Facebook, in a sneaky, shocking development to small businesses, suddenly let it slip in a Facebook developers forum that they are no longer going to let new people to your Facebook Fan Page see your custom landing tabs, such as the oft recommended Welcome tab, complete with video, eye catching graphics, and an invitation to “like” the Page.
Ironically enough, this very afternoon I just got done filming and editing welcome videos for this site and for my Facebook Fan Page, when Social Media Examiner posted this news on their wall:
“No longer do new Facebook see custom tabs. Only fan pages with 10,000 fans or who spend money on Facebook for ads will have this option. To see this, simply log out of facebook and pull up your fan page. (props to Damian Leszczyński and Mari Smith for informing me). See: http://forum.developers.facebook.com/viewtopic.php?pid=227722#p227722″
And sure enough, this is the Developers discussion where the story unfolds. Just now Mari Smith posted an informative blog about this news and the response is overwhelming.
Here’s my view: Facebook is a huge network that we all get to use for free. I’m pretty easygoing about what they choose to do since this is such a valuable service and there’s no charge. For now at least. But we do pay in privacy so that they can make more lucrative ad revenue. They’ve made over 200 privacy changes without our knowledge or informed consent and clearly feel they’re entitled to dictate to us, now that they’re so huge. I think they were relying on sneaking that change in under the radar like they do almost everything else, don’t you?
What kind of PR would it give them if we had a Tweet-a-thon to raise awareness for this high handed breach of trust? Lots of small companies spend a lot of money on FBML development and welcome videos. If I weren’t such a geek, I would have, but wanted to learn this to do it for others, also. And what about the people who make their primary living providing this service?
I started out on Facebook nearly 5 years ago, when I went back to UGA for my degree in Communications. It was all college students and mostly fun, although there were some interesting discussions and all of my fellow editors on the school paper used it as our preferred method of communication on stories. It was all about community and then businesses got involved, but at least they were small, interesting businesses or even large corporations openly trying to engage with their market. That’s respectable. I finally created my Fan Page only 2 months ago and now it has nearly 500 fans (Thank you!!!). I waited a very long time because the evolution of Facebook saddened me. I didn’t want it to go all corporate and become the McDonalds of the internet. It didn’t have to.
They sold out.
But I think we can do something about this. I think there’s still the opportunity to change this recent development with a Social Media plan of our own that is out of their grasping control. I suggest a Tweet-a-thon!! I’m creating a hashtag of #FBSO. You guessed it: Facebook Sold Out! Would you please retweet this with that hashtag? And then write a blog post of your own or tweet about what Facebook’s doing? If enough people make enough noise about this Facebook will have to back down and, more importantly, respect the power of individual voices all raised together saying
“Hey Facebook! Wake Up!!!”
Remember, please tweet this with #FBSO and pass it on!!
I just want to follow up with an important post that goes in depth to give you the 4 Easy Steps to Customize Your Facebook Privacy Settings. It’s a lifesaver and goes retroactive to cover all your updates, pics, and videos from even years ago. As long as the info hasn’t left Facebook. Ah well! Please check this out! http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/4-simple-steps-to-control-your-facebook-privacy/
Well said , Lori, and I couldn't agree more. #FBSO it is. I always welcome change, but this – on top of all the recent privacy changes has me “hacked off.” They're throwing the baby out with thee bath water here… And just how many businesses with less than a 10k following advertise on their site? Come to think of it, it may be an evil ploy to dip into their pockets for more of their advertising dollars to promote their “like pages” an attempt to reach that 10k minimum required for an authenticated site. Hmmmmmm. This is a major bummer no matter what their rationale is.
Thanks Lynn! And I'm sure you're exactly right about this being a money grub, er, grab for ad revenue. As always, hit the small and medium sized businesses. Grrrr! Really Facebook?!
This totally sucks. I checked and I still have all my custom tabs listed under the 10+ pages I manage and they are still working well. Is it taking some time to populate?
