Changes to Facebook Business Pages and Ways to Connect with Joyously Domestic

I am saddened by the recent changes being made on Facebook and how it is affecting Joyously Domestic (and many other small business pages).  I have been blogging for a year and a half.  I've worked hard to build up a "fan base" on Facebook.  During the summer and early fall of this year, I was thrilled with a large increase of followers at a rather quick pace.  Thousands of followers were seeing my posts daily in their newsfeeds.  Within the past week or two, however, the growth has come to a sudden stand-still and my audience reach is almost non-existent.

I am close to 5,000 followers at this point on Facebook.  As a FB page owner, I am offered the ability to see my page statistics.  When I post something on JD's page these days, only 100 - 200 of my followers are even seeing the post in their newsfeeds.  It is so incredibly frustrating and disheartening.  Just last week, over 4,000 people were interacting with my page.  This week, that number has dropped to around 400!

Facebook is now coming out publicly and admitting that they are restricting business pages from reaching their fan base unless page owners start paying to advertise and promote their posts.  (Check out this article HERE.)  I simply cannot afford the prices they want to charge and refuse to sacrifice income from my family to pay Facebook.  It's my opinion that if someone chooses to follow Joyously Domestic's Facebook page and any other page, it means that they want to see content from that page in their newsfeed.  When I follow a page it is because I like what I've seen on their page and want to continue to be notified in my newsfeed when they offer up new content.  Instead, so many of us are seeing all of these "Sponsored (a.k.a. paid) Posts" in our feeds - posts that are for pages that we have never chosen to follow.

Many posts have been flying around FB regarding "solutions" to the issue of not seeing posts in your newsfeed.  We are encouraged to "like" posts and comment more.  We are encouraged to click the "share" button more.  We are encouraged to start an "interest list" on FB and include the pages we want to see daily.  From what I can tell and from my own experience, not even doing these things will help much. (Please know, though, that I do love, love, love when you "like," share and comment!)

The bottom line is that unless a page owner is willing to pay big bucks to advertise and promote their page and posts, you most-likely won't see a lot or any of their posts in your feed from this point forward.

So, even though I will continue to post on Facebook and update my page daily, I wanted to remind you all that there are several other ways for you to stay connected to Joyously Domestic and for you to be notified when new posts are up on the blog. 

First, if you are on Facebook often and want to continue to be updated about new blog posts and info, stop by my actual page every now and then.  You'll be able to see everything I have been posting that way.

Here are some other ways to receive updates on new recipes and posts:

• Follow along with Joyously Domestic on Pinterest.
• Become a follower on Google+ (it's under my name, Angela Steveson).
• Sign up to receive email updates right in your own inbox.  (You can find the sign-up box in the sidebar to the right here on the blog.)
• Become a follower on Twitter.

I, also, am looking into starting a weekly newsletter that you can sign up for (free, of course).  But, for now, I just wanted to tell you that I am missing you and hope that some of these options will work for you so that we can continue to stay connected.

~ Angela