There’s no getting around it. There is business to be done on Facebook. Most of the users of Facebook probably wish that weren’t the case, but we’re not willing to pay for Facebook so the advertising model has got to come into play.
Because of this balancing act, users will generally tolerate “business” activity on Facebook as long as they feel it’s not too intrusive, at least somewhat relevant to them and hopefully engaging and entertaining.
I used to not “Like” anything. I wanted to try and keep my Facebook experience pure for people I wanted to hear from, generally family and friends. However, as more and more business was being done on the platform I began to realize that there’s a beneficial symbiosis that can be obtained by businesses using the platform effectively and with respect of the people using the platform.
There are plenty of resources on how businesses should use Facebook and the benefits. What I want to do today is perhaps send up a giant warning for businesses to encourage them to seek out these “best practice” resources and pay attention to them. Because if you don’t, you could end up becoming invisible and disappear from people’s Walls.
If you start to wear out your welcome with too many posts on Facebook, or something annoying or perhaps something that could offend someone, they have the ability to stop following you sure. That might actually be a good thing as it would send a signal to you that maybe you did something wrong.
But… there’s another option available to them. Perhaps they don’t really want to commit to “dis-liking” you, but they’re just tired of you bothering them on their Wall and they decide to “Hide” all of your updates.
Notice that line in slightly smaller print: “Posts from YOUR BUSINESS will no longer appear in your News Feed.”
POOF! Gone! Invisible.
Sure, you’ve obtained 1000 LIKES, but has Facebook ever shown you a stat on how many “HIDES” from those people you’ve also racked up?
In the past I don’t think this was quite the issue because most Facebook users weren’t savvy enough to find these little controls to tweak the display of content on their Wall. I believe that’s changed now though and it’s come on the heels of Sponsored Posts in Facebook. I think these probably bother most users because they don’t fit some of the criteria I mentioned in the beginning of this post. Because these are now a little more annoying, users are actively figuring out ways to hide and get rid of them. And with it, they’ve unleashed the power of hiding content from the businesses and organizations they’ve already liked!
Beware!
