Is Facebook Faking Page Views Notifications?
Why is Facebook exaggerating the amount of Facebook page views?
Back in April 2015 we reported that Facebook are exaggerating about page views
and a number of readers of our blog agreed that they too are seeing notifications on high page views to business pages and individual posts.
Well it seems that Facebook are still doing this!
We often see Facebook notifications of high page views, new likes and post shares but then when we visit Facebook’s own analytics, we find nothing has been shared. We look at the post that they advised has received shares, likes etc. and nothing has been shared or extra likes there too.
WHY would Facebook advise about Facebook page views, what do they gain from it?
Simple reasoning results in that Facebook is losing it’s credibility and power for most business pages. Facebook is losing its reach for the majority of business pages, for instance – you might have several hundred, if not thousands of people who like your page but the reach – even from Facebook’s own advice is low, probably no more than a few 10s or 100s if you are lucky.
Interactions from this poor reach is limiting the power of Facebook, just hardly anyone is reading your posts now. Businesses are having to resort to Paid Promotions to reach a wider, greater audience to increase the reach of posts and likes.
It is obvious that since Facebook was floated their investors want, expect a return for their investment and Facebook is no longer free for the majority of businesses now. So one way of increasing their income is to charge for advertising, and generally this works, especially with Retargeting – where you can show your advert to those that have visited several optional relevant pages.
SO Facebook will benefit from exaggerating the results your pages are getting, so that you believe that Facebook is working – and so why not increase the reach or increase the amount of people that are aware of your Facebook pages and website, business, products etc. and so pay for an advert on Facebook?
Facebook Paid Promotions – do they work?
How many businesses have used paid promotions on Facebook to increase their likes? DO they work? NO.
Ooooh a bold statement I hear you gasp… but look at how many likes you get and where they are from.
For a recent London – that’s London the capital of England – we paid for an increase in likes from Facebook – not a third party – to gain more likes. We got loads, brilliant – until you actually look at where these people are actually based. They are all, 100% foreign names, all have foreign looking photos, and 75%++ of the time, come from India. Now, I did not know that London is in India.
Come on Facebook – if you can spot a photograph of a nipple being exposed, surely you can better verify where an actual person is based in more ways than them saying that they are from “London”.
So what does fake users effect on a business’s advertising reach?
Well – these fake users are not going to visit your business, let alone order any products or services or refer you to their friends – or they might but they are again thousands of miles away and would they want a plumber based in London UK?
Does Facebook work for all types of businesses?
Quite clearly it does not!
Where Facebook does work quite well is for “nice” things like shoes, books, clothing, accessories, luxury items….. it might work for a local tradesman – where referrals can easily be seen and passed around, reposted, shared, liked etc. but for other businesses – Facebook is not worth using.
Is Facebook not quite telling the truth to shore up its credibility?
Why is Facebook not advising on the actual figures about how good its reach is, how many shares and likes a post or page receives?
Why lie about your product and services when your own data says otherwise?
So which is true, the notifications that says a particular page or post has received new views, new likes and shares? Or the Facebook analytics that prove otherwise?
If not Facebook – what else is there for businesses to use for advertising?
IF Facebook is losing in the financial stakes or its power as a business advertising tool, that’s probably why they are not advising on how low the actual reach is, or amount of shares etc. They might be increasing in users, but these are probably Third World countries where their financial bite is considerably less but how many businesses are leaving Facebook in financial rich countries like the UK, USA, Europe etc. where businesses are now looking at what actually works in digital marketing for their Return on Investment and with the rise of new digital advertising avenues like Etsy and Pinterest, and other sites bounding ahead for businesses to advertise on that will have a far greater impact on their advertising revenue?
So should businesses start to look outside of Facebook and even Google for their advertising revenue to hit a far wider audience. Facebook pages hardly ever appear in search engine result pages, unless the search is for the particular business page; so are Facebook business pages worth using?
Conclusion
Facebook is still lying about how many page views, likes and shares business pages and posts are getting. They might be growing in users but if those users are not advertisers, Facebook’s revenue can only fall and businesses look elsewhere for their return on investment.
COME ON FACEBOOK get your act together!
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