3 Reasons Why Facebook Marketing is a Complete Waste of Time

I've been building brands on Facebook for almost 10 years. I have seen the ins and outs of the platform. I have seen the good and the bad, as all of us have.

Facebook used to have so much value to brand builders, marketers, bloggers, and anyone with a message.

But, these days, hardly any of those followers see the work that you will post. It's so completely lop sided.

It's important to know that it is my responsibility to find other ways to succeed without Facebook. Facebook is its own entity and they don't owe me anything, but I am making an official declaration today that I am done with Facebook.

Reason #1 - Organic Reach is Completely Dead

When I first started building the Facebook page for Sober Nation, I got to about 10,000 followers and I thought I thought I had made it. I couldn't believe 10,000 people were actually engaged in what I was doing. I could write an article, post it, and immediately see the wave of traffic come in.

Today, I have almost 300,000 followers. You know what happens when I post an article? Jack shit.

Sure, there is still some reach. But unless you post a viral article, you can expect it to be worthless.

Look at this. This post is middle of the road. It's not click bait. It's not necessarily screaming something special, but it is great content with friendly visuals and a message that many people who subscribe to my Facebook page would enjoy.

923 people reached. Out of 300,000.

It's irresponsible to your brand to be spending time promoting this kind of media to an audience that will never see your material.

Reason #2 - The Quality of Content on Facebook is Garbage

Facebook has truly become a platform of entertainment. Where attention is more valuable than value.

I saw a video yesterday of a woman cooking a chicken in the trash can of her desk at work. It was so ridiculous. It was tagged in bold letters "cooking a chicken at your desk." All the vegetables were chopped into nice friendly piles and she did it all with a credit card. By the way, she just so happened to have charcoal in her desk drawer and no one working next to her seemed to mind the smell of onions and smoke choking their cubicles.

42,000,000 views that video had.

What are we becoming? When did our attention become so commoditized that we actually waste three minutes of our lives with nonsense like that?

What about real content? Real news? Real solutions to real challenges people face.

If you want to stand out from the rest you need to provide real value. It's becoming clear to me that people on Facebook are not looking for value, they are looking for mindless entertainment.

Reason # 3 - Other Platforms are Just Better

I have an email list of 4,000 people. When I send an email, I get huge spikes in traffic.

However, it should be noted that this traffic should not be compared to other traffic. These are real followers. These people opted in on their own accord. They like my message, they find value in my work and they look forward to my weekly newsletters.

You should do this as well. You should stop paying attention to how many followers you have and start paying attention to the value of each one of your subscribers.

I read a great article called 1000 loyal fans

So What Should You Do?

People get fearful thinking of their lives without Facebook. It's okay, I feel it too.

But you have to see Facebook for what it is. Facebook is an advertising platform. If you want to get a reach or clicks or subscribers to anything you need to spend some money.

Learn how to advertise on the platform and unless you have an entire media time behind you, stop wasting time posting bullshit on Facebook and hoping that someone sees it. There is too much garbage on the platform.

Stand apart. Create create work. Create something truly meaningful, and the rest will fall into place.