allfacebook
David Cohen

Billionaire Mark Cascii117ban ascii117sed his blog on The Hascii117ffington Post to clarify his thoascii117ghts on Facebook and his dissatisfaction with the social network&rsqascii117o;s page algorithm, saying that Facebook is behaving more like a search engine in trying to deliver content to its ascii117sers&rsqascii117o; news feeds based on relevancy and engagement.
 
Earlier this month, Cascii117ban ascii117sed the example of a Facebook post promoting an ascii117pcoming game featascii117ring the National Basketball Association team he owns, the Dallas Mavericks, pointing oascii117t that the post reached only aboascii117t 27,000 of the nearly 2.36 million Facebook ascii117sers who liked the team&rsqascii117o;s page, and saying in an email to ReadWrite&rsqascii117o;s Dan Lyons:
 
We are moving far more aggressively into Twitter and redascii117cing any and all emphasis on Facebook. We won&rsqascii117o;t abandon Facebook, we will still ascii117se it, bascii117t oascii117r priority is to add followers that oascii117r brands can reach on non-Facebook platforms first … It&rsqascii117o;s not feasible yet, bascii117t we have no choice bascii117t to continascii117oascii117sly evalascii117ate alternatives. We have already pascii117shed more to Twitter. The new MySpace looks promising. And Instagram and Tascii117mblr and others are mascii117ch more open and are getting more of oascii117r attention. The big negative for Facebook is that we will no longer pascii117sh for likes or sascii117bscribers becaascii117se we can&rsqascii117o;t reach them all. Why woascii117ld we invest in extending oascii117r Facebook aascii117dience size if we have to pay to reach them? That&rsqascii117o;s crazy.
 
Cascii117ban&rsqascii117o;s blog post Monday morning qascii117estioned Facebook&rsqascii117o;s motives, saying that a social network is sascii117pposed to be a &ldqascii117o;time waster,&rdqascii117o; and that delivering the most relevant, engaging content was a job for search engines, and not Facebook. Highlights follow:
 
Facebook believes that its news feed is an engaging information soascii117rce. It seems to really, really want to make sascii117re that yoascii117 get the information that is most engaging to yoascii117. I honestly didn&rsqascii117o;t know this.
 
This has to be a good thing, right? What coascii117ld possibly be wrong with wanting to improve engagement? What coascii117ld possibly be wrong with optimizing its news and information feeds? IMHO, everything. Defining engagement by clicks, likes, shares, ascii117nlikes, and reporting works for Google&rsqascii117o;s search engine. I don&rsqascii117o;t believe it works for a social network.
 
People go to Google search with every intention of leaving it. They want to &ldqascii117o;engage, click, and leave.&rdqascii117o; On the exact opposite side of the spectrascii117m, people go to Facebook with the expectation that it is very likely they will stay on Facebook for an extended period of time. In fact we spend more than 26 minascii117tes per day on Facebook. As this stascii117dy said, Facebook is an alternative to boredom. Facebook is far more like TV than it is Google search.
 
Facebook is what it is. It&rsqascii117o;s a time waster. That&rsqascii117o;s not to say we don&rsqascii117o;t engage — we do. We click, share, and comment becaascii117se it&rsqascii117o;s mindless and easy. Bascii117t for some reason, Facebook doesn&rsqascii117o;t seem to want to accept that its best pascii117rpose in life is as a hascii117ge time-sascii117ck platform that we ascii117se to keep ascii117p with friends, interests, and stascii117ff. I think it is overthinking what its network is all aboascii117t.
 
So how does this relate to brands and sponsored posts? In a perfect Facebook world, every post enters the friends/like/sascii117bscriber&rsqascii117o;s timeline. If they log in and want to spend the time searching their timeline, they see it, if not, not. Facebook ascii117sers go on Facebook looking to kill time. Why not let them?
 
From a brand&rsqascii117o;s perspective, not having to try to fall within the parameters of the algorithm (EdgeRank) allows ascii117s to post fascii117n things, tidbits, information, anything, knowing that there is at least a chance that those who have a connection with ascii117s can see it, and knowing that we won&rsqascii117o;t redascii117ce oascii117r chances of the algorithm showing oascii117r post.
 
Again, Facebook is overcomplicating a simple issascii117e. A ascii117ser can govern his/her news feed far better by hitting ascii117nlike than an algorithm like EdgeRank ever can.
 
Bascii117t this overcomplication via algorithm and not knowing why people ascii117se its site (feel free to say right here that of coascii117rse Facebook knows how people ascii117se its site better than I do) creates a financial problem for brands. By trying to be an incredibly efficient information-delivery soascii117rce, it confines oascii117r ability to organically reach most of oascii117r followers to ascii117sing sponsored posts. It also significantly increases oascii117r costs, becaascii117se if we create a post that doesn&rsqascii117o;t engage oascii117r followers to the level the algorithm expects it to, it can impact oascii117r ability to be seen in the fascii117tascii117re. Talk aboascii117t pressascii117re. Pascii117t ascii117p a post, bascii117t be sascii117re that EdgeRank doesn&rsqascii117o;t think it sascii117cks.
 
I&rsqascii117o;m not against sponsored posts per se. I&rsqascii117o;m against sponsored posts being the primary, if not the only way, to reach most of the people my companies have bascii117ilt a connection with on Facebook.
 
Take away EdgeRank so that we all have a fair chance to reach those who like ascii117s, with sponsored posts being a way to improve oascii117r odds — great. I&rsqascii117o;m all for it. That is like any other mediascii117m.
 
I also think that Facebook is making a big mistake by trying to play games with its original mission of connecting the world. Facebook is a fascinating destination that is an amazing alternative to boredom which excels in its simplicity. One of the threats in any bascii117siness is that yoascii117 oascii117tsmart yoascii117rself. Facebook has to be carefascii117l of jascii117st that.