Facebook Facing Backlash

Recent updates and changes to Facebook have caused a stir on the Internet as businesses are finding they are not getting all the exposure they used to. With the changes, there’s come a widespread drop in organic Facebook page reach. According to findings (via TechCrunch), the typical Page last month say organic reach per fan of 6.51%, fan reach per fan of 6.46%, and viral reach per fan of 0.99%. For comparison, organic reach per fan was 16% in February of 2012. Last September it was 12.60%. It’s been already nearly cut in half since then. Webpronews has some charts from a couple sources.

One popular page has removed it’s Facebook account in protest. And actor Rainn Wilson recently tweeted, “Turns out my @Facebook is kind of worthless. I used to post & reach most of my 200k followers, now I reach 5k & have to pay to hit more.”

It wasn’t long ago that businesses and marketers started to look at Facebook pages as more important than their own websites. Advertisements included the brand’s Facebook address in place of their own website domain often. And businesses seemed to be more concerned with developing their Facebook and social media than their own websites. But this recent problem shows just how important it is that businesses maintain and update their own websites that they will always have complete control over. And if they do this and include search engine optimization, customers will not only always find them online, but with a modern site full of good content, they’ll find the actual site more useful than any social media account or page.

Facebook’s changes are no doubt a way to try to make more money now that they’re a public company with shareholders to answer to. However they may find this only helps speed up the inevitable fall of Facebook, as social media sites like MySpace have risen and fallen sharply over time. Studies have recently shown that Facebook is falling out of favor with the younger demographic, and now with some celebrities and brands jumping ship – and even management unloading their stock – Facebook may not be so ‘cool’ anymore..