As I’m sure many of our readers know, especially those up-and-coming producers or young entrepreneurs, trying to establish traction and a following on a Facebook page can be a tricky thing. We’ve all read complaints about Facebook’s pay-to-play approach to advertisements, which make us all play the game of algorithms. It’s a harsh reality to see heartfelt content and relevant issues get drowned in walls of cat videos and internet memes, as the stuff that matters is out of sight and out of mind without us even realizing it.
MAKJ recently brought this exact issue to light in a recent post by comparing an advert that he released for a newer release, and compared it to a meme of Taylor Swift and Calvin Harris. His argument is the same one we have heard many times before. He shares his relevant content of his music, his life’s passion and the TRUE reason you followed his account in the first place, and it gets a fair amount of traction. Next he shares a funny picture that’s meant to get a few laughs, and next thing you know it’s a few shares away from breaking the internet. Beneath the picture is his critique on the unfairness of the whole thing.
To all my fans, friends, and colleagues out there who are trying to advertise their business. This is proof that…
Posted by MAKJ on Wednesday, May 27, 2015
While it can be easy to agree that there are some certain nuisances about this Facebook algorithm that is constantly the scapegoat in these situations, I think it’s far from cut and dry (and a quick scroll through the comments section will show you I am not alone). Blame Facebook for restricting how many people see a post with a link in it versus a picture versus just a text post or any combination all you want, but the numbers are quite simple.
It comes down to the simple fact that more people sitting at their computers/phones hit the ‘SHARE’ button for the image than people sitting at their computers/phones hit ‘SHARE’ for the music. First thing to look at is when the images were posted. The song that he shares got 17k views in only two hours, against the meme that has had a minimum of two days to get the viral traction we see here. Granted maybe the algorithm originally showed the image to more people, but it was their choice whether to hit those fun little buttons beneath to let their friends know their thoughts. This also has to deal with the reality of how many people consume Facebook media, which is in quick glances while on the bus, laying in bed, or do I dare say… using the facilities. This quick glance consumption lends itself to equally quick media as in pictures and meme’s and Elite Daily Articles (no offense Elite Daily I read all your stuff). The majority of people are less likely to share content where they have to go down a rabbit hole of links simply to consume five minutes of media. That’s not to say one of your thousand true fans won’t