Facebook may be over for business | Inovizion Consulting

Warning, this blog will not please anyone that works in social media but hear me out. Now that?Facebook has gone public, they have to?monetize 1,000,000,000 users somehow. We all may have just witnessed the biggest start up, cash out (AKA Bait and Switch) in history. Facebook had an IPO price of $38 and is now down to $21.11 (as of?Oct. 31, 2012).

So they have to find a way to make people pay, only a few users click on the ads (I have an adblocker on my Chrome?browser?and never even see the ads!) so what to do?

They cannot?change?for membership (free and always will be) and people will not pay for the social aspect. That leaves one and only option, charge businesses to pay for ?Sponsored Stories??For the low price of only $200 (costs vary) the people who Like your page can read what you are posting, otherwise only 15% will maybe see it.

So if a business has invested significant time and money building a fan base on Facebook they may just decide to start paying for what was once free. It may feel like and IS a form of extortion, but hey- did you really expect Facebook to stay free and easy forever?

And in case you are thinking- ?Why bother, I?ll just keep posting and sure it will be OK even if I don?t pay? then consider this Case Study:

In effect, we?re left needing to constantly promote posts, otherwise we have:

• No long term traffic increase
• No long-term on-page interaction increase
• No long-term conversion increase

and crucially?no increase in brand evangelism or overall engagement from relevant customers.

The above is from the Econsultancy Report:?Case study: do Facebook promoted posts work?

One other thing to consider, is Facebook may adapt this system over time into something that users do like. One of the great things about the tech world and the new businesses environment is it?s evolutionary nature. Evolve or consumers will leave in droves and you will die.

For now, I?m going to work on my Twitter.

?Elias Arjan 2012. Founder and Chief Visionary Officer.
Inovizion Consulting.
Follow Elias on Twitter @eliasarjan?and on?LinkedIn

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Source: http://www.inovizion.com/facebook-may-be-over-for-business/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=facebook-may-be-over-for-business

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