A petition on Change.org is asking Facebook to remove its “Pay to Reach” function. Christopher Murray, vocalist from indie band Illuminate Me, started this petition after becoming frustrated with having to first pay for ads, then pay again in order to reach an audience that had been already acquired.
Here’s how “organic” and “paid” reach work:
- Every day, more and more content is being created and shared on Facebook. With this increasing flood of content, it becomes difficult for companies, brands or artists to gain exposure through organic reach methods on News Feed.
- News Feed is designed to show each unique user the content that is most relevant to them, ranking from most to least important, by using thousands of factors relative to each person.
- “Pay to Reach” offers small businesses, brands and musicians a way for their posts to be ranked higher and included within News Feed by paying for it.
In his petition, Murray states, “It’s getting to a point where it’s blatant greed and is unjustifiable. Bands like us for example, (especially the unsigned ones) pay Facebook a hefty amount of money for an ad, just to get potential new fans to visit our page. On top of that now, we must pay a LARGE fee to talk to the fans already subscribed to our page.”
Brian Bolland of Facebook marketing says, “Our goal is always to provide the best experience for the people that use Facebook. We believe that delivering the best experiences for people also benefits the businesses that use Facebook. If people are more active and engaged with stories that appear in News Feed, they are also more likely to be active and engaged with content from businesses.”
Murray is happy with the band’s Twitter and Instagram, which are used to “heavily communicate” with their fans without any extra cost. He urges all musicians and small business owners to sign and share the petition.
