Did Facebook Just Wreck Your Business?

Facebook just made (yet another) change to their algorithm that has some business owners scrambling to recover. Some might lose everything they’ve worked for, and that’s pretty scary. So here’s how you can Facebook-proof your business moving forward…

Sorry for all the craziness in the background – I just wanted to get this out to you right away (and I hope the cool shot makes up for it). 🙂

The big takeaways…

  • The #1 way to protect yourself from future algorithm changes on any social platform.
  • The only platform over the past 22 years that has always produced great results.
  • A simple strategy that crushes free social media tactics (and helps you build a real, profitable business).

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63 Replies to “Did Facebook Just Wreck Your Business?”

  1. Maurizio

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff, totally right…

    Other corporate platforms will only ever make decisions based on what helps them monetise for their bottom line. Thanks for reminding us again of this topic.

    BTW, amazing place to shot the video :))

    • Judith Davis

      Reply ↓

      Thank you very much for this information about how Facebook’s change will affect us. I’ve recently started a Facebook page and have been getting viewers’ emails but now I’ll have to depend more on paid ads than on organic.

  2. Jeanette

    Reply ↓

    Thanks for posting this and you must be right. It’s 6 am Sunday morning and I just got your email and watched your video and I haven’t been on Facebook yet!

    • Jeanette Beninati

      Reply ↓

      BTW…I just put up my first SQUEEZE PAGE today. I only have 70 people on my “list” and 75% of them are “friends & family”! So I emailed my list today with a link to my squeeze page and asked them to forward to all of their friends and family…let’s see how it goes! I am also posting on social media to drive people to the page, as I get ready for my first launch! I’m so happy I found you, Jeff…we can thank Copyblogger for that!

  4. Felicity Lerouge (Me!)

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff, I’ve heard you say this many times but the penny finally dropped, this morning. Thank you! I had spent post of the morning scheduling posts to my FB pages – now I’m going to focus on driving that traffic over to my website, so I can control the information my clients my receive. Great to have this clarity!

  5. Tim Carter

    Reply ↓

    I know someone’s who lost 95% of his traffic when an algorithm changed. DUH! The infamous 2011 Google Panda update.

    You and my list saved me and you know the entire story. Perhaps your followers might get on my list so they don’t get SCREWED by a home improvement contractor, but that’s up to them.

    Watching this video this morning in the pre-dawn hours here on Mt. Desert Island you reaffirmed I’m doing the right thing with my new massive video project.

    Videos for YouTube? BWAHAHAHAHAHAAHAH – no way. I’m selling access to them so I control my destiny.

    Thanks as always for sharing your wisdom Jeff.

  8. Beth

    Reply ↓

    Thank you, Jeff! Love the ocean life in the background! Those sea lions are barking at us:
    “Heed Jeff’s warning, and don’t be a fool!
    He always says that email’s more cool!”

  11. Karen Warner

    Reply ↓

    Jeff!
    Thank you for Interpreting this Facebook change in terms of our businesses in a way that I can completely understand. Also, I appreciate your reinforcement of email as the right platform to continue to invest in.

    Karen
    PS loved the sea life in your video! Thanks for keepin’ it real. ☺️

  13. Ralph

    Reply ↓

    Thanks for the video – I t’s refreshing to hear the most common advice show up time after time. In performing a musical instrument, they say that by playing your instrument slowly, you increase your overall speed. So even though counter-intuitive, the slower you play, the faster your leverage in speed/ agility. Maybe an email list might represent the same counter-intuitive approach?

  14. Mike Ames

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff, completely agree you should be in control of how you feed your business. I wouldn’t sleep at nights if I didn’t.

    When it comes to email lists, if you use them to sell to anybody in the EU your world will change on June 1st of this year with the implementation of the GDPR regulations.

    I know you trade with EU countries so what’is your strategy for dealing with this.

    Mike

  16. Bill Van Schaick

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff – As always, great info! What are your thoughts about some “gurus” that now say that the open rate for emails is dropping and that instead, we need to start getting phone numbers, as the open rate for texts is greater than email? I know I would be more reluctant to give out my phone number, than my email address. Is this the next thing that will replace email?
    TY Bill
    (PS This would make a great weekly video!)

