Why pulling our Facebook Page was painful
I believe that, contrary to popular belief, Facebook isn't for every business...
I know: "wash my mouth out with soap!" shock! horror!
Because you can doesn't mean you should...
... because you can eat a whole block of chocolate (or litres of icecream) doesn't mean you should.
Likewise with Facebook...
Because your business can start a Facebook Page (and many of your friends have Facebook pages for their businesses) doesn't mean you should too.
Because *everyone* does, doesn't mean you need to too...
... and who is *everyone* anyway?
I hear it all the time - "but Julie...."
... all businesses say like our Facebook Page - so I need to be saying that too...!"
or
... all businesses have follow us on Facebook on their shop windows - so I need to have it on mine too..."
And my response is always "do you...? tell me why you need to too..."
Mostly, the responses I hear are always "black and white cow" stuff - whereas I'm into being a purple cow - like Seth Godin.
Too much for too little...
In simple terms I closed the door on HaloBiz's Facebook page because it was too much of a drain on resources for too little return.
I started the Page wayyy back... as an Early Adopter... back in the days when there were no instructions. NB: instructions: not to be confused with rules - there were plenty of those!
We had a great Facebook community (even if I may say so myself).
We grew it to just over 500 PDQ (pretty damn quick). Sooo PDQ in fact, many of my social media coaching colleagues couldn't believe it'd grown so fast and was so engaged without handing over any coins to Mr Zuckerberg.
["what???!!?? You achieved that without spending a cent on advertising??" "yup!"]
Our Page was a fun place to be... fans interacted with each other, posted comments, nudged me when I was late with any of my regular posts (!) and generally we had a great time.
Just like you're meant to in a social space.
But Mr Zuckerberg changed the rules. Our fans started to see fewer and fewer updates. It was getting harder and harder. Taking more and more time. For fewer, littler, and lesser.
And it was getting harder for our fans as well. More hoops for them to jump through to see what we were doing..
So I pulled the plug. And it was painful.
Why it hurt
If you've ever procrastinated about anything you'll probably be able to relate.
Sometimes not doing something is harder than actually doing it!
The energy it takes to hold on, far outweighs the energy involved in letting go. In stopping.
That's how it was with me and pulling the plug on our Facebook Page.
Believe it or not it took about a year for me to finally close HaloBiz's Facebook Page's doors.
A year of umming and ahhing. 365 days wasted by being a yo-yo. Should I? Shouldn't I? What will people think?
The pain came from me worrying out whether I was doing the right thing - not because it hurt HaloBiz in any discernible or measurable way!
In the end there was no pain at all for HaloBiz. In fact, nothing changed.
Our sales continued on their nice and steady path...
There was no discernible or measurable fallout.
I wondered why I had made it so hard on myself!
Surprisingly, I didn't realise until after I'd closed our Page that I'd spent a stupid, dumb amount of mental energy in feeling a failure for regarding myself as a has-been ... for not being as good as I was in the beginning: before Mr Z changed the rules....
Now that was crazy!!
Why I did it
The saying goes something like "insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result"...
That was me: starting to go insane!
In short: Facebook started to charge a cover price to my social gathering I wasn't prepared to pay. In addition to the price being real hard cash, it was also my time and effort.
Time & Effort: two commodities of mine that are a limited, and therefore, precious resource.
As much as I appreciated and respected our Facebook community, I doubted they would ever become our customers. And, like every business, sales are necessary to our survival.
Facebook wasn't where our sales were coming from. Facebook wasn't even where our leads were coming from.
Have you been wondering about whether to pull the plug on your Facebook presence...?
If you have here's what I suggest you do:
- first determine why you have a Facebook page (because everyone else does isn't a good enough reason. not really).
- decide which metric you are going to measure success by (private messages? engagement (comments)? email / newsletter opt-ins?, etc) and then track that component for the next 30 days. Is it going up or down, remaining steady?
- what is your ROI on that metric (are the private messages from tyre-kickers that drain your resources, or do they lead to sales)? Is this ROI one you're satisfied with?
