Novel Thoughts: Are Facebook Pages Actually Useful?

Posted by Jessi (Geo) on August 20, 2014 | 28 Comments


novelthoughts

On my old Facebook page, back when I was still Auntie Spinelli Reads, I had nearly 1,000 likes.

Then I had to start over.

Now, despite having the new page for almost a year, I only have 166 likes. I’ve tried posting on the old page, tweeting, and posting on here. Nothing seems to help.

My question is: Is there even any point?

I’m honestly thinking of deleting my Facebook page altogether. It posts for me automatically when I publish a post, but other than that I hardly ever post on there. The occasional bookish thing that I find I will share, but it’s not very often and I don’t feel as if it gets enough spread to be of any use to me. What do you guys think? Are there any of you that would be affected if I deleted it?

What do you feel are the pros and cons of Facebook pages? Do any of you use blogs’ Facebook pages?

Jessi (Geo)

Posted in: Discussions | Tags:

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28 responses to “Novel Thoughts: Are Facebook Pages Actually Useful?

  1. If it weren’t for the fact that my family is on Facebook, I would abandon it completely. I enjoy Twitter much more than FB. FB has made it so difficult for me to find the post I want to see, that I just get frustrated. The company that I work for has 35,000 likes, but when we post something, the reach is less than a 1,000. What’s the point?

  2. I only use my Facebook for personal reasons (and I’m hardly online there anyway.) I already invest much time in other social media, like Twitter and Instagram, that I have a feeling I don’t need Facebook too. I don’t see the pros from it, actually.

  3. I’m not finding a lot of use out of facebook for my blog, either. I don’t even have my posts automatically posted there, because I can’t figure out how. But, at the same time, I don’t NOT want to have a facebook. I don’t know. I’m not being helpful at all. Sorry. :(

  4. I have a Facebook for my personal life and then I have one for my blog. While I use my personal quite a bit, I’ve all but abandoned my blog one because even though I had limes, there was no interaction on my page. I would post questions and wouldn’t get any responses. I still have my blog set up to publish posts on FB but when I go to look it was only shown to like 3 out of about 400 people so I honestly don’t see the point in it anymore.

  5. Unfortunately the reach on facebook pages is dreadfully low and many people are wanting to jump ship. Most people won’t see your posts, simple as that, because FB wants you to pay to boost your views. BOO. I would just say leave it alone and let it auto post for you and if things ever change and get better, it will still be there for you to use. But I wouldn’t focus too much energy on it.

  6. I don’t think there’s any need to delete it. I don’t actively use my Facebook page either; I just have posts get sent there automatically. Even though I don’t get a ton of views/referrals from Facebook, every now and then someone does comment on a post so it shows that SOMEONE is reading it. If even one person is reading a Facebook page, why not keep it? It takes zero effort to maintain it if your posts are being sent automatically.

    I don’t waste my time actually updating Facebook manually though. But as long as I’m not putting any effort into it, I don’t mind keeping it when some people are still using it.

  7. I honestly don’t think that blog Facebook pages are useful at all…which is why I don’t have one. The only reason I ever follow a blog’s FB page is if it’s a entry option for a giveaway. I literally never actually look at them on FB, and most people NEVER post anything anyway. And I’ve never once clicked on a FB post to go to a blog’s post, because I know that if I’ve liked their page, I follow them through Bloglovin’ and I will end up clicking on it when I go through my feed. Ultimately I think it’s pretty pointless…

  8. I don’t really use my FB page, though I do try time to time to update it. It does drive some traffic to my blog, and even though it’s not a lot, it’s still something, right? I wouldn’t delete it, but do what works best for you. :)

  9. I wondered the same thing… I started my blog a few days ago, so I also created a facebook page for it because I wanted some of the shiny follow me icons. There are no likes so far, but I just started out, so that’s not really saying much. I have noticed however that there has been some activity on twitter as opposed to facebook and that most blogs don’t get as much traffic on facebook from what I’ve seen. Then again, I used to follow some travel blogs on facebook (I banned them from my timeline when I grew tired of all the posts) and they frequently interacted with their followers. I guess it’s also just nice to be able to like something on facebook, even if I don’t want to see it in my timeline all the time because I can spread the love (other people might check it out) and find it again if I want to.

    Speaking of, how do people commonly interact on websites that run on wordpress.org? I’ve only ever had blogs that were free before, so they were already on platforms that were part of a community. I’m finding it a bit tedious to bookmark everything, so I’m interested in what’s the general procedure with this. :D

  10. I’m going to be blunt: Facebook is dead. I’ve heard this sentence a million times, and I’ll hear it a million more times. I’ll hear it until FB because a term ironically used, like MySpace.
    I’m a student journalist, and this topic comes up in the newspaper room and social media classes all the time. It’s been shoved to the back, Twitter, Tumblr, and Instagram taking the spotlight.
    As a marketing/traffic-driving tool, it’s pretty useless. As a way to connect with friends/family, it’s still pretty useful (especially since most of my family members are practically stuck in the 80’s digital world).

