You may have recently read how Facebook is testing users to pay for promoting their posts. This is not for businesses, but for personal users! Would you pay $7 for a post so all of your friend would see it? This was always FREE. Until recently Facebook made their algorithm changes so that advertisers would not get their posts seen by all those that liked their Facebook pages.
This encouraged businesses to advertise. Understandably Facebook needs to make money – all businesses do. You would not start a business if you could not make any money right?
They are several ways to advertise now on Facebook:
• Gift sponsorships – Send and receive virtual gifts • Promoted posts – Pay for your posts to be seen by more fans • Sponsored stories – Pay for ads around stories • Sponsored videos – Ads around videos • Display ads – The traditional Facebook ads that can be targeted by demo’s and can be to get more likes on your page or to go directly to your website • You can no longer just post giveaways or special offers- you must now pay for them or Facebook could take your page down. There is no problem with having businesses advertise on Facebook. Google has been doing that for years with their pay per click via search program and it’s been very profitable for them. Google has also added recently a sponsored product feature (once free too) as well as display ads. As long as they don’t use search results for top advertisers, that is okay. (Otherwise, Bing here we come!) But when Facebook announced that regular Jane’s and Joe’s would have to be paid $7 for a post to be seen by all their friends, some would consider this crossing the line. I once wrote an article called “How To Spread Your Social Eggs for Small business”, and it was suggesting you should not use just Facebook as many do. How true that is becoming now!Of course you have many options now:
• Twitter • Pinterest • Google+ • Stumble Upon • LinkedIn • MySpace – making a comeback too! • And many more!Would you pay $7 for a post on Facebook today?
What will this Facebook pay for posting do to one’s Klout score? Klout ranks Facebook highly in their algorithm, and if your posts are not seen by all your friends no social interactions can incur which is a bigger part of the new Klout scores. Hmmm, does that mean one will be paying for their Klout scores too? Many have questioned the value and validity of Klout. This will sure be a cause for more questioning. I have already seen many users on Klout have their scores drop in the past 2 weeks including my own. I’d love to know what Klout would say about paying for posts on Facebook. Question: How do you think the new Facebook post algorithm will affect our Klout scores?Subscribe to this blog
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Susan Silver
That is so ridiculous. Why would you use a service to show a post to your friends? So Facebook should just be a paid service now, don’t you think?
I don’t get why businesses do an IPO. Why go public if it is going to cause you to destroy the model that everyone loves. Facebook is not hurting for cash and they pretty much destroyed the last of their goodwill from users.
I’d leave, but I am in a few networking groups now.
Twitter: susan_silver
Lisa
Susan, I know huh? Just another reason to migrate more to the other social sites. You can still stay on Facebook but don’t put all your social eggs in the Facebook basket. It is frustrating to see companies live by their stock #’s and lose their integrity as they do. Sad.
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Sonia
Agreed here girl. Before they went IPO, I thought they don’t have a large enough revenue plan to show shareholders they can actually justify being priced at over $50 or more than that. I think now they are trying to come up with anything to make them happy, while trying to feed off its customers too. That’s why I always think when its free, its always temporary.
Twitter: LogAllot
Brenda
Heck no will I pay for facebook posts! Ugh, maybe all the changed FB is making is part of the reason Justin Timberlake is working on a new and improved MySpace. A lot of people didn’t jump on the G+ bandwagon but quite possible would the MySpace one. IMO, FB needs to stop all these changes. Gets very old.
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Lisa
Good point about re-make of MySpace. Interesting times. I always said not to keep all your social eggs in one basket, I know you don’t Brenda
Thanks for commenting on this one.
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Sonia
I can see businesses using this method for posts and promotions, but for me to pay to send posts to my friends and family, sounds kinda “spammy” to me. I think FB tends to cross the line a bit when they try and come up with ways to satisfy their shareholders. They should have never went public. Good post Lisa! Thanks Girl.
Twitter: LogAllot
Lisa
Thanks Sonia and thanks for having me do this guest post here on your awesome blog. I agree, okay for businesses but personal use? Nope.
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Adrienne
There goes some of these people’s hard work Lisa that have put all their eggs in Facebook’s basket! Oh yeah, why did I know this was coming.
Someone asked me last week if they thought Facebook would go to a paid service and I told them no, they make their money from advertising. That’s my opinion that is so now they are wanting all of us to step it up and in order to get our content seen we now have to plop down some mula.
Want to know my opinion on this and Klout Lisa? Bite me… That’s what I would tell them both.
I’ll keep doing what is working for me and that’s making those personal connections and good luck to everyone else that wants to plop down the mula. Not me.
By the way, great to see you here Lisa. Great topic I must add…
~Adrienne
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Sonia
Amen sister on that one. They should have never went public. Once you start something off Free, it should stay that way. When they start creeping in payment options, most tend to run the other way. Luckily Facebook is so much apart of our everyday life, they will be around for a while, but didn’t they say that about Myspace?
