Should your business be on Facebook? Well, of course.
Yes.
Sure.
Well, maybe, depending.
If your Facebook page isn’t doing much for your business, consider this from Copyblogger. In October they killed off their Facebook page, shaking up the social media world.
Who is Copyblogger and why did they shake up the social media world? They are a firm that helps other companies develop engaging, useful content to convert readers into customers.
Why were they folding their Facebook page?
They couldn’t engage their readers. Remember, they are among the best in the business at this and they had to admit defeat. They even hired a fine writer and Facebook expert, Erika Napoletano, to make it work. No go.
They became convinced that their audience was not on Facebook. For the record, they are successful on Google+ (my favorite for a number of reasons) and Twitter. Their audience lives, as they say, on those two social media platforms and not on Facebook. On Facebook they simply could not build any sort of engagement, decided to stop wasting their time and money and pulled the plug on their account. You can read their explanation here.
Some fierce reponses.
The reaction from other experts was immediate, most saying it was a mistake.
One common theme is Copyblogger never really gave the platform a proper chance. Postings were sporadic, and them mostly a line and link to their website, and that brought no interest or engagement. They even found, or believed that a lot of their likes were fakes, which is a whole other story.
They only really tried to engage their audience towards the very end, say their critics. Others contend even then their postings were not getting through Facebooks filters to be shared elsewhere because it was not Facebook friendly content.
For a good critique of what they critics say Copyblogger did wrong, check out this YouTube video from Post Planner. It’s also highlights why so many fail on Facebook. They just don’t do it right, or do it right often enough. Volume counts, if it’s good.
More, more, more.
The fix, according to most, was more time, more resources to make the posts more Facebook friendly and more money to buy Facebook ads. That was something Copyblogger had no interest in pursuing.
One thing to note, most of the critics being fierce are in the business being Facebook experts. Closing their Facebook page may have hit a little too close home.
So, did Copyblogger blow it?
Well, maybe. They certainly did not use Facebook to its full advantage. A line and a link to the Copyblogger website won’t cut it. No one cares about that. And the few times they did do it right, they did get good engagement, a good number of likes. So, yes, they did, ultimately, blow it.
Yet, I think the best response came from a gentleman named Jay Baer. He wrote this:
People that say “they should have done ads” miss the point entirely, because that’s not finite resources, it’s additional resources (both dollars and time). If the decision is to pay for Facebook ads, or to further ramp up their email program, which returns insane ROI (and I’m not suggesting that was the calculus, but it’s probably not far off), then maybe you shouldn’t do Facebook?
…If they believe they can better use their resources in a different fashion, that doesn’t mean they suck at Facebook or lack imagination or vision. It simply means that they are looking at their business holistically, and deploying assets in the places where they can win. Why run uphill when there are plenty of downhill slopes?
Exactly. I have no doubt Copyblogger could have made success of their Facebook effort. They simply didn’t need to.
You can be successful on Facebook if the content is up to Facebook standards, it works to engage your audience and you do it frequently. If not, look for the downhill slopes.