Why Deleting Your Facebook Page is NOT the Answer

I know we all have a love/hate relationship with Facebook. Recently Copyblogger took it to an all-new level – they deleted their Facebook page.

Yes, a business with over 30,000 fans just walked away.

I am not going to bash them in this post – it was their decision. However I can give my open, honest opinion on that decision…I think they are stupid for doing it.

Facebook organic reach is down to almost nothing. Each user has the opportunity to have over 1,500 posts shown to them every time they log on. It is completely impossible for a user to see every post from every person and page they follow. Something has to give. Facebook has their algorithm to determine what to show you based on your activity on the platform. I get it.

However deleting your Facebook page is NOT the answer. Here are three reasons why –

You still have an audience there.

There are well over 1 billion people on Facebook so you have a target market still actively using that platform. There are ways to reach them. Totally abandoning them (at least the ones who see you content on a consistent basis) is not a good business decision. If Facebook is the only platform they use, then you are out of luck in reaching them if you decide to leave Facebook. There is nothing wrong with branching out and using other platforms while scaling back on Facebook – I’ve done that. It’s merely a refocusing of attention. I believe every business has an audience on every platform – it’s a matter of priority and strategy on how you use them.

You can still get your content seen & engaged with.

Yes, you will have to spend money, but utilizing the awesome Facebook advertising program, you can get your content seen and engaged with. I believe this was one of Copyblogger’s biggest mistakes. They did zero Facebook advertising. If they had even had one promoted post, they would have seen a difference. Heck, running an ad to get sign-ups for their email list would have generated something. Don’t give up without trying.

Posting quality content will only help, not hurt.

If all you post are cheap memes and inspirational quotes from Pinterest, Facebook is going to rank you low when they determine what to show. Posting QUALITY, INDUSTRY-RELATED content will help your page rank higher and you will see more engagement. My organic reach sucks on my business page right now, but I do see engagement on my posts. It may not be astronomical, but it shows people are still seeing it and engaging with it.

I will admit – there have been times I’ve wanted to delete my page and move on, but in the end for me, it would be an unwise business decision. I have an audience there that I don’t have on other platforms. How would they feel about being abandoned? I know how I would feel.

How about you? Would you ever consider deleting your Facebook page? Why or why not?