Facebook has more than a Billion users. That means one in six people on the planet has a Facebook account. Poignantly, there are reportedly over 20 million (and growing) Facebook pages for business.
It’s commonly accepted by businesses today that having a Facebook page is an essential marketing tool for any business. It’s hard to argue that it’s pretty much a prerequisite if you want your business to have any kind of online presence. Businesses who have Facebook pages can promote their business, brands, sales, deals, and services on a daily, bi-daily, even hourly basis to targeted demographics.
However, there is a big down-side. Getting carried away with plugging your business on Facebook can actually hurt your business.
You can very quickly be viewed as an “overposter”. The resulting fallout from being an overposter is substantial, both in collateral damage to your brand’s image and to a big drop in followers and fans. Personal Facebook overposting is a big turn-off for many people. After all, if you’re interested in “stream of consciousness” type data, feeding into your Facebook news feed and you have a deep interest in what toast your friends had for breakfast then Twitter is usually the SocNet of choice. But you’ll see relentless over-posting on just about everyone’s Facebook feed. Not one post a day but several, sometimes dozens of posts a day.
Why? Because Social Network’s are built around narcissism. Social Networks are – in some ways – the online evolution of narcissism. Anyone on the planet with a PC and internet (or a smartphone) can have their own easy to build, easy to use vanity website where they can share themselves with the rest of world. That means that you can share unlimited pictures of yourself, express your thoughts through posts – as random and as immaterial as they may be – and even video yourself eating toast if you so desire. You can share pictures of the toast you had for breakfast, and – painfully – you can do it as often as you want. But, you can bet that there will be people on your friend’s list that don’t give a rat’s you-know-what about your toast. They will filter down your posts, block your posts from their feed or completely de-friend you so your posts don’t show up at all. Overposting is almost like spamming your friends. It’s bad form and you’ll ultimately annoy people on your Facebook network who may end up unsubscribing to your posts completely.
The same goes for over posting on business pages. Facebook even issued statements on their website help page that warns people about over posting on their page, that says “The most frequently cited reason Facebook users give for “unliking” a brand is that it posts too frequently,” according to a new report from Exact Target and CoTweet. Data from “The Social Break-up” indicates 44% of Facebook users list this as a top reason for unliking a brand they once liked on Facebook.
Facebook also warns “Report data indicates brands will often know when a Facebook fan changes their mind, as 43% of Facebook users will unlike a brand when they no longer want to see its posts. Another 38% click the “X” in their news feed so they don’t see the brand’s posts and 19% don’t over post. Instead, provide relevant content and real information that has substantial value. do nothing but ignore the posts”. Bottom line? As you get set to post another insightful dissertation on the texture, temperature and taste of the toast you had this morning, remember this. LESS IS MORE
By Vaughan Palelei of webologize.com and the DTX Group