Saturday, March 31, 2012

FB has no Ears - That's Why They Don't LISTEN

A Day Late and Completely Insane
FB Timeline... pretty for sharing pics of your family, your furry pets (or non-furry like the fish-kind) and casual social interaction.  HORRID for conducting business - especially for e-commerce if you intend for people to get to your website to purchase something.

The top 1/2 of any webpage is the most valuable real estate on that website. Why?  Because people don't have to scroll to see it.  So whatever is placed there will be the most viewed and most clicked links.

See the problem with timeline?

One big, fat picture doesn't allow people to click through to your website.  They have to search to find a link to your online store.  They have to search to even find more of your photos with your products.  That's why the BIGGEST online marketers had not, nor wanted to switch to timeline.

Consumers don't like to have to work to find what they want online.  Making it easier for them to shop means better and more customers!

But overnight FB decided to completely ignore the online marketing experts, ignore the e-mails that were sent in explaining why that structure was bad for businesses and flipped the switch on all business pages.

I had hoped they would have a change of heart and allow people the choice about how to market their business.  But they didn't...

Time will tell whether or not business owners will continue to use FB as one of their main marketing platforms, or if pages will become like ghost towns, with random posts once in a while and minimal interaction. 

In forcing everybody to timeline, FB put the axe down on many other significant apps.  No longer does your Etsy shop show up as a tab... again being horrible for e-commerce and marketing your products.  I'm no longer an artfire user, but I'm guessing those users will be in a similar boat in the FB timeline.

I have and do use other platforms.  I will be doing more on Google+ and I've had much enjoyment and success on Twitter.  Connect with me if you wish!  I will continue to share great blog posts and creations I see from other bloggers and creative artisans.

Like I said, timeline is completely different for personal profiles.  Personal profiles and business pages serve two completely different purposes on FB.  I think I'm going to need a giganto cup of java today while I do all the updates I have to do.  Lovely....

Have a terrific freakin' day!
~Dawn

Here's the fine print:  The opinions expressed in this blog post are just that - opinions of the author and blog owner.  She is not affiliated or employed by Facebook.  Thus, her opinions and those of other experienced internet marketers have been completely ignored by FB and it's subsidiaries. 

6 comments:

DVArtist said...

FANTASTIC post!!!!
FB should listen to you and hmmm maybe hire you. LOL
Nicole/Beadwright

H.T. said...

Hi,Dawn Marie.
I do not have the site in FB,'cause I have always been somehow against it.many people have and write here,on Blogger it has brought some profits to them.Possibly there are advantages of having the profile there-I still hesitate,but reading all of these You write here,I think more against it again.I thought,You'd write something about being the owner of business site on FB,to enchant me to have it,as I was just about to create my profile there.Now-I have the ambivalent feeilngs again.I have the profile on Twitter and do not do practicly anything positive about it.maybe I should think about Twitter more warmly...I do not know.I haven't read any positive opinions about Etsy either.many people have withdrawn their business profiles there.I think,there's something wrong with all the internet business generally.My webshop runs,even not out of business,but not making me very happy either.You have realised many important things about FB.Maybe YOu should suggest there to the owners and organisers of it.I've heard,they listen to people's suggestions.
Warm Hugs-Halinka-

SLMPetersen said...

I'm part of the minority here. I like the new time line on both counts, personal and business.

My stats are up on my business page and I am actually starting to gain more interaction from followers than I ever had with the old format.

The Etsy Shop app has been altered on Etsy and the new code doesn't work on a lot of sites, this is not all Facebook's fault. Etsy decided to kill the flash based shop code, so it no longer displays properly on a number of sites and pages.

There are number of challenges with having an online business and Facebook is just one of them. It is human nature to go against change. Not everything works for everyone, so we must pick our poisons and learn to work with them, much like the witch and her caldron.

Alena's Originals said...

Dawn,
Thank you so much for this post. I am having the same issues with my business page. It looks like crap now and is confusing for people to navigate. And quite frankly, I am tired of having to learn new formats constantly. Thanks again.

- Alena Freeman

Dawn Doucette said...

Thanks all for your comments and opinions! That's the great part about blogging. Timeline will take some getting used to and we all have to adapt.

Hope you all have a fantastic week!
{Hugs!}

Abracadebra Designs said...

Geez, of my social networking sites, FB is the one that has been mostly ignored by me. Now I don't feel half as bad about letting it go.
-Debbie

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