(Stupid) New Facebook Protocol...

I started last week with a mini resolution to avoid calling everything stupid.  I way overuse the word, and it sometimes makes me just plain grumpy.  Stupid car.  Stupid people (not y'all!).  Stupid computer.  Stupid.  Stupid.  Stupid.  I really like the word...  However, I've consciously done a pretty good job of not using it the past week.  Until the new facebook page rules came out....  Stupid new facebook.

I know that there have been several rumors circulating about facebook charging folks to use the service (my whole world might just end) over the past few years, but this is for real.  As of now, facebook pages will have to pay to "promote" each of their statuses just so that the fans who already like their pages can see their updates.  This is so asinine that the stupidness of it doesn't even need discussing.

Here's an example:

As you can see, only 150 of my over 2,000 facebook fans were shown this status update.  However, I can pay $10 to have facebook pop it up in 1,800 of my fans' newsfeeds.  SO -- I can get as many fans as I want, but even after y'all have decided to like my page and follow my updates, facebook will only let you see my updates if I pay $5 or $10 PER UPDATE to show it to more fans.  I realize that facebook is a (now publicly-traded) company that's just trying to make a profit, but REALLY facebook?

Those of us with "not for profit" pages are really left up a tree here, because the few bucks that I make from y'all using my affiliate links (thanks, by the way!) certainly will not yet come close to covering even one "promoted" update per day. 

So, what can you do?  First, complain to facebook!  There is much to be said for a well-written complaint letter/email...  But, for now, there are ways that you can make sure that your favorite pages show up more often, even without promoted statuses.  The algorithm that facebook uses to determine which statuses will be shown to whom and when weighs pretty heavily on how interactive a page's user has been.  If you like, comment, and share the content often, the page's content will show up in your feed more often. 

You can also go to a page's profile and hover your mouse over the "liked" button at the top right of the screen.  When the little menu pops up, make sure that "show in newsfeed" is selected.  This won't guarantee that you will still see all of that page's updates, though, so you'll still want to be as interactive as you can with the pages your care about!

Also, utilize other means of info-gathering.  Subscribe to your favorite pages' mailing lists for updates, follow them on twitter, pinterest, google +, etc.  You may just have to manually check the page's updates (but be sure that the top of the timeline feed says "posts by page" so that it doesn't just show the day's highlights.

I know that most of this seems like useless info for personal users without a facebook "page," but the content that you see in your newsfeed has been drastically altered.  I'm a big fan of staying informed and knowing how to be a few steps ahead of the system, so consider yourself warned!

I'm stepping off of my (somewhat angry) soapbox now.  The step is open... what do you think about the changes?