'Liking' a business on Facebook doesn't guarantee post views.
Until now, many businesses have taken advantage of what is essentially free advertising on social media. However, Facebook's new algorithms have now reduced the organic reach of some business posts. While business owners claim the social media giant has moved the goalposts, the company denies ever having made any guarantees about reach.
The Facebook 'like' Image: Facebook |
While denying the changes have been made to boost revenue, Facebook says that firms should pay for ads on its platform, rather than just hoping that posts to company Facebook pages will automatically be shown to people who 'like' them.
"Every time you log in, we have 1,500 stories we could share with you in your news feed," states Brandon McCormick, Facebook's Communications Director.
"You could consume everything, if you sat and scrolled all day, but we want news feeds to be the best stories you can see every time you go there."
According to Facebook, businesses have different options which don't necessarily involve paid-for advertising. The timing of posts could be more strategic and businesses could try to persuade their fans to change their settings and opt into more of the businesses' posts.