No One Sees My Posts on Facebook
If you have a fanpage for business, you want to be able to share information with your followers. As far as you know, they like you, they want to see what you have to say, and they want to get access to your sales when you run them.
Maybe you’ve even had people tell you they don’t see your updates, or you’ve seen updates on Facebook by other fanpages that talk about changing settings, etc, and you’ve pasted them to share with your fans.
But, when you look at your posts, you notice just a fraction of your fans are seeing your updates, in fact, it’s a very small fraction, isn’t it?
While people have been shouting for months now that they are upset about this, Facebook seems to be doing very little to take care of the problem. But is it really a problem? Instinctively, you say yes, but let’s think about it for a moment.
A fan comes across your fanpage and they want to see what you have to say about your industry, so they like you. But then what happens? Here is my theory, and yes it is just a theory, I’ve asked several people but I have done no real research into it, so that is my disclaimer up front.
My theory on the lifecycle of a ‘Like’:
- Facebook user likes your fanpage
- They read your first few updates, quite happy to see you are posting. Based on what you say in the updates, they may respond to them by sharing, copying, liking or commenting.
- For awhile they are happy to see your updates, they interact with you and other other fans.
- After a few months, shorter or longer depending on you, your updates, and your industry, the fan isn’t as excited anymore, and you have to work harder to get the like, comment, or share
- Soon they stop responding at all, as life has changed, seasons change, interests change, and as long as you aren’t bothering them with your updates, they browse right over them, occassionally reading one
- Fan becomes interested in other hobbies, topics, fanpages, etc, they like more fanpages, who begin to appear in their newsfeeds, as you are cut back based on how quickly they like something else, how much they ignore your posts, etc.
- You are no longer on your fan’s newsfeed, and the only way to reach them in through promoted posts
Human nature suggests we often change our interests, focus on different hobbies and collections based on different times in our lives. For instance a new mom will ‘like’ several baby/mom fanpages, but as baby turns 1, then 2, these pages are less interesting, as she looks for companies like Fisher Price and Playskool for toys the toddler plays with.
My Theory On Why Facebook Uses This Method of Weeding Out Newsfeeds:
When I go to my newsfeed, I want to see updates from people and companies I care about, and really my interests today are not the same they were several years ago when I joined. It would be a pain to go back to every single fanpage I’ve ever visited and unlike it, so I don’t, and most people don’t. But if my newsfeed is overun with updates that no longer pertain to my interests, I’m not going to read it, if I don’t read it, I’m not spending as much time on Facebook, and if I’m not there, they can’t sell ads to show me. And Facebook is in the business of making money, so they have to show ads.
The average person on Facebook doesn’t even know how to hide fanpages from their newsfeed, and you don’t want them to. That is a negative action for your fanpage and that doesn’t look good for your fanpage, the more negative actions you get, the fewer times your updates will show to fans.
The average person also does not know how to go back to every fanpage they have liked and unlike them, so Facebook had to do something to keep it clean. They had to find a balance for making money by keeping advertisers happy, and keeping users happy by keeping their newsfeeds relevant. The system isn’t perfect, but, for the most part it doesn’t work too badly.
How To Keep Fans Interested In Your Posts on Fanpage?
You really want to get your fans to like, comment and share your updates as often as possible. But you have to find a balance. If you ask them to like every post they might get annoyed, if you are always asking questions they will stop answering, if you constantly beg them to share, well… you get the picture. So, you have to make it worth their while, provide content they want to read, they want to like, and they want to respond to. Each time someone does, it is a positive action for your fanpage and you are a step closer to improving those update views (the number of people who see your updates).
What to Post to Keep Fans Interested?
I have a fanpage about guinea pigs, and my fans love pictures of guinea pigs. They like to see pictures of them being played with, eating, the different colors, breeds, sizes, ages, etc. They like to see pics of homemade cages and they like to read about how others interact with their guinea pigs, what they feed them, what they like, how they play, etc. The more I share these things, the more they share, like and comment on what I post.
Every industry is different, I’ve worked with funny fanpages, where people just want to laugh at the content. You have to know what your fans want, and then you have to deliver it to them. I’ve worked with a baby store, where people liked to buy cloth diapers. We would post pictures of babies in cloth diapers, post little articles about how to clean them, tell them about the best sales for cloth diapers, answer questions about feeding babies, etc.
For a fashion client, we would find and post pictures of outfits and let our followers grade the outfit, we would tell them about new fashion trends, and fashion shows coming up all over the world.
So, take some time to think about what you would want to see as your own customer. I promise when you do, you will have a better idea of how to keep your fans interested and chatting with you, and they’ll stick around a lot longer too.