  17. Jeff Fuson

    Reply ↓

    Jeff! Been there Where you shot this. FANTASTIC PLACE. Super taco 🌮 place just a few blocks away. When I recall it’s name I’ll send it over. YOUR voice and warnings and clarity are powerful remainders. Thanks. I needed to be reiminded above all that glitters and shimmers and asks for my allegiance to so many other platforms that are far out of my control.

  19. Talmar Anderson

    Reply ↓

    Thank you Jeff! As we are building a platform and my team and I were boiling down options I was very clear, no Facebook dependency for any piece. I am firmly with you in the email list camp! Appreciate the morning ocean view.

  21. Jaime

    Reply ↓

    Thanks, Jeff. I saw this happen on a site I visit daily and wondered what was up! Wow. One of the things I most remember from my launch learnings was the importance of getting that email address. Thanks for the great tip!

  22. Linda Raglione

    Reply ↓

    Congratulations for your professional anniversary Jeff. As usual , you speak about basic truths and provide timeless wisdom.
    Thank you,
    Linda

  24. Lyara

    Reply ↓

    Ok, but my delivery rate, and open rate are decreasing month by month in my email list. I talk to people, and they are using email less and less (people used to check their email several times a day, and this is no longer true). I agree we need to have an asset that we own, but even email, gmail and hotmail change things too, they increase their spam filters, they invent tabs to tag promotions, everything is getting harder with email too. So I think the thing is no longer platforms x email, it is how to wisely split your efforts and investments in all reaching ways there are available today.

  25. Crystal Obregon

    Reply ↓

    Yes, I’m working on my list. I guess since I started a couple of years ago, I’ve never really expected to get much organic reach.

    I love the ocean background. I live up north in Santa Cruz, CA.

    I almost moved to Durango, just before I met my husband, almost 17 years ago, so your pictures of Durango always make me yearn for those mountains. I’ve never been anywhere with better mountain biking!!! The ocean is great, too!

  26. Peter and Tina Marcantel

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff,
    Thanks for another relevant post. We’ve been on Facebook for years and have a decent following (2K), but I’ve always felt that our organic posts had very limited reach. An unsposored post might get 100 views. We’ve always had to pay just to get seen and we always link to our website to try to capture an email. Problem is, we’ve never used a squeeze page and get very low conversion rates. We’ve just purchased PLF and are trying to take our brick-and-mortar business online. Time for some proper squeeze pages to convert those Facebook visitors!

  27. Dela Antoinette

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff. Happy PLF owner here. 🙂 I think you’re absolutely right. Facebook has been constantly making changes that force small businesses to pay for advertising in order to have their posts and content seen. I have however noticed a lot of people don’t pay much attention to email as well so as a back up, I added a mass text messaging service to my arsenal and I’m building my list there. I would love to hear your thoughts on using text messaging to drive people to read emails or to market. The app I signed up for is new but has some really great segmenting features. Would love to hear what you think about text marketing for the future.

  28. Dennis Plum

    Reply ↓

    Hey N GC,
    Thanks for this reminder about building an email list.

    But, in addition to emails what about building a FB Messenger list, as there are tools that can be used see to facilitate that. Is there a downside to putting effort into this over the longterm?

  30. Jay Arthur

    Reply ↓

    The first thing I did 20 years ago was to start building my email list using Aweber. Truthfully that’s my biggest business asset. A few years ago we switched to Campaigner to do more, but we recently discovered that they changed their algorithm in November and our emails stopped going out. We finally figured it out and how to get the emails restarted.
    Beware of your email provider as well.

  31. Jeanne Nangle

    Reply ↓

    Thanks Jeff! I appreciate being kept up to date on FB changes. I’ve noticed my organic reach is minimal since I started with my FB page … and to think it’s even less than before isn’t good! But I have been unsuccessful moving people from Facebook to my email list. As a PLF owner I understand that I need to offer something to make that worth it to them ….

  32. Trish Roberts

    Reply ↓

    Thanks Jeff! I hear rumblings that changes were afoot, but you explained what and why in a way that helps us follow the right path!
    Warm Regards,
    Trish Roberts

  35. Susan Dakuzaku

    Reply ↓

    Thanks for the authoritative video that underscores what I’ve been telling my clients and contact all these years… I’ll be sharing your video with them! Appreciate you sharing!

  37. Steve Mc.

    Reply ↓

    Thanks Jeff for the reminder. Also this just came to mind. “I you don’t Own it, you’ve Blown it.” Probably not quite that bad but it is important to cultivate the list and then develop the relationship. Agree with you that it is people who you are interacting with.

