Facebook Fail

Silly me. When I created the Facebook page for my truck I actually thought my posts would be made available to everyone who followed the page. While I certainly didn't expect that EVERY fan would see EVERY post, I thought the average reach would be far better than the roughly 10 percent it is, especially with all the time invested in getting my page name out there through daily interaction with many other people and pages. As anyone who has tried to promote a blog or fan page with no budget can tell you, it's glaringly obvious that Facebook purposely limits exposure in an effort to force page owners to pay for it. I especially love their notifications almost immediately after posting something that say "Your post....is performing better than 95% of your other posts! Click here to boost it!" Boy, there's some real rocket science. If it gets a few likes and a couple of comments within a few minutes of being posted, of course it will be doing better on average than all the posts that have been there forever. What they're really saying with these notifications is "Give us money and we'll allow more people who are already fans of your page to see your post. Otherwise, watch it disappear." I guess all the money they make from all the ads they cram into more than 1.2 billion monthly active user feeds wasn't enough.

Admittedly, it's perfectly reasonable for Facebook to seek compensation for the exposure they offer, particularly from large for profit companies using the platform to push their products to the masses. But behemoths like Walmart, for example, aren't exactly setting the world on fire with their compelling Facebook content. Unless, of course, you're compelled by cheesy slogans like "Conquer Christmas!" and "Look like a gift giving master!" Conversely, there are countless individual fan pages offering content that actually makes it worth going there, creating the opportunity for Facebook to capitalize on countless additional page impressions that they can then cram full of ads. Call me crazy, but I say that is indeed offering real value in return for the exposure.

The very least Facebook could do is make our content readily available to everyone who has liked our pages. But they won't, of course, because squeezing out every last possible penny of short term profit is the way of the business world today. And long term vision (as in allowing individual page owners unrestricted growth and access to their audience, thereby creating countless additional page views and a huge additional revenue stream for Facebook) is fast becoming history.

And that's why I'm done sharing my story through Mr. Zuckerberg's website. Unless you have deep, easily replenished pockets and the willingness to submit to Facebook's extortion, you're pretty much spinning your wheels as a page owner.

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If you're reading this, thank you. I appreciate you taking the time. If you would like to stay updated, please go to the top of the page and leave your email address to subscribe. I can't see these addresses, so it's impossible for me to do anything with them. You'll simply get a notification every time a new post goes up. I'll be posting once or twice per week on average, maybe a little more in the warm weather months.

This 1949 Chevy has been in our family since the summer of 1981. On May 30, 2015, I finally lived the 34 year dream of driving it, and had a fantastic summer going to shows, cruise nights and just cruising around. But that's just part one of the big dream. Next up (hopefully!) is full restoration and an epic cross country/ Route 66 road trip. In an effort to fund the next phase, I have written "John's Old Truck – Living the Dream and Honoring Mom," including dozens of photos, which is available online at Amazon, Barnes & Noble and Smashwords. Shirts and other items are also available at John's Old Truck Shop and Uncle John's Tees.

I would be honored and very appreciative if you'd like to help this overgrown boy live his lifelong dream. I'm also interested in exchanging links with other sites in an effort to build traffic. If you have a site you think fans of this one would also enjoy, I'd love to hear from you. Please feel free to contact me directly via email anytime. Thanks again for stopping by! See y'all down the road...

J


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