facebook to partners in late 2013, succinctly states its rationale: “We expect organic distribution of an individual page”™s posts to gradually decline over time as we continually work to make sure people have a meaningful experience on the site.” I guess if you”™re reaching fewer people, their responses might be deemed more meaningful.

What this actually translates to is Facebook”™s desire to increase its revenue. If people are unable to reach their target market or effectively, organically grow their number of followers, they are going to become increasingly dependent on using Facebook boosts and advertisements. Or, as one Facebook spokesperson said, “We”™re getting to a place where because more people are sharing more things, the best way to get your stuff seen if you”™re a business is to pay for it.”

Not surprisingly, many companies ”“ particularly those with a heavy investment in building a fan base ”“ are upset. Similarly, there are many small companies currently wondering why their organic growth is so slow. While there are many factors involved in effective marketing on Facebook, one rule is inviolate: If you can”™t reach people, they won”™t know you”™re there and they won”™t respond.

And yet, organic growth is one of the key tenets of social media marketing. An August study by Exact Target reported that 67 percent of the respondents rated it as one of their most effective marketing tactics. This certainly is the case for most of social media but I”™m starting to wonder about Facebook. My belief is that it will still be true for Facebook in the next year ”“ but only when supplemented by paid boosts and advertisements.

Bruce Newman is vice president at The Productivity Institute L.L.C. and a regular Westfair contributor. He specializes in content creation and digital marketing. Most of his time is spent in the creation of content for webinars and their promotion, email marketing, education and social media campaigns for clients. He is also the creator of The Complete Webinar Training Course. He can be reached at bnewman@prodinst.com.