Is it time that brands look beyond Facebook has come?

Is it time for brands begin to move from Facebook? Given the decline in the visibility of brands on Facebook, and the announced death of the company continue to devote efforts is it appropriate on this platform?

The reduction in the organic range is no surprise, but it is understandable that brands are reluctant to leave an environment with more than 1,200 million registered users, and promised him much satisfaction. But the figures they send, and should react in time.

The data from the study in March Ogilvy showed that in just five months, the organic range of publications Facebook has experienced a brutal fall, halving. What it has led them to move from an average of 12.05% in October 2013 to just 6.15% in February this year.

A fact that still further aggravated in the case of brands with over half a million followers, who came to record a range of 4.04% to 2.11%. An approach inevitably leads us to believe that soon the organic visibility of the actions of the marks in the domains of Mark Zuckerberg is void.

These are data that make seriously reconsider the appropriateness of continuing to commit resources to highlight in a channel where brands have virtually denied access unless passing per box. This contrasts with the announcement published by Facebook in December, where it presented a new algorithm change of the platform, in order to promote quality content and improve user experience. A change that has resulted in a loss of brutal reach.

The expert’s opinion

Brands cannot get so easily from Facebook, but still rely on it. Article Marketing-Interactive collects the position of experts in the field:

Roth Strother, Lenovo as defined this relationship established between a crackhead and provider of this evil substance. According to her, it is too late for companies to definitively abandon this platform, although this does not imply that focus exclusively on it. The Director of Digital and Social Centre of Excellence recommends diversifying the strategy, including actions in other social channels. The latest survey by Forrester advised us about it, bet on Google, whose engagement is very similar to Facebook and Twitter almost doubles.

According to Susanne Arfelt, Unilever Singapore, it has changed the role played by Facebook when connect with the target audience and encourage engagement. A change to be applied to your marketing strategy. According to her, marketers have to change the objectives and the use of this platform, for use as a channel of distribution, not as a tool to connect with the audience and interact with it.

Arfelt wanted to highlight the new landscape that companies, brands who will struggle to gain a foothold in a much more restrictive, and competitive environment they face. An environment where the output is not pay to get notoriety, which only help to undermine the commitment to the brand. Therefore, the solution is to seek alternative routes, such as Lenovo spokesman commented.

Clearly, the new paradigm of Facebook is profiting at the expense of its potential as a giant social networks. A modus operandi that is summarized in “Pay to Play”, which on paper will delight investors but which in practice means the banishment of brands, who sooner or later will end up focusing their efforts on other media, search of engagement with its users in a less restrictive and greedy medium.