  39. Gloria Hamilten

    Reply ↓

    Excellent, Jeff, so true. Any social media has always been last for me to reach out to people, even friends. Those who are real friends still email or, where possible, we telephone. First thing I do, is check my emails, social media is way down the list, empty, hollow and repetitive.

  41. Andre Somov

    Reply ↓

    This still applies, and I believe it will for a long time to come: “The money is in the list” – and the list is only as good as the quality of the work we share, the frequency and our genuine desire to help others! Thank you Jeff for your ongoing support!

  43. Kaia

    Reply ↓

    I was dying to know about this, thanks for sharing! This video is so important I’m going to interrupt the video I was going to send my list today and send them yours instead.

  44. Gil

    Reply ↓

    Great reminder – thank you for the vid! As some others have asked – I am curious what you thinking about using texting more to reach people and what is the best way to get people to give out the mobile numbers?

  46. Danelle Denney

    Reply ↓

    Thank you, Jeff. I’ve heard you say this about a thousand times. I hired a guy to help me get my webinar out there, and we ended up locking horns because he insisted that the list was not all that important, and I ended up firing him. I would rather have kept him working for me, but he totally did not get this concept.

  48. Goldie Matthew

    Reply ↓

    You are 100% correct. I only know you from you emailing me, and me clicking and watching your videos! You do a great job.

  49. Soul

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff,
    Yep.. I remember your advice 4 years ago at PLF..
    You’re the read deal…
    This is a great reminder for me as I was working many angles on my social media strategies for this year… that pop up and landing page is inevitable for long term success…
    Thank you as always!!!you have an amazing team led by yourself…
    Soul

  50. Dr. Georgie, MS,ND

    Reply ↓

    I see many other people have heard this message before. I heard it last year about being on someone else platform and having one own platform; email list. Well, I sort of learn what Jeff was tallking about, because I spent a year creating monthly lecture on Insulin Resistance and Diabetes. It was public TV. so I did not get paid and no advertising. It was public service, but I thought it was a good way to get my “name” out there. The TV station had online storage library which one can access anything. Then 3 months ago, they changed their procedure and disgarded all earlier video and only replay was only available for 3 months. Well, that did work out well for me, since my topics like the dentist was our topic did not become OBSOLETE in 3 months unlike an event like the Merrie Monarch which was “transient”. So I can related to what Jeff’s saying. Since since material takes alot of research work before you can write an article or give a “seminar”.

  51. Mark

    Reply ↓

    Hi Jeff, great video. Thank you. Over here in the UK though, it feels as though we are losing control of our email lists too. With GDPR coming in at the end of May, we have new rules about who we can send emails to. Anecdotally, some people have lost 80% of their email lists because they have to get people to opt in to continue to receive emails and only 20% have done so. Do you have any recommendations for us?

  54. Phil

    Reply ↓

    Many thanks Jeff, great info. I am agree with Gloria. That what I do, maybe I old fashioned. Loved the natural backdrop too.

  55. Gustavo

    Reply ↓

    I would like to hear your take on Whatsapp. It belongs to Facebook, ok, but you OWN the phone list, so for me that list IS your property.

  56. KG

    Reply ↓

    Great that you keep driving home the message to invest in your own real estate. This has been an ongoing thing with Google and social media giants like FB changing algorithms. I’m amazed people invest time, energy and money into someone else’s property which in a moment can disappear. I use social media and Google to drive traffic to my website, but then I convert them into joining my list. Thanks Jeff!! Love the seal sounds.

  57. Jen Eick

    Reply ↓

    Regrettably, I saw this right when I needed to! 🙂 This was just after justifying that my new plan I’ve put in place “doesn’t have the need” for building an email list. Mostly because building a list seems so complicated and time consuming to me. However I’m sure I am over-complicating the process. (I subscribe to many lists, they send something interesting, I click! Doesn’t seem too impossible to me.) So thanks for the wake-up call!

  58. Gregory

    Reply ↓

    Quite a byte of information. Even so, t feels like it will be possible to minimize the damage …I’m glad you were able to end the video with a smile!

  59. Ryan R Levander

    Reply ↓

    Such valuable information. You need to control your digital business assets and social media is a great place to leverage their platform, but not build your complete business.

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