For the last couple of years, I've been encouraging small business owners to set up a Facebook Page, and to use it to funnel information through to their website, with varying degrees of success. In one project during 2013, we managed to get a brand-new community-based not-for-profit website from 0 to over 5000 unique visits in a single month, across a 4 month period, which was a great result for very little financial outlay.

Unfortunately, in December 2013 Facebook changed an algorithm and now the possibility of information posted by a Page being seen by followers has dropped dramatically. Some brand Pages are reporting that post reach has declined by up to 50%.

For further information, I suggest you read this article by Business Insider Australia.

So, what can you do?

Well, for now, I would still recommend establishing a Facebook Page. But as I've said previously, don't put all your eggs in one social media basket. Many organisations over the years have spent considerable time and effort building up a large following on a particular social network such as MySpace or Facebook, only to find that time and effort wasted when the network in question changes the way they do things.

Remember:

As social network users, we do not own our own content.

Set up your social media presence as part of an overall web presence, in conjunction with a personalised website, with links pointing back to that website. Imagine that the website is the centre of a spider web, and all other social media points back to it.

If you need assistance with your web presence or website, please contact me.