Something is wrong with my Facebook numbers, and it is not just me. I post to a Page with a big audience, and the number of people who actually see it keeps shrinking. Posts that used to reach thousands now reach a few hundred. Same page, same fans, same effort, way less reach.
This is not a bug. This is Facebook turning a dial on purpose. For years they let us build up these Pages, gather all these fans for free, and now they are quietly closing the tap and pointing at the “boost post” button. Pay to reach the audience you already earned. It is a smart business move by them and a punch in the gut for the rest of us.
What I am not going to do
I am not going to throw money at every post to fight the algorithm. That is a treadmill, and it gets more expensive every month as more people are forced onto it.
What I am actually testing
- Posting less, but only the good stuff. If reach is limited, I am not wasting it on filler. Every post has to earn its slot.
- Content that makes people react, not just look. Facebook shows a post to more people when the first people who see it comment and share. So I am testing posts built to start a conversation, not just deliver a message.
- Moving people off Facebook and onto my email list. This is the big one. Facebook can throttle my reach whenever it wants, but nobody can throttle an email I send to a list I own. I am testing every gentle way I can to turn a Facebook fan into a subscriber.
The lesson landing hard
I built audiences on rented land, and the landlord just raised the rent. I do not regret it, Facebook gave me years of free reach. But it is the same lesson Google Reader taught me last year, louder this time: own your audience wherever you can. Test the platform, use the platform, but never fully depend on a channel that can decide your fate with a settings change. I am building my own list now, one fan at a time, before the tap closes all the way.
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