Facebook isn’t FREE?

Did you ever notice that people seem to complain more when they get something for free? Have you also noticed that people seem surprised when they find out that a business is actually in the business to make money? Not long ago I read an exclusive post from Reuters: Facebook to charge merchants to run offers. The Post said, “The service has been free, but in coming weeks Facebook will require merchants to pay at least $5 on related ads to promote each Facebook Offer to a targeted audience of fans and friends of fans. The cost will vary based on the size of a company’s Facebook pages.” Facebook is also expanding Offers to online-only businesses. Before, the service was available only to merchants with physical locations.”

Yes, Facebook offers have been in existence for a while but recently I have seen a number of comments being made about Facebook’s move to generate revenue in this way as unacceptable to their users. One comment on Facebook urged fans to be sure to adjust their settings because Facebook is limiting the amount of posts you will see from a group’s page if they don’t pay. See a remedy for this below.

There seems to be a trend developing. Some people seem to have a sense of entitlement. While there are “Free” social platforms, services, information, music, discounts, etc. clearly it has become problematic for some businesses who now actually want to make money.  Why it is that successful entrepreneurs and businesses are labeled “too successful” or that they “dominate the market”? Why are they scorned when they want to charge a fee for what they offer? If you personally started a business, chances are very good that you’ll want to not only make money but also want to be hugely successful. If that were the case would you feel that the public or even the government were justified in knocking you down for being successful?

The truth of the matter is that it’s your choice to use any social platform on the web that’s free.  I also think that if you are paying for a service, you definitely deserve a level of service that should be spelled out by that platform in terms of what you will receive for your money. If changes are made to a platform and you don’t agree with them, then it’s certainly your option to stop using that platform.

With that said. . .with the new changes coming be sure to monitor your business page “Insights” to see if traffic to your page has dropped off in new visitors or engagement from current visitors. If so you will need to determine how important that is for the success of your business. If paying a nominal fee continues to grow your revenue, is it worth it?

So, do you think that Facebook or others should be able to charge businesses a nominal fee for using their platforms to generate revenue?

And now the Remedy for getting information from things you “Like”

If you are a fan of a page and want to be sure you are seeing all the updates from a page do the following.

• Go to the page that you have “Liked”
• Next to the “Liked” and “Message” box below the cover pictures select the dropdown
• Select, “Add to Interest Lists. . .”
• Create and name a new interest list
• Now on your main page you will see updates for these pages/topics in Interests on the left hand side

 

Erik Hultman (a.k.a. E) is the Founder and President of ÜberBlueDM, Inc., specializing in Social Media Solutions for Brands, Businesses and Celebrities to build their social media success. He is also founder of the North Shore Entrepreneurial Network (NSEN)  in the Chicago Area.