Most pounds don’t need a facebook page. They really don’t.
News that this month, Facebook has again dropped the organic reach of ‘pages’ – or the vehicle most pounds and shelters use on social media to promote their pets.
Now we’re bringing new volume and content controls for promotional posts, so people see more of what they want from Pages… beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content in their News Feeds. As we’ve said before, News Feed is already a competitive place — as more people and Pages are posting content, competition to appear in News Feed has increased. All of this means that Pages that post promotional creative should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.
I’ve personally already seen the effects of this as an administrator of a large non-profit’s page. From a page with more than 90,000 members, each post gets a reach of about 3,000. Or put another way – about 3% of our members now see our posts. It sucks an enormous amount.
For most people starting a page, they can expect that the majority of pound Facebook pages never grow beyond 1-2k members. 90% of these will not be adopters, but people who ‘like pets’, people from out of town and interstate. Even international.
If your page DOES grow beyond a few thousand people, you’re going to find your page throttled by Facebook’s new algorithms. You will find less than 10% of your members are seeing your posts. If you want your post to spread further, you will have to start subscribing to paid advertising – ouch.
People who ‘share’ your posts may seem like they help you get good reach. However most people outside of rescue will not put up with more than one or two cross posts, before putting a mute on the sender (you’ve done it yourself I’m sure – unfollowing that friend who insists on posting on that topic which doesn’t interest you).
The best indicator of engagement is ‘comments’ and ‘likes’, and in the majority of cases these will number less than 20 – at the end of all your work getting this page off the ground, posting photos and pets, less than 20 people are going to care about your efforts.
Facebook pages are also a great way to piss off Council management. Facebook posts have comments. If you are to post something controversial (an ill or injured, or even scared pet) or something that the public misconstrue, negative feedback can take off ‘virally’ at an unbelievable rate.
Have this happen a couple of times, with Council receiving criticism, and it may be the end of any public-visible program.
Organisations with a big social media presence tend to have a dedicated, PR trained staff member (or team!) managing them. Managing a Facebook page well (especially during times of crisis) is actually a pretty specialised skill. Remember Facebook – when used to speak on behalf of an organisation or agency – is a direct public communication and no less important than other media, email, bulletin or phone interactions.
Facebook pages don’t grow overnight. Those with big followings have likely been making a significant daily time investment, over a period of years. Chances are your pound needs help getting pets out alive TODAY. Yesterday even. New Facebook pages are a long-term strategy, not a quick fix.
What is the ideal solution for pounds who need pets seen by people actually looking to take home a pet, right now? What is a much better time investment for those trying to get a pound rehoming program off the ground?
Interesting article. Pity you simply point out the problem and don”t even consider a solution.
Also, it is nonsense that you need a specialised skill set to run a good page, if you have time, you can do it. Facebook is simply not rocket science.
Cheers.
Facebook is not rocket science, no. But it is also not the right fit in all instances. This is not so much a ‘problem’ to be solved necessarily, so much as a fact.
Running a good page – especially on behalf of a government agency – DOES take skill. And you’re right, it does take a significant time investment. If you happen to be blessed with these skills, and have time, and this leads to you having success WONDERFUL. But the point of this article is to introduce the idea that effective social media campaigns don’t just happen. And in many instances, when you’re dealing with restrictive agencies like local government, the wild-west nature of social media just simply isn’t appropriate.
We use both, and cross reference. We have a webpage of our own too. I am learning very quickly about managing FB and it’s vagaries but it is a bit annoying that they keep changing the rules. We have started going old school making posters to put up in vet offices and at community notice boards because we are looking at branching out!
Jet – this could be extremely relevant, with a recent Australian study showing 50% of pet owners consider veterinarians the BEST source of information about pets. If your vet will talk about with your work with their clients, it may just be an extremely valuable relationship!
That is indeed interesting :)