In recent months, some Facebook page owners have noticed that their accounts are driving much less traffic to their websites than they used to. In some cases, Facebook clickthroughs are down by as much as half, despite a huge growth in likes. Even worse, some brands noticed that this drop in traffic coincided with a new Facebook feature called “promoted posts” through which brands can pay cold hard cash to push their content out to more news feeds than they would normally reach—and the brands are not happy about it.
This juxtaposition of events makes it look like Facebook is artificially driving down traffic, then holding the old level of traffic hostage in order to generate some new revenue. But Facebook insists it’s doing nothing of the sort; instead, the company says that it’s just trying to keep its users’ Facebook feeds from getting too crufty with promotional posts they don’t want to see. In other words, Facebook claims to be on the side of users against the advertisers, even if it’s making money on the deal.
Read more at Is Facebook “broken on purpose” to sell promoted posts? | Ars Technica.
Content Curator Rachel Parker
Rachel Parker, Owner and Chief Content Strategist of Resonance Content Marketing, brings a track record of success in brand messaging to her work with forward-thinking businesses of all sizes. With over 15 years experience as a brand strategist and marketing writer, Rachel has worked with some of the most prominent companies in Houston, including Hewlett-Packard, SYSCO Foodservice, AIG American General, Methodist Hospital, Reliant Energy, Honeywell, and many others.
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