I don't know, but I've seen a couple of comments to this same effect. Do you think FB could be stealthily fixing it back since they got “busted?” lol
Oh yes. Something else I forgot to mention… That 10,000 ‘fans’ thing. What? That’s insane. That means only the top brands, celebs, etc., can have custom content as landing pages? BS! What about the millions of small businesses that have a couple of hundred ‘fans’ ‘likes’ or whatever? Have the FB chaps and gals been reading “How To Lose Friends and Totally P_ss Off People”?
As Lynn said so eloquently: “Hmmmmmm. This is a major bummer no matter what their rationale is.”
LOL!!! “How to Lose Friends and Totally P_ss Off People”
If these changes are for real (and as yet I haven't seen it) it it sure to wind up a few people and rub many of us up the wrong way. If it's got Lynn 'hacked off' it must be having a negative impact (Lynn don't get hacked off easily).
I must be missing something though because after I read this post I went to one of my business pages where the 'welcome tab' is the default landing page for non-'fans' and 'unliked' it. I then logged out of FB altogether. Visited the URL for that business page and I landed on the custom welcome tab.
Perhaps this is a new thing that is gradually being rolled out across the 10,000 servers and it hasn't hit me yet? I'm puzzled about this one.
With you on the 'revolution' ladies. It's one thing after another on FB and the changes, as Lori said on http://www.facebook.com/SocialMediaDesign many of the changes rolled out on Facebook seem to 'penalize' us… It ain't right.
FB is worth billions and while many of us rant (okay – I rant while others muse) about trickery and scams and BS methods businesses use to constantly line their pockets – Facebook is starting to seem like one of them. Okay not so much the scam but trickery? Perhaps.
We fall for the fantastic things we can do – we do it – we provide advice and services based on what FB can do and what we can do ON it – only to go back to the drawing board every few months, rewrite the 'rule book', re-train ourselves and our clients, redesign the custom content, re this re that – just because someone at FB HQ realised they want some of their real estate back or figured out a way of making another 47 trillion dollars with our content.
Facebook – hear this: Without US you are nothing. Without OUR DATA you have nothing. We have feet and WE CAN WALK!
Phew… That was a rant and a half! Caffeine please!
I'm thrilled your pages are working properly. It seems as though they may well have quietly made the change back but since it's FB, nobody knows for sure except them. :p I wholeheartedly agree with your rant. Perhaps you also identified a pothole on the road to success that some experience: having the accolades and success come so strong and fast that (FB) starts believing all of it and losing touch with who and what they were to begin with. If this is the case I believe they can pull out – with a firm nudge!
Absolutely Lori. Among the biggest mistakes any business can make, up there is *losing touch with the 'customer'*. No business is too big to 'listen'. Arrogance, in the form of (unspoken mindset) “we are Facebook and we can ignore you lot and do whatever we want” is no way to become what we all expect(ed); to see FB as the dominant platform – perhaps bigger than the almighty Goog – in years to come.
Perhaps they have back-peddled a bit in the landing-page issue. Perhaps (and I know this is a crazy concept) they 'heard' what the grapevine was saying. But how long before the next “enhancement” rolls out? How long before some other annoyance rears its ugly head? Days, weeks, months…? Hours?
New development!! Facebook actually DID back down and reverse their policy change on this after only a few hours!!!!!!!!! Here's the follow up post: http://social-media-design.com/blog/2010/05/imagine-facebook…
Thanks SO much for reading, commenting, and passing on the news that contributed to Facebook changing their policy!! 😀
This is really a DISlike!!!
Hi Tisa! Thanks for commenting and retweeting!
Yes, Facebook does tend to run amok with things without telling anybody about it. Clear evidence that virtual kids are involved. It’s gotten so huge and they don’t seem to be sensitive to the fact that people make their livings from this wondrous creation and need some time/space in order to adapt, rather than getting cut off at the knees all of a sudden. There can and will be replacements to Facebook. Remember MySpace a few years ago? Facebook could well experience the same fate in months if they don’t respect their users better.