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?
I definitely think there are times when it IS warranted to delete a social channel, because for me it looks bad when you have a page or profile but nothing has been posted there in months. Have you gone out of business? Have you stopped your social efforts, or just forgotten about your audience? Did something “bad” happen to the company?
I struggled with those thoughts as we decided to move efforts on G+ from our Page to my profile. We didn’t end up deleting the page because Google offers so much with indexing (plus reviews and whatnot), but with Facebook I think it’s a little different.
Now, I wouldn’t go deleting MY Page, but say a very small page with only a few hundred or thousand likes is getting barely engagement, and let’s also pretend like all they’ve been posting is “BUY MY STUFF” content (or worse, it’s all been memes and quotes – EEK!). If they don’t have the time or resources to create the QUALITY, INDUSTRY-RELATED content you speak of (and yes, that’s the nail on the head), AND they don’t have the means to any for any adds to recapture lost Fans, then it would be almost silly to keep the Page open. If you can’t manage it properly, I don’t think it’s wise to let a Page just sit there (again, an exception would be a placeholder).
I suppose it all goes back to “no one looking in from the outside can tell you what to do” – but I don’t think it’s as easy as no you shouldn’t or yes you should. I think there has to be lots of testing and trying, and if you aren’t putting in effort in the 1st place it’s unlikely you’ll put in the effort to see what you should do.
I’m with you on *wishing* I could delete my Page sometimes … but we’ve been doing a LOT of testing lately and our weekly report from last week was all “in the green” – and all without ads. Your advice is spot on, I just fear some people don’t care enough to make the effort, and in that case I think they should delete their Page!
You made so many great points Brooke!
I’ve moved away from using my G+ page to pretty much using just my personal profile because I see more going on there (engagement, shares, etc). I’m currently debating whether or not to keep the G+ business page open.
I agree with you though – if it’s a very small page and you just can’t keep up, then I think it would be fine. However if you’re like Copyblogger and have over 30,000 fans?? I’m sure something could have been done to help.
Businesses need to test what works and what doesn’t before completely deleting a social account. I think you may be right when you said some people don’t care enough to make an effort. It’s sad that so much time and energy goes into this and then you get someone who doesn’t care. Thank you SO much for your awesome comment!!
Why do so many peeps miss the testing part??? Le sigh!
Good morning Mandy!
While our organic reach has obviously lowered like everyone else, Facebook is still the place where our readers and clients consistently engage with us. I applaud Copyblogger and their bold decision and willingness to work outside the norm. However, like you, Robin and I will not be following suit. We go where our readers and clients are. Right now they are on Facebook.
Thanks for this great article and advice! 🙂
Thank you so much for sharing Christine! Facebook may not be my biggest referrer of traffic, I still have some who are only connected with on that one platform. I don’t believe in abandoning fans 🙂
I manage social media for a public charter school and I’m actually afraid of branching out to another channel besides Facebook. Mandy, or anyone else, do you have any clients that do best on Facebook? If you were going to suggest a channel for the school to branch out to, what would it be? Thank you!