Chris O’Falt, writing on IndieWire, exposes the new reality at Facebook: you might not be reaching the folks you painstakingly attracted to your pages anymore.
He interviews a number of independent filmmakers and reports:
“Facebook first announced its reemphasis on ‘friends and family’ three years ago, when Facebook first started to ‘throttle’ fan and community pages for nonprofits, films, and other organizations…. Today, Facebook film and nonprofit pages are virtually cut off from their followers, with independent filmmakers forced to pay to ‘boost’ posts to reach the followers they once reached organically through likes and shares.”
He goes on to say social media consultant Dor Dotson suggests that filmmakers should:
- leverage in-person relationships
- maintain an email list
- diversify platforms and
- experiment with micro-targeting
My take: Dor’s advice is great! I’d be interested in hearing about your experiences with Facebook. Has organic reach worked for you in the past? Do you find you need to buy ads now to get the same reach? How much are you paying? Have you explored other platforms? And most importantly, do you have your own opt-in mailing list?