IT ADVISER

Facebook eliminates free-marketing ride

But you can still take advantage of all those ‘likes.’

By Joe Dysart

Ophthalmologists, like all other businesspeople, can no longer use Facebook for free marketing. They will now have to pay for the privilege.

Before the policy change, any person who clicked ‘like’ on a practice’s Facebook business page received regular posts from that practice in the ‘News Feed,’ the middle column on a user’s Facebook home page. The News Feed is the spot that shows posts from friends, posts from businesses and so on.

Facebook’s decision to curtail a business’s ability to communicate with cyberfans who ‘like’ its business pages on the social network recently got an explanation from the Web titan. In a nutshell: “We’re doing it for our customers.”

Maybe, maybe not. But Facebook isn’t about to make enemies. Any business that wants to override Facebook’s content filtering system and get a post into the News Feed of a ‘like’ voter can still do so.

In Facebook jargon, that override is called a ‘Boost.’ It’s available to any business that is willing to pay for that added reach — often billed on a ‘per-thousand-users’ rate basis. Like it or hate it — some think it’s another money grab — Facebook’s Boosts, and its more rigorous content filtering system, appears to be here for the long haul.

While some ophthalmology practices may take a little time to adjust to the new reality, they still have ways to deal with the new regime:

• Encourage your Facebook followers to check ‘Get Notifications.’ This will tell Facebook that existing cyberfans want to see your posts.

They can check this option by:

> Clicking “Pages Feed” on their Facebook homepage to see all the pages they’ve liked

> Scrolling through those pages to locate a post from your business

> Clicking on an arrow in the right-hand corner of your post

> Highlighting and clicking “Get Notifications.”

• Encourage your followers to recommend your posts. Facebook automatically sends your post to more people who have liked your Facebook page if at least one follower recommends your post, either by liking it, commenting on it or ‘sharing’ it with a friend or colleague. Encourage your followers to do this with every post you make.

• Beef-up your e-mail marketing. Many businesses are aggressively seeking the e-mail addresses of their cyberfans. The theory: If people have gone out of their way to hit a keystroke, they’ve already signaled they want communications from you. With e-mail, you can go directly to these people — without worrying about a middleman.

• Bite the bullet, buy the boost. Even though free is always better, buying a ‘Boost’ is still relatively inexpensive compared to other forms of advertising. OM

Joe Dysart is an Internet speaker and business consultant based in Manhattan. Voice: (646) 233-4089. Email: joe@joedysart.com. Web: www.joedysart.com.