A Response to Facebook’s Shrinking Organic Reach

If you think about it, the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge is a reasonably good metaphor to explain how Facebook’s falling organic reach has affected marketers. When you receive the challenge, you can either dump a bucket of ice water on your head or you can pay up. Similarly, when Facebook laid down the algorithm challenge a few months ago, you could either let your page/content’s reach fall, or you could pay up. The only difference is that the money wasn’t going to a charity.

This change has left many brands wondering if it makes sense to continue investing in a presence on the platform. The short answer is still yes, and while I have never been a fan of Like acquisition, the platform continues to offer several avenues to help brands meet business outcomes. But marketers must learn from this episode, understand that Facebook and most other social platforms are fundamentally leased media and not owned, and be more cognizant of the landscape inside and outside Facebook in order to address business objectives better.

A few thoughts on this, in the presentation below. Given the seriousness of the issue, I have used some pop culture phenomena to try and bring back some cheer. The disclaimer is that this is meant to be a primer on how to tackle this issue rather than a comprehensive silver bullet.