Disclaimer:  What you are reading is old.  In this case, from 3.24.14.  I am making the switch to WordPress for all my photography and business needs.  However, since I was previously with Wix, I am unable to import.  (Stupid Wix.)  I am manually copying and pasting my most current, 2014 blogs.  To find earlier blog posts, please visit melissapeifer.com.

With a little gently prodding (aka, pushing really hard), I’ve finally taken the advice of others and created a YouTube channel for my business 🙂  My channel will be a place that will grow with me–from client video’s to behind-the-scenes chaos, to the creation of my studio to anything else I can think to possibly spam you with. (I won’t actually spam.  Promise.)

Like I said, I was given advice to make this move awhile ago.  What prompted me to do it now is my complete, and total, frustration with Facebook.  I’m frustrated on both the personal and business front–both for the same reasons.  (The business side of it prompted this post, however.)

I started my photo ‘page’ on FB many years ago.  I worked really hard to build up my ‘fan base’, and while it’s not huge–it is 1,700 people that, over time, took the time to connect with me and support me.   I used to pull hundreds of ‘likes’ on my photos and I was constantly able to connect to my followers and work to gain new ones.  After 2011, that all changed and my reach didn’t go as far.  Much of my reach was based on if I got a lot of ‘likes’ then my organic reach would go farther and my audience would typically grow.  Now though, they’re squeezing my reach down to next to nothing.  Hundreds of likes is now down to a half a dozen, on a good day.  (Unless I got REALLY sucky, which, well, could be the case too.)

I understand advertising isn’t free.  I would never ask for free.

My problem lies in that all of my ‘fans’ are people that took the time to ‘like’ me at one point in time.  I’m not pushing anything on them in the same way that when you sign up for a newsletter, the newsletter isn’t pushing anything on you.  You are happy to see it show up–because you’re the one that asked for it.  (This is also why I’m not a fan of FB on the personal level, either.  I really WANT to see the small business pages that I’ve ‘liked’–I don’t get to though.)

I can avoid this, and I can have my ‘fans’ see my stuff–they stuff they asked for–if I pay.  It’s not cheap.  Every, single, post I make has to be paid for, individually, so my audience can see it.  That’s just not in my budget.  And, even if it were, it’s hard to justify paying a HUGE company, one that can shell out billions to buy whatever they want, my hard earned money.  (Some months, business cards are a really big expense!)  I have yet to meet a small business owner who thinks otherwise regarding this issue.

My only other real thought on this is that, obviously, Facebook knows they’re dying.  Their future isn’t in social media, it’s in the brand that they’ve become.  Do they really have anything to lose by small businesses choosing not to pay them their pennies (in comparison to who they are)?   Small businesses aren’t on Facebook to be advertised to.  There isn’t a wealth of information about individuals, just waiting to be mined, in a small business page.  Small businesses aren’t important to the bigger, Facebook, picture–so, why not exploit the dream-big, spirit, of the entrepreneur?  (Good thing Facebook didn’t have to pay Facebook back in the day–I highly doubt they would have made it so big.  It’s amazing how far they’ve come from their roots, isn’t it?)

Anyway, with all of that being said, Facebook, for me, has become a place for me to plug where I am elsewhere.  And, despite all that I’ve said, with the way American society is currently set up, I still know that I need to have a Facebook–because that is where everyone looks for everything.  Ya know, when I think about Facebook, it’s increasingly becoming a huge, user-ran, phone book, isn’t it?