Facebook Promoted Posts for Small BusinessFacebook hit 1 billion global monthly users this week. That’s a big number and big news. They followed this with more news announcing Personal Promoted Posts in the USA at an initial $7 a pop.  This appears to be an extension of their Promoted Pages program into Personal Pages for individuals with less than 5,000 friends on a test basis.

The company has had this feature already in play in about 20 other countries, beginning with New Zealand, for the past year. Bringing it to the USA is a big move that will certainly boost their revenues, which is more important than ever for them since their IPO earlier this year. The debate about this move will also increase as people begin to use and see these new supercharged posts in their news feeds.

So why would someone want to buy a Promoted Post? It’s simple – here’s the scoop:

A typical post on Facebook goes to a pretty small percentage of your friends. Many people are surprised to learn that your post is ranked by Facebook’s automated algorithms to determine both how many and exactly whom from your friends list will have it placed in their newsfeed. This typically amounts to 10% of your total friend count. For posts that receive more interaction in the way of LIKES and Comments – the system will increase the impressions based on this popularity rank.

Promoted Posts will allow you to increase that distribution by about 3X – so figure 30% of your list It will also place it at the top of your friend’s newsfeed. And a final important point – it will be marked as a Promoted Post too.

Should you drop $7 to add a little artificial amplification and some extra metrics visibility about the paid post to your own small business Facebook presence

While it sounds rather compelling and, inexpensive too, probably not.

We’re advising caution early on for several reasons including these two:

–       Facebook is a very personal experience for many people and just like overdoing promotions in a small business or individual unpaid feed  – too much sales pitching can become a turn off and a quick way to be blocked or unfriended. With a Promoted Post – which is identified as such – you run an even higher risk of turning off friends, fans, customers and prospects.  Geoff Talbot of Seven Sentences wrote an evocative article on authenticity that illustrates this point.

–       There is no real way to measure the return on the investment. Granted, $7 is just two trips to Peets Coffee (one of our clients here in the Bay Area) but it is still money. When it comes to unpaid social media we’re less concerned about trying to tie it directly to transactional ROI but, paid media is a different animal. Even small amounts can add up quick and without careful planning and measurement it’s almost always wasteful.

Our plan is to do some limited experimentation with a few select clients but, generally watch and see how the whole idea plays out and is received. That’s our take – what’s yours?

Image credit: Tech Crunch