Twitter: LogAllot
Lisa
Hi Adrienne, I stay on Klout just for the perks and a little fun but one cannot take it too seriously as things change so fast on these social networks. You are right, personal connections are still the best. And building up that email list is now a #1 priority. Thanks for commenting today on this one.
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Jeevan Jacob John
I have heard and seen about the promoting post stuff, but I didn’t know it was this serious (Especially, paying FB for having a giveaway in our page? Seriously?).
Of course, Face Book is a big business and they do need to make money, but why should they try to charge the small businesses (when they can charge the big ones more?).
I was planning to have a giveaway on my new FB page (for my new blog). But, I don’t think I will be doing that. Let’s just stick with giveaways in our blogs!
As with Klout, I don’t care much anyways (it is inaccurate and at the same time, it is just a number. Numbers do matter, sometimes. In this case, it doesn’t).
Appreciate the post, Lisa
Thanks!
Twitter: blognetworking
Lisa
Hi Jeevan, yes be careful doing giveaways on Facebook, they have all sorts of rules for it and now and may charge or delete your page if you do not follow the rules correctly. I can see that on Klout too, I still use it for the perks and a little fun. My bathroom is getting stocked nicely with creams and beauty products.
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Shalu Sharma
I have not heard of this one before but if its can get likes or views to your page or post then its worth considering about it. Since there has been too many changes in how search engines work, It might be worth it. I did not realise that myspace is doing a comeback, I might create an account over there.
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Lisa
Hi Shalu, it all really depends on your purpose and budget. There may be cases where you may want to consider it. Now you got me thinking about My Space
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Dee Ankary
Hi Lisa,
MySpace making a comeback?? Wow.
No, I wouldn’t pay for a sponsored anything on Facebook. The other thing I tend to question is whether Facebook Likes, Klout score or number of Twitter followers equates to leads, or better yet, sales.
In the end, what drives conversions is not just engagement in the form of a Like, but an actual relationship. And I don’t think $7 can get you that!
Great post, Lisa. Thanks.
Dee
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Lisa
I know huh Dee? I found that amazing too. You are right, it doesn’t all add up to ROI. And relationships cannot be bought, that’s for sure!
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Barry Wells
Hi Lisa,
Good to see you over here at Sonia’s place
I’ve heard of Facebook trying to charge people for adding a link to a blog post, which doesn’t surprise me bearing in mind how their share prices have dropped.
Like any business, once the share prices start dropping they need to take action to cover it but charging for posting blog posts is taking it a little far in my opinion.
Sure there are some instances where the post would warrant the $7, things like product promotions for example. If we’re making money from the post then, in my opinion, it’s only fair that Facebook get something in return and a one off payment of $7 is acceptable.
Not sure whether Give away’s should be charged for but can kinda understand their reasoning.
Personally I find Twitter a better option and have always had a better result from Twitter, but as you say don’t put everything in one basket.
I have never looked at MySpace as I heard it was dropping but now that it’s making a come back I may head over and start using it
Thanks Lisa, great post.
Barry
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Lisa
Thanks Barry. I have no problem if they are charge if one is making money on a post but just to post your babies birthday pictures? Really? I may check out MySpace too. I may have set up an account there years ago when my kids were on it. Hope you are feeling better this week Barry.
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Carol Lynn
This is a really good question! I never thought of it that way, but you’re right – interactions increase Klout so if you are essentially paying for more interactions then you’re paying for increased Klout. Well, Klout has always been a questionable metric for the narcissistic and self-absorbed. Ok, I admit I sometimes obsess about it but it’s not because I care – it’s because everyone else seems to care. And with stories running rampant about how people have lost job opportunities based on Klout scores, it does make you worry.
As for the promoted posts, I would personally not pay a single cent to promote anything on Facebook. I don’t see the point for the average user. What are we gong to promote? A picture of our cat? Our latest blog post? (Which we’re promoting all over the place anyway…) For businesses that have a special offer it may be worth it but for regular people? I don’t get it. I wonder how well this idea will do. You could argue that people can use it to promote products, but again, for “average people” I just don’t see the value in spending money to get a few more eyeballs. Just repost it. Or post it on a different social channel.
It’s not the $7 that’s the problem… it’s the next $7 and the next and the next… how much are you willing to spend to get a few more people to see a single post on a single social channel? And there is also the danger that these will turn into ads. I mean, if I were spending money, I’d want to put out an ad that would get something back, not just a Like or a comment, right? I want a conversion. So now I’m thinking “call to action” and “conversion”. And that means “ad” which means what? Spewing ads into my friends’ news feeds. Um, no thanks.
I was going to say that’s my 2 cents but I think it was more like my 42 cents
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Lisa
Hi Carol Lynn, I would not pay to post pictures of my cat either
I totally agree with your 42 cents. Ads are ads and Facebook posts were not meant to be ads. Too many shades of gray for us 
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John Chapman
Personally, if I was advertising on Facebook, I would be VERY reluctant to pay to have my posts seen by more people since I regularly see adverts for German products even though I don’t speak German and don’t live there. I suppose it does account for Facebook introducing ‘Top Stories’ though. You can simply pay to get nearer the top.