  11. I’ve never had a Facebook page for my blog and I don’t feel like it’s really necessary. I get blog updates through Feedly already so it’s kinda pointless for me not to mention that I don’t use Facebook that much anyway. I think Twitter in general is a much better marketing tool than Facebook is given its layout and I’m fine with just using Twitter!

  12. I have a love hate relationship with FB. I stay on my personal page because of friends and family plus the group I admin but as for my Blog Page I really don’t spend a lot of time on it. I post if I remember (randomly) but I have my blog automatically post. If anyone sees it great if not, Oh well. It’s just one more place to promote when I can to help out. Otherwise I spend a lot more time on twitter.

  13. I don’t really use mine either. I seldom use my blogging facebook at all (I keep my personal facebook separate) and only have posts sent there automatically. Sometimes I will update it through Hootsuite when I update other places, but generally it gets ignored entirely. I can see not deleting it, but I don’t see a point to use it more often either. Really though, if it wasn’t for the fact that some people actually view my page on occassion and that my family is all 1800 miles away because of the military, I would just delete both my facebooks. I loathe the site so much.

  14. Facebook pages mean nothing to me even when I almost have 500 likes, I feel like nobody even cares….Even I don’t care about the pages I liked. It’s just not that effective as twitter, I only made a Facebook page because it was suggested to me by a relative because not everyone has twitter, more people prefer to use Facebook so I agreed to it. Great discussion post! Love it.

  15. I don’t think I’d delete it, but I also wouldn’t put a lot of effort into it. My page has been around for over a year and only has like 300 likes and of those 300 people only 3 or 4 of them see mosts my posts. So I don’t put a lot of effort into the page. But I know that some traffic does come from it, so I leave it. I save bookish cartoons and schedule them to post 1 every day. I also have the page linked with my twitter, so everything I do on twitter (except conversations and retweets) get sent there without me even having to think about it.

  16. I use mine and I like it. It drives some traffic not a lot but some to my blog. So I don’t put a lot of time to it but I do put something up on the page most days. It only takes 1 minute and so isn’t a time suck. All my posts go there automatically. So for now it’s worth it for me.

  17. I hear people talking about ‘having a Facebook page is crucial’ but in my opinion that’s just BS. I’ve thought about making one for my blog but I just don’t see the point in it. I think most people have a Facebook account to talk to friends and family on there and nothing else. The way I see it; I follow blogs on Bloglovin’ and that’s enough. I don’t need Facebook to tell me if my favorite blogs have posted something new cause Bloglovin’ already told me that.

  18. I hardly use it. I have new post updates sent there automatically and that’s about it, every now and then (this happens rarely) I’ll post something myself. I have -if I remember correctly- 123 likes. I don’t really think a facebook page is crucial. I have my personal account, which has nothing to do with my blog and I keep those profiles separated , my facebook page is quite useless I think. I hardly have anything happen there, I don’t chat with people (like on twitter) I don’t really use it… but I still have it.

  19. Can I be brutally honest? The only time I have EVER liked a blog’s FB page has been
    1) for extra entries in giveaways (bad, I know)
    2) if for whatever reason I couldn’t comment on their blog and wanted to say something.
    I very rarely look at the blogs on FB, because if I like a blog I add it to Feedly. It’s the same reason I haven’t made a facebook page for my blog. I just don’t really see the point in it. A lot of people do have a point though: if it’s getting you a tiny bit of traffic and it’s not an effort, there’s no need to delete the existing page.
    I do get traffic from links I post in groups and my personal profile on Facebook, and I don’t really think I’d get more from a blog page.

  20. I rarely use facebook as it is, and I prefer to use it for personal reasons. I did like the odd blog on facebook a while ago, but then I realized I didn’t really like their updates mingling with my family and friends. I’ve since gone back an unliked most of the blogs (and I felt pretty bad about it). Really, I get my updates from bloglovin’ and twitter. I don’t need the same updates 50 other places.

  21. I have a Facebook page but honestly, I don’t even look at it. I have the automatic thing set up so that it posts to Facebook whenever I publish something new. Even though I have 500+ likes, my reach is only like 10 per post. I know some people manage to make their Facebook pages really interactive and useful but honestly, I just can’t be bothered. :P

  22. I don’t have a facebook page, because I don’t really use my facebook much. But I doubt it’s really useful because people don’t really want to leave facebook if they are on it. They aren’t likely to click to the site and see your stuff. Bloglovin, they will, because that’s the whole point of it. Pinterest, sure some people just like to pin but the majority of the people on there will see the site and where everything is coming from if it looks interesting enough. Twitter, less so, but sometimes and it does get shared a lot. My suggestions are to put more effort into Twitter, Pinterest, Bloglovin and also google + where people are most likely to click through.

    http://olivia-savannah.blogspot.nl/2014/09/make-up-in-society-guest-post-giveaway.html

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