Proof that free Facebook posts don’t work
You’ve probably noticed your Facebook and most social media marketing is becoming less and less effective lately, well here is proof that free Facebook posts don’t work! Like I always say – do your own research. In this case it’s incredibly simple. Keep in mind the number of “pages” you follow. You can find that number here under the “pages feed” tab in the left menu.
Now start scrolling and count how many of these pages’ FREE posts you see. “Sponsored” ads don’t count. They are paid for and fall into a totally different category. I tested this theory and scrolled for 3 hours straight. The feed went back weeks in the past. Guess how many restaurant’s posts I saw…. ZERO.
Stop wasting your time and money!
All of the time spent in organizing and planning an event, a happy hour, a new menu launch; all wasted. Your message, and your flyer, are going into the Facebook black hole. Bots and employees make up the vast majority of the impressions on your page. Ever wonder why you have 1200 impressions and 1 like (usually by an employee), zero comments and zero shares? This is why. Combined with lackluster content that most places put out, this is a recipe for wasted man hours and wasted money.
This change has been slowly building for years but it has come to a point of Facebook censoring your reach down to almost zero. Don’t get me wrong, I love this change! This will force brands to convert over to a quality focus instead of a quantity focus. Now if you want to get your message out to an actual audience, you have to pay for it. When money is on the line, management will start taking this seriously and will quit posting meaningless spam just to be posting something.
My list of 7 Restaurant Marketing Ideas is one of the few you’ll see that does NOT include social media. Expect to see more of this in the future. Find more on social media for restaurants and bars here.