The Decline of the Facebook Page
When Facebook announces a new feature, it’s a good idea to pay attention because that feature typically becomes the platform’s focus and what it will do everything it can to drive to. Facebook’s latest focus for brands is Messenger, the platform that now has more than 900 million users flocking to to send messages back-and-forth with friends.
Facebook doesn’t see Messenger as being for users alone. It wants brands to be there, and last week it launched several new features to make it more effective for brands, including vanity URLs that brands can drive users to in order to message them and more high-profile placement of those URLs on Facebook Pages. These are just the latest in a slew of updates made to Messenger to make it more useful for brands to engage consumers in one-on-one conversations. Clearly, that’s what Facebook wants users to do.
Facebook wants brands to engage in social customer service in a more intimate, private setting on Messenger. It’s a one-to-one communication tactic. The other focus from Facebook is just the opposite.
Facebook has been telling brands that the way to reach people on the platform is through advertising. Advertise. Advertise. Advertise. Over the years new forms of targeting as well as creative units like video ads have launched in conjunction with declining organic reach of Page Posts. The free ride is over, and it has been for some time. No surprises here.
The Page is No Longer the Focus
These two diverging paths show us Facebook’s two areas of focus: one-to-one communication through Messenger and mass reach through Facebook ads. Facebook Pages have often been brands’ focus on the platform — making sure cover photos are updated and organic content is being shared regularly, but now a brand’s Facebook Page occupies this middle ground, being really good for neither of Facebook’s focus areas. The Facebook Page is simply a central point that allows a brand to operate where the real opportunities are on the platform. You need a Facebook Page to do the other things that truly matter.
Facebook’s Focus = Your Focus
Facebook does a good job of telegraphing what it thinks marketers should do on the platform, and today’s focus is clearly not on the Facebook Page. It’s in how brands can use their Facebook presences to do one of two things: build intimate connections with advocates and customers through Messenger and create larger awareness and mass action through paid Facebook campaigns. That’s Facebook’s focus for brands, and the brands that follow their lead are far more positioned to succeed on the platform.