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is my Facebook page dead?

by p206ab
10 replies
Hi everyone,

I've been reading topics here for a while now and decided to ask for opinion / help regarding my facebook page since many of you have lot of experience.

I am sorry for a long story and thank you in advance if you'll read it.

I own a car classifieds for two years now and have a FB page since day one. At first there were only my friends and some others who liked it, maybe 100 people in total. I have clear call to actions to like page on my website, I add them into email signatures etc. Then after reading best strategies I decided to make a giveaway. I connected with a worldwide known stuntrider to reward his shirt and other stuff. Like count obviously increased, although fans weren't from the countries I was targeting. It stopped at around 1000 with help from FB ads I was running at the same time.
I have to admit that my strategy for the first 6 months was wrong. All I did was post links to my website for every new ad posted with almost no interactions. But that's what competition is doing and they are doing great (many interactions, likes, ..). Then I realised I need to provide more interesting content and less advertising, so I started to post videos, images and links to articles.
But the reach of my posts is constantly falling. Videos still provide some, but others almost nothing. If I place a link to my website, it reaches on average 30 from 1000 people.
Also my link includes term "cars for sale" and when Facebook sees sale it always suggest I should boost post to increase my sales. So I suspect it intentionally lowers reach, because it knows I want to sell something and I'll be willing to spend money to get money?

To prove my point, I made another giveaway a few days ago. I offered awesome rewards but no one responded. No one. All they had to do was share.

I would like to know your opinion:
- do I give up, delete page and start over?
- do I start new one and later merge it with this one?
- do I keep fighting, advertise more to reach new fans who will engage with my posts?

Thank you for any useful tip!
#dead #facebook #page #reach
  • Profile picture of the author danieldesai
    Here are a few things to consider:

    - Maybe your audience really isn't engaged because of the kind of posts on the page.

    - Organic reach is at an all-time low on Facebook across all niches, with the exception being "viral" content (which still does extraordinarily well).

    - Some products or markets, by nature, just don't have the potential to be a highly shareable topic. For example, you can have the best shovel in the world for sale; that will appeal highly to those who do gardening but here's the kicker... who shares posts about shovels? The only way to make this kind of product or topic popular is to put a creative spin on your posts by making it entertaining.

    Are you familiar with the "Dollar Shave Club"? If not, check out their video on YouTube as it's a perfect example of how to take something "unshareable" (cheap shavers) and make it go viral.

    Car classifieds... I'm not sure if this is a highly shareable topic; how many viral classified pages do you see on Facebook?

    I'm not going to tell you to scrap your page but you need to determine why you're not getting the engagement you want (and it just might be one of the reasons I highlighted above).

    Regards,
    Daniel
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  • Profile picture of the author p206ab
    Whoa, good points to consider, thank you Daniel!
    I knew I asked on the right place
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  • Profile picture of the author JonBell17
    Yes, рр
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  • Profile picture of the author Hearn
    Don't lose hope. Facebook is not going away and it's a great way for people to interact directly with your business.

    Keep split testing posts and see what works best. If you already have likes check your Insights and see what your audience looks like.

    There is no telling what posts get engagement. One way is to edit and post stuff that you know it went viral at some point. But be careful and check if the content is protected or not.

    As someone mentioned the organic reach is quite low. So, in order to get some traction, you have to boost every post with say $5. This will get you a decent paid reach and depending on how viral is the content an organic reach. Some will also like your page, some will like your posts. You can invite those to like your page. If you get a decent reach your future posts will also get a decent reach, slowly building your fanbase and overall reach.
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  • Profile picture of the author basteluna
    Giving up should not be an option. That's really the struggle of social media marketing. Be patient and know that everything takes time.
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  • Profile picture of the author p206ab
    Thanks Hearn and basteluna. Since this topic was pulled from the back pages, I would like to mention that I haven't given up, considered danieldesai points and also tried split testing as Hearn said and in these 12 weeks since my last post here, results are better, reach is increasing, engagement as well.

    So I have hope and I have to keep pushing forward. Thanks all.
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  • Profile picture of the author Funtobesocial
    Sad but true realization is that you MUST pay to play now on Facebook. You will be lucky to get over 10% organic reach these days. There's a reason they are hitting record sales numbers each quarter.

    Good luck and if you want to reach more people on Facebook definitely look into doing some more advertising on there. It's still a great cost effective way to advertise if done right.
    Signature

    Rocco B.
    Fun To Be Social

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  • Profile picture of the author maggyuzon
    Just keep going. If you are really dedicated with your page and your passion is about cars, it doesn't matter if you're page is not doing good. But if you're into generating income, you have to try other option.
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  • Profile picture of the author p206ab
    Well, my SEO work paid off in last months as my organic traffic from search has increased up to 2x, so I'm getting more visitors and consequently income, so I'm not worried about that for now.
    But I still want to improve social, as I don't want to be dependent only on our source, you never know when google decides to punish me for no reason or something. And also, people still tend to judge "value" of a website by looking at the likes number on Facebook.
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  • Profile picture of the author liezlekate
    I think it's time for you to start and try new thing. Know that you've already had enough. You've spent much time and you did your best. It's time to trust the magic of new beginnings.
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