Twitter: JChapmanAuthor
Lisa
Hi John, when one purchases ads on Facebook they can pick which country they are to be seen on and even pick certain states in the US. Maybe the ones that purchased those ads were not aware of the demographic choices available. Even top stories sounds more like news than ads
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Brittney Wilson
This is the begining of the end for FaceBook.
When you start to charge users to do something as simple as posting and update, you are going t loose your users.
I think it’s unfortunate that they are doing this to business and pages, and it’s downright rude to do this to their users and “ad viewers”.
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Lisa
Hi Brittany, I know for their users and ad viewers it is awful. I can understand for businesses or those that always post promotional things to make money.
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Facebook is in business after all to make some money as businesses are supposed to do.
But to charge for posting your kid’s picture or pet’s picture is really crazy! Thank goodness we do have others choices like Twitter, G+, and Pinterest to name a few.
Lisa recently posted..Have Your Facebook Likes Fallen Away Like The Fall Leaves?
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Mayura
Hi Lisa,
Earlier, there was the rumor Facebook gonna charge users
See how they come up with the strategy of premium features? As I said Facebook, jus’ don’t wanna disappoint their stakeholders 
This is how Facebook gonna make money.
Well, you are totally correct about depending on Facebook dear
I think it should goes for search engines too. We don’t know how long they will survive though everything seems stabilized.
GREAT! Actually I never thought of Klout score
In this way. Klout uses social signals on our Facebook posts through the Social API they connected. So I think promoting will helps increase Klout score too dear 
That’s nice way of thinking about Facebook and Klout relationship.
Cheers…
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Lisa
Hi Mayura, yes we did see it coming. I think it’s awful when companies go public and only work to keep that stock number up and forget about relationships with their customers and/or users.
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I have no problem for them to charge for ads – after all they are in business to make money as they should be. I think it will hurt Klout too as it will seem people with more money would have a higher Klout score.
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Ashvini
Hi Sonia,
It is not good definitely if I refresh my feed and see the same post, no matter how much paid it is. The strongest point of great facebook story is that there is a wall that should not be spammed either by a person or Facebook itself. They are really going to cause a lot of friction that way.
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Coming to think of it , why would I like to promote my personal event. The only thing people would do is to promote things they sell and that would become a big spam.
Facebook is doing many things right and quite a bit of wrong too. They will have to take a hard look at where they are going to draw the line.
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Roz Bennetts
Hi Lisa,
I tend not to worry or fret too much about these things to be honest because I’m a great believer in ‘market forces’.
Facebook has enough competition out there for us to have a degree of confidence that if they ever got totally out of hand with spamming our timelines we’d find somewhere else to go as audiences. And the same goes for advertisers, charge too much for too little return and they’ll take their money elsewhere.
Twitter: rozbennetts
Lisa
Good for you Roz, good attitude. And yes I believe there are enough choices now for people to make change if they don’t like it. Have a great day!
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Annie Andre
Nooooo,
I just find this hard to believe. The only reason i’m on facebook is to share with my friends and see their pictures share ideas. If i have to start paying for it, i’m outta there. Then all those advertisers who actually pay for their facebook posts and ads will have no one to show their ads.
As someone said in a comment above, i think the market forces will right this wrong. If facebook doesn’t do something it’s massive user base will dissapear and go somewhere else.
I’ve notices more and more of my personal friends(not blogger or business friends) using google plus and pinterest. Maybe this could be the demise of facebook.
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Somehow i doubt it but time will tell. SIGH!!.
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Lisa
Hi Annie, I know, you and so many others too. Good to know more of your friends are using those other social sites. Time will sure tell. Thanks for your input and comment.
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Lisa recently posted..Have Your Facebook Likes Fallen Away Like The Fall Leaves?
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Ileane
Hey Lisa, Great to see you guest posting here at Sonia’s place!
Is Facebook really going through with this? I’m confused because I thought that we couldn’t do any marketing with our profiles. Maybe this only applies to a certain type of profile because I haven’t seen it available on mine yet.
Either way I don’t see a problem with this being included in the Klout score. People pay for influence in the offline world all of the time so I don’t see any reason why Klout should be different.
Look at it another way, if you pay for ads on Twitter or use JustRetweet to have your stuff retweeted it’s basically the same thing. The more I I think about it I think it’s a great idea.
Chat soon Lisa!
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Lisa
Thanks so much for coming by Ileane. Oh yes, the pages is what I was referring to but I did notice recently even in my personal FB I could pay for promoting posts. Interesting take on it Ileane, I still use JustRetweet too. But I only retweet the good stuff. I would not want to spread bad tweets or tweets that are irrelevant to my readers : )
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