The Great Social Media Swindle – Time to Rethink It
There was a time when social media was seen as a magical land where every post could go viral. For many businesses in the area, partnering with a digital marketing agency Palm Desert helps navigate this ever-changing landscape.
Social media became more about selling to the audience than connecting with them. The result? Social media is no longer working for businesses as well as it used to. The audiences on those platforms became more difficult to reach, and businesses started seeing decreased returns on their investment in social media marketing.
What went wrong?
Before discussing what changed, it's important to understand why social media became such a powerful marketing tool for businesses in the first place.
In the early days of Facebook business pages, organic reach was incredibly high. Businesses could publish a post and reach a large percentage of their followers without spending a dollar on advertising. For many companies, social media felt like a marketing goldmine—an easy and cost-effective way to connect with customers, build brand awareness, and drive engagement.
As a result, businesses rushed to grow their social media audiences. "Follow us on Facebook" became a common call to action on websites, advertisements, menus, business cards, and promotional materials. Many companies even began prioritizing their social media presence over their websites, believing platforms like Facebook could serve as their primary online destination.
However, as social media platforms grew and competition for users' attention increased, things began to change. Algorithms evolved, organic reach declined, and businesses found it increasingly difficult to reach followers without investing in paid advertising. What was once a highly effective free marketing channel became a much more competitive environment where visibility often required a strategic content plan and advertising budget.
The lesson wasn't that social media stopped working—it was that businesses could no longer rely on social media alone. Companies that diversified their digital marketing efforts with websites, SEO, email marketing, and content marketing were ultimately better positioned for long-term success.
A business did not have to pay an exorbitant amount for a website design, they did not have to pay overpriced hosting fees and they were not held to ransom by expensive web designers who would charge hundreds of dollars to change an image or some simple text on a website.
The Rise of the “Social Media Swindle”
But beneath all this rapid growth, a deeper issue was starting to emerge. While many businesses were celebrating the reach and engagement of social media, experienced marketers began noticing a shift that others were ignoring.
There’s an old saying: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket.” And by 2012, that warning was becoming more relevant than ever.
When Facebook went public, the pressure to generate revenue increased significantly. Over time, organic reach for business pages began to decline. In 2014, Facebook made a major change—business posts would no longer be shown to as many followers in the news feed as before.
For many businesses, the impact was immediate. Pages that once reached a large portion of their audience suddenly saw dramatic drops in visibility and engagement. Marketing strategies built entirely around “free reach” began to fall apart.
The solution offered was paid advertising. To stay visible, businesses now had to pay to reach the very audiences they had already built organically.
This shift marked a turning point in social media marketing and forced many businesses to rethink their reliance on a single platform and adopt a more balanced digital strategy.
The steep decline of a Facebook Business Page
By 2017, the reach of a post from a business page was down to about 2% for most businesses. So, if you had worked hard and built up an audience of 1,000 followers and posted some amazing content that you had made, the likelihood of more than 20 people seeing that post was low. This decline highlighted the importance of SEO services to maintain online visibility, ensuring your content reaches the right audience even when social media reach drops.
Case in Point - Converse Shoes
Converse shoes are one of the world's most recognizable footwear brands. They began their page in 2008 and worked hard to amass a following of 46M+ people.... that's twice as many as the population of Australia! There was some serious clout that the page had. And they had spent a pretty penny building that audience.
In 2020, they stopped using organic posts as a way to reach their audience because it was so ineffective. The last post they made was on June 5, 2020. They were probably paying good money for a staff member or an ad agency to be posting content that just wasn't seen... and the truth is, they probably went a few years too long doing that.
At least they STOPPED the bleeding.
However, many businesses are still blindly wasting their money trying to live like the Good Ol' days. Who is driving their marketing bus?
As of writing this, I saw a well-known retail brand that has 1.5M+ followers and they are posting organically (not paying for it via an Ad) every few days. The result? A whopping 12 likes, 5 shares, and NO comments.
At what point does a company look at the ROI of effort and money and say Enough is Enough?
Are there companies out there who are making Organic posts work for them? Yes...but they are few and far between. If they are not paying with cash to promote their posts, then they are certainly paying with time.
By this, I mean they are likely spending an inordinate amount of time posting, responding, engaging, with a mix of Live and pre-recorded video, spending time in relevant groups, and sharing other people's content... its a LOT of work. Is it Worth it? Well, that depends...
I am all for marketing in any way that gets the desired result, but what I am against is marketing efforts that are not measured or tracked at all. Facebook set the bar high with the amount of data and analytics that it gave its users, both on the page level and an Ad level. These metrics are extremely useful but most people shy away from numbers.
Facebook did a great job building its case as the best social media platform for businesses to connect with their potential audience, and swiftly had to change their business model... but many users have either buried their heads in the sand, don't want to look at numbers or are holding on for the good ol’ days to miraculously return.
If they are not on Facebook, then they are hoping that Instagram, Tik Tok, or the myriad of other social media platforms hold the silver bullet to instant fame, recognition, and business growth. My prediction is that people will hop on to the next best thing and expect a different result. The numbers can't be ignored or you will spend your time chasing ghosts.
It's time for businesses to stop buying into social media swindling! There is no FREE Lunch anymore and it's a pay-to-play platform... just like any other media. Don't become the product of these platforms.
It's time to start looking at social media metrics with a fine tooth comb and making sure that your business is getting a good return on its investment in social media marketing. Measure everything you do, remove the emotion around what you are doing and adapt and change as needed.
Where to Go From Here With Your Social Media Accounts
Social media is no longer a “post and forget” marketing channel. With frequent algorithm changes, businesses need to be more intentional about how they create, distribute, and measure content if they want to see real results.
In most cases today, relying only on organic posts is not enough to consistently reach your audience. Paid advertising has become an important part of social media marketing, helping businesses extend their reach and target specific customer groups more effectively. At the same time, organic content still plays a key role in building trust and keeping your brand visible.
To get the most out of social media, businesses should also track performance closely. Monitoring key metrics like engagement, reach, and conversions helps you understand what’s working and whether your efforts are delivering a positive return.
If a campaign isn’t performing well, it’s important to adjust your approach rather than continuing with the same strategy. Testing different content styles, targeting options, and posting strategies can make a significant difference over time.
Ultimately, social media works best when it’s treated as an ongoing strategy rather than a one-time effort—requiring consistency, flexibility, and a clear focus on business goals.
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