- what (if anything) can you do to improve this ROI? Is it worth it?
- how much time is Facebook taking you and/or your staff? Are the results worth it?
- how does this rate with other sales-generating strategies in place in your business?
- if (5) is "no" - where could you be investing your time / energy instead that would show a better ROI?
- ask! ask your Facebook fans their thoughts? [if none reply there could be your answer!]
I'm not saying that pulling the plug on your Facebook page is the right tactic for you. But I am saying that Facebook isn't for every business. And I'm also saying that just because everyone (?) does it, doesn't mean you need to too.
Here're some recent Facebook stats that may be of interest to you (it's a Slideshare deck by Wishpond Technologies).
It was slide #27 that prompted this post. Facebook members are potentially exposed to 1,500 updates/day. Mr Z does his bit to ensure members don't end up in overload and reminded me why we no longer have a Facebook presence!
Please remember, there are other ways for a business to be social that don't involve Facebook.
A couple of other articles you may find interesting:
7 Strategic Reasons Why Businesses Should Use Linkedin
2 Things You Need to Have in Place Before You Copy Someone's Social Media Strategy
As always, I'm interested in your thoughts on this:
Have you closed your Facebook Page? What did you discover as a result?
Are you thinking of closing your Facebook Page?
Do you agree with me?
Director at Media Bay of Plenty (Radio 1XX) and Bullseye Productions NZ
9 年Personally I think it's better to have a non-active Facebook presence rather than none at all. It's a bit like having a yellow pages listing in some regards. At least it's another avenue to be found - even if then directed to a website.
Agile Digital Product Owner | Human centered design specialist | Data driven decision maker | @RACWA
9 年Thank you for this insightful article. I was only just today contemplating the repercussions of closing down my business page on Facebook as my followers see 5% of my posts unless I pay to boost each one. It's been a great platform to promote my business at events but as far as selling products, it's really let me down over the last year. I may shift my focus to Twitter and Instagram (still affiliated with Facebook but at least they haven't figured out how to algorithm pictures from your Instagram feed!)
I help clients fix their finances and love their life | Money Coach
9 年I absolutely agree that business owners need to be clear about why any marketing strategy is right for them. Social media has the potential to be a brilliant way to connect with and generate new clients, but it also has the potential to simply drain your time and money. I love that you've carefully thought it out, and gone against the crowd! I haven't pulled my Facebook page (yet) but I did meet someone recently who took down their website! Their potential clients can still find them on an online professional directory,which rates much higher in search engine results than her site did, and it also gives her the credibility boost of being seen in the company of others in the profession. And the results back up her decision - more new clients in two months being in the directory than in the previous six months with her own website. Sometimes it really pays to question the conventional wisdom.
Executive Virtual Assistant Specialising in Dance Studio Support | Bookkeeping & Administrative Efficiency Expert | Problem Solving Enthusiast | Traveller That Loves Cats, Crochet & Harry Potter
9 年Fantastic article Julie. I often have clients wanting to sign up to every major social media platform available, but once I start asking them why, they don't seem to have a clear vision on how it should be working for their business. It is definitely harder for the smaller businesses to be seen and heard unless their followers have specifically signed up for their notifications, so a good time to review, take stock and evaluate the benefit to the business.
Strategy and Communications | Founder of OD&Co
9 年Interesting discussion you raise Julie - I agree that Facebook isn't for every business and can become a huge drain on your time and energy if you are constantly "feeding the beast". I used to use LinkedIn actively and neglect Facebook (I had a page, posted regularly but didn't give it too much thought) and just over a year ago I decided to have a go and experiment with Facebook advertising. Now I could never go without a Facebook and it actually would affect the results of my business. This is by far the most sophisticated advertising platform available to businesses and it requires you to have a functioning Facebook Page. I now get a healthy return on my time and financial investment. I believe that Facebook is actually better for business today than it has ever been. It's actually easier and faster than ever before to get in front of more people. Just my thoughts - I've seen so many of my clients resist Facebook only to be pleasantly surprised at the results they can generate. You get out, what you put in.