Aw hell, here we go again.
The writing has been on the Facebook wall for a while, and I’m not talking about your writing. I’m talking about the invisible writing of Facebook’s programmers, the increasingly demonic sigils inscribed into the backbone of the Facebook monolith that determine what its users will and won’t see in their news feeds.
This isn’t the first time I’ve written on the subject of how Facebook manipulates the selection of content that each user will see, but the story is a continuing one, with a consistent theme. This is just the latest chapter in the company’s efforts to leverage their gargantuan user base for the extraction of more advertising dollars — including money that Facebook Pages can spend to “promote” their posts so that more people will see them.
Honestly, on a day-to-day basis I don’t pay much attention to developments such as the one I’m about to describe. Other people watch Facebook’s moves like a hawk, because they can have a big effect on big bidness. I generally avoid the subject because it makes me queasy. But my fellow metal blogger Angry Metal Guy recently alerted me to a new piece of intelligence that confirmed some of my recent suspicions — and I’m writing about it because misery really does love company.
If you use Facebook, the fact is that you probably wouldn’t see every post by every friend and every Page you follow even if Facebook automatically fed everything into your news feed. But they don’t feed everything to you. They use software algorithms called EdgeRank that pick and choose what you see. (Actually, because I haven’t been paying close attention, maybe they’re now calling that something like HugsAndKisses or We’reInYourPants instead of EdgeRank.)
In part they pick and choose what they think you want to see, based on the way you use Facebook. But in part they pick and choose things you undoubtedly DON’T want to see because advertisers are paying FB to shove their content into your eyeballs.
The more paid content FB puts into your news feed, the less likely it is that you will see the un-paid content. That’s partly just a function of the limited time most users have to scroll through their news feed. But it’s more than that — which finally brings me to the subject of this post.
On Wednesday of this past week, a web site called Valleywag posted this report:
A source professionally familiar with Facebook’s marketing strategy, who requested to remain anonymous, tells Valleywag that the social network is “in the process of” slashing “organic page reach” down to 1 or 2 percent. This would affect “all brands”—meaning an advertising giant like Nike, which has spent a great deal of internet effort collecting over 16 million Facebook likes, would only be able to affect of around a 160,000 of them when it pushes out a post. Companies like Gawker, too, rely on gratis Facebook propagation for a huge amount of their audience. Companies on Facebook will have to pay or be pointless.
In other words, it appears that Facebook has again changed the EdgeRank algorithm that determines what each FB users will see in their news feed to further restrict what is known as “organic reach”, i.e., the “normal” distribution of status updates through news feeds based on the users’ own manifestations of their interests. The Valleywag writer went on as follows:
The alternative is of course to pay for more attention. If you want an audience beyond a measly one or two percent, you’ll have to pay money—perhaps a lot of money, if you’re a big business.
The change was described to me by a source as a cataclysm for businesses, something Facebook is calling the extreme throttling a “strategy pivot” they’re slowly telling brands one by one so as not to start a panic. It might be too late. Reports of “crashing” engagement numbers have been floating around for a little while, but this is the first time we’ve heard it drift out of Facebook proper.
As the Valleywag author noted, who really gives a fuck if big business brands have to pay or get their audience reach restricted? But the problem is what this change does to relatively small (and relatively impecunious) Facebook Pages who depend on FB to engage with fans who really want to know what’s going on — and I have in mind the FB pages of broke metal bands, hard-scrabble metal labels, and even money-losing blogs like ours. The Valleywag author put it this way:
[S]maller places and people will see their ability to self-promote basically zeroed out. The fans they’ve attracted will be pushed behind a curtain, only to be pulled back now and then when cash is on hand. If you’ve spent years trying to build up a following for yourself, this is a bummer—maybe a career-altering bummer.
Okay, you and I both know that people can post anything they want on the internet, and much of the time what you read and what is true are two very different things. So how much should we trust the Valleywag report? Well, CNET actually succeeding in following up with Facebook and getting a comment on the report:
“Over the past few months, we have been having conversations with clients about declining organic distribution in News Feed. This is largely due to more competition driven by more sharing,” a Facebook spokesperson told CNET.
The statement addresses a Wednesday report from Valleywag, which cited an anonymous source who claimed that Facebook was cutting organic reach to 1 percent or 2 percent.
“We have not given a specific reach number that Pages should expect to see because organic reach will vary by Page and by post. Like many mediums, if businesses want to make sure that people see their content, the best strategy is, and always has been, paid advertising,” the spokesperson said.
That handwriting on the wall I mentioned? It’s now being inscribed with an even heavier hand. And here are a few other relevant data points from a March 22 story in Time magazine:
Over the past several months, Facebook has been reducing the organic reach of Pages. Even if a person Likes a company or organization on the social network, they’re unlikely to naturally see that Page’s content in their News Feed. In a recent study of more than 100 brand Pages, Ogilvy & Mather found that companies’ posts dropped from reaching 12% of their followers in October to just 6% by February. The tech blog Valleywag reports that Facebook is planning to dial reach down to 1% to 2% of followers eventually.
I see the results of this change every day on the NO CLEAN SINGING Facebook page. I’m filled with a warm glow every time the number of our Facebook likes passes another century mark, but the bloom is off that rose now that I’m seeing how few of our fans actually see our FB posts.
At the time of this writing, we had 7,454 Facebook likes, which is not a bad number as metal blogs go. And yet the number of people who see our daily Facebook posts about content on this blog is usually in the range of only 300-500, or 4-7% of everyone who follows us on Facebook. This is way, way down from even the pitiful 20%-25% who were seeing our posts during one of the previous times I bitched about Facebook’s dollar-driven strategies. How do I know these numbers? Because FB reports them to Page admins like me — they want us to know these pathetic reach numbers so we’ll be “incentivized” to pay for more reach.
Like almost the entirety of the metal community on Facebook, we’re being forcibly railed from behind by FB’s ongoing efforts to extract ad dollars from their ginormous platform — and we’re just innocent bystanders. Most of us don’t have the money to pay FB to ensure that our status updates reach more than 4-7% (or less) of the people who actually seem to care about us. In the case of NCS, we don’t even attempt to make money from our site, so it’s especially tough to justify shelling out dollars just to ensure that our FB followers will see what we’re doing.
I’m even less inclined to shell out money after reading this article:
Facebook is a darling of Wall Street, but it is ruffling some feathers on Madison Avenue. That would seem peculiar since Facebook’s ad business is humming to the tune of $2.3 billion in the fourth quarter of 2013, a more than 76 percent increase from the same quarter a year before. But according to several ad agency executives, Facebook is still mostly indifferent to their needs to the point of arrogance.
One point of frustration is Facebook’s ongoing squeezing of traffic to organic brand content. A digital agency exec described a recent meeting with Facebook that turned contentious. In what was meant to be a routine meeting, the exec said the Facebook rep told him the brands the agency works with would now have to pay Facebook for the same amount of reach they once enjoyed automatically. That position and Facebook’s perceived attitude have led to some disillusionment on Madison Avenue, where many bought into the dream peddled by Facebook that brands could set up shop on the platform as “publishers” and amass big audiences on their own.
“We’ve lowered our expectations from Facebook in regards to collaboration and partnership,” said Jeffrey Melton, chief distribution officer at digital agency MRY. “At this point, we’re so used to it. Facebook is kind of like your C student who is not failing, but they’re definitely not your A student looking to be the class leader.”
Maybe I should have titled this article “Facebook Is A C Student” instead of calling them an extortionist. I mean, they’re not putting a gun to anyone’s head to extract more money. We can always just suck it up or leave. And I’m sure someone out there will tell me (as someone always does), “it’s their business, you’re getting their service for free, so stop your whining you little bitch”. But I think I and every other Facebook user is entitled to complain. Facebook makes billions of dollars because of their hundreds of millions of users, and the amount of content they provide is infinitesimally small compared to the content their users generate on the platform. There ought to be a social contract between us and them, but as the lawyers would say, it’s a contract of adhesion.
Is there any answer, short of paying FB to let your status updates reach your followers? As far as I can tell, the best strategy is the same one I recommended the last time I vented about FB’s business strategies:
If you run a Facebook Page, encourage your readers to like, share, and comment on your posts.
If you are a Facebook user and want to increase the chances of seeing the FB Pages you care about, like, share, and comment on the status updates posted by those Pages.
There really isn’t any other shortcut or magic bullet. Even this strategy is of dwindling utility, given the further changes that are the subject of this article, but it’s better than rolling over and playing dead. And at least for now, Facebook’s news-feed algorithm still seems to put significant weight on this kind of “engagement” in deciding which Page posts will be seen by which users.
In general, here’s how I feel about this depressing news, with thanks to Minnesota’s Nuklear Frost for summing it up for me:
(P.S. I put a link to this article on our Facebook page and paid Facebook to “promote” the link so it would be seen by more than 4-7% of our FB fans.)
33 Responses to “THE LATEST EXTORTION FROM FACEBOOK”
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So content manipulation is something FB has been doing for a while. It’s interesting that I miss posts, and sometimes I think this blog is just not as active. So here’s the thing: what’s the possibility of starting a Google+ page? Do you all already have one?
I haven’t spent much time on Google+ and don’t have an NCS page there. My problem is that I have limited time each day to devote to NCS, and expanding our social media presence into other platforms like Google+ or Twitter would take away time I need to investigate new music and write or edit posts.
I think the only way to avoid missing posts here is to remember to visit each day or subscribe to our RSS feed. I guess registering and asking for e-mail alerts for new posts would be another option.
You can link your twitter account to FB so your tweets end up on FB, so you’d end up spending the same amount of time but you’d have them on two mediums (last I checked there wasn’t an easy way to autopost on G+ from twitter that might have changed though)
Well, I will at least explore this… Thanks.
Luckily with NCS, you can pretty much guarantee something will be posted every day, so I really wouldn’t need the FB update (though people who don’t obsessively check this site may find use in it).
I hate Facebook. I permanently deleted my account last month, and I couldn’t be any happier with my decision. I don’t use Google+, but I’ll be damned if that website isn’t trying to force people to use it. I’m on the verge of canceling my Youtube account because Google keeps trying to force me into a Google+ account that they made for me (if you have a Youtube account you have a shell Google+ account). The worst thing that ever happened to Youtube was being taken over by Google. What does any of this have to do with this NCS post? Nothing I guess, I’ve just really grown to loathe social media (let’s throw Shitter, I mean Twitter onto the pile as well). So yeah, I just come directly here to check out all the updates.
I have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. Actually, I don’t have any love for Facebook the company, but the service gives me easy access to new music and bands, and it would be extremely difficult to do what we do here without it. Yet it’s been dismaying to see what the company has done in an effort to keep growing their revenues and profits. And don’t get me started on Google… People are paranoid about NSA surveillance, but that’s child’s play compared to what Google does.
” but the service gives me easy access to new music and bands, and it would be extremely difficult to do what we do here without it.”
Which is the only thing that has ever come close to tempting me to sign up for Facebook. Fortunately I keep track of enough metal websites and message boards that I really dont need it to keep up in most situations
I have no doubt its a necessary evil when youre running a blog though
Given the range of metal we try to cover here, it would be tough to keep abreast of everything that’s happening in any other way. As you know, not all bands or labels have a FB presence, but the vast majority do, so it’s kind of like one-stop shopping. We get a ton of daily email from PR folks, labels, and bands, and I try to read those, too, but that’s not a substitute either.
TL;DR. Anyway, I never look for quality content like this on a website like Facebook. I didn’t even know you were on there, and even if I knew, I would still simply click or tap my usual browser bookmark to see if there’s anything new posted here.
Almost 2 years ago I ran a readers’ poll to try to get some sense of how many people found out about our posts through Facebook and how many from other sources. Back then, only 26% discovered new posts through FB, while 52% simply visited the site and browsed for new posts. I might do the poll again soon, just to see if that has changed at all.
i hate hearing about this kind of stuff. i only use my personal FB page to connect with immediate family and a couple long distance friends, and as a diary of sorts. and my Godless Angel FB page is really just a fun hobby, much like my Bandcamp page. it’s awesome when people “like” it or “follow” me but it’s really just there for my own amusement. if my GA posts only end up reaching 1 or 2 people it really doesn’t matter so much to me, because i have intentions of ever making money (or becoming famous) from my music.
but i follow a ton of bands and pages like NCS that actually really do need to be seen and heard by their fans and followers on a daily basis, and it’s infuriating to hear how FB is fucking them over. i often find myself going directly to a particular band’s FB page simply because i can’t remember the last time i saw them in my news feed and i’m sure they must have posted something recently. i try to “like” posts by all the bands/pages i follow, even if i don’t read the full post, because i know that helps keep them in my news feed, but i don’t always have time to do that every day.
but i still see a noticeable lack of posts in my new feed from the majority of the bands i follow. instead i see unsolicited posts from companies that i’ve never expressed any interest in. when i see these i check the “i don’t want to see this” option in the pull down menu, and when asked why i select “it’s spam”. i’m very persistent about this, but it doesn’t seem to change what shows up in my news feed.
i’m not ready to quit FB because, like i said, it’s become my little diary and a great way to stay in touch with the people i love. but i’m very thankful that i’m not a business owner or such who really needs to reach out to my customer base online, because i would absolutely feel like i’m being asked to bend over and take it up the ass by Facebook.
oh, and one more thing:
“I put a link to this article on our Facebook page and paid Facebook to “promote” the link so it would be seen by more than 4-7% of our FB fans.”
i like every single NCS post so that they will continue to show up in my news feed every day, but i actually didn’t see this one, today. i think it’s the first time i can recall that a NCS FB post didn’t make it to my news feed. 🙁
I notice that you always like our posts, and so it’s especially weird that this one didn’t show up in your feed. Big Brother is retaliating against us! Well, probably not.
I didn’t even know about that option to say you “don’t want to see this”, but giving users too much autonomy to filter out ads goes against the grain of Facebook’s ad-driven business model, so I’m not surprised it doesn’t have any noticeable effect on the amount of paid ads that show up in your feed.
i kind of wondered if the title of this post kept it out of my news feed, but that would be pretty evil of Facebook, wouldn’t it? or maybe since you paid to “promote” it they just selected a random percentage of NCS followers to receive it and i just happened to not be in that percentage?
The worst part about Facebook ads is they’ve started paying off AdBlock so they still show up even with it installed. Today was the first time in months or maybe even years that I’ve had to see the dreaded sidebar ads in my newsfeed but I guess AdBlock has to make money somehow.
Actually there’s a box that is automatically checked which says “Allow some non-intrusive advertising”. Just uncheck it and you’re good.
I recently had to change my strategy:
*Create news section on website
*Share the news from the website on faceplant
Perhaps setting up a mailing list is a good idea as well.
Dude, nobody uses Facebook anymore. What’s wrong with you? I bet you don’t even deer.
http://www.theonion.com/video/teens-migrating-from-facebook-to-comments-section,35583/
-1 deer
That’s so yesterday. Happy Fast Kitchen is where it’s at.
I guess I’m lucky, because I see almost all of your posts to FB. As a matter of fact, I got this particular one. I must admit that I’ve previously done my duty. Which was to like NCS’ FB page, then going to the page itself, and subscribe to it, and finally by choosing to get notified, clicking the so called option from the drop-down menu when roving over the Like button.
I’m glad I’m fed with, I presume, most of your posts. I enjoy especially the marvellous artworks you post from time to time.
I enjoy also a lot the bands you make me discover. The most recent example being from this very post, Nuklear Frost. I’m already on their Bandcamp page buying the album (@ $5, a steal).
Anyhow, if I don’t see everything you do on FB (I never did the verification/comparison though), NCS is part of my list of metal websites I look at on a daily basis.
Keep on the good work. Good metal websites are beginning a rare commodity, as a lot quit doing what they do for various reasons.
MM
Thanks for being such a diligent reader! And I’m glad you enjoyed the Nuklear Frost. I’m really sold on that album, and will have a review of it tomorrow, even though I’m hoping the people who read this post have already given it some time. 🙂
this bothers me more on a personal level than business one. while I post updates about the band on fb too, they are too few and far between (and we have too few likes) for it to really matter. but edgerank works against my friends too, I have few enough friends on fb that if they allowed me to see everybody’s posts that would be fine, but they don’t so I end up seeing the same few people posts over and over. sure I could spend a few hours clicking “less of this” or whatever, but who has the time …
You’d think they could fine-tune the algorithm to reduce the amount of filtering it does as the number of pages a user follows and friends a user has declines in number. In fact, I’m sure they could do that if they wanted to.
I have a solution: We need to send attack goats to infiltrate the Facebook offices. Whenever someone fucks with EdgeRank, BAM! Headbutt to the groin!
Of course, first we have to figure out how to liberate the goats from Islander’s fuck dungeon. But as with all things, one step at a time.
The dungeon door is wide open at all times. Is it my fault they don’t want to leave? No, it is not.
ATTACK GOATS
Unleash the Goakraken!
I thought of you today, but not in the way you imagine. Unless your tastes have changed and you no longer appreciate sanity-threatening violent noise, there’s a guess post tomorrow you may like. A slug of Japanese bands featured in it, though they may be in prison by now.
The only solution short of paying those soulless assfuckers, is to do what I do and get notifications for every band/interest group such as NCS/etc. It’s a pain in the ass, and blows up my feed, but it does mean that I miss nothing.
You mentioned RSS way up top, but it’s always surprising to me how often this comes up as a viable alternative. Viable alternative? Hell, it’s been head and shoulders a better method to keep up with a website’s posts since day one. Frankly I’ve never really relied on social media to ensure I’m getting all the latest intel. In fact, I frequently “unfollow” or hide blogs from my FB feed specifically because I’ve already seen the articles via RSS and I don’t have a lot of time for redundancy.
I’m really glad I’m not the only one that feels this way. Why are there people who still aren’t using RSS feeds?
You can also encourage your followers to click ‘Get Notifications’, found on your homepage in the ‘Liked’ drop-down menu.
I have fun with, result in I discovered just what I was looking for.
You have ended my four day long hunt! God Bless you man. Have
a nice day. Bye
Why is advocating animal rights/welfare anti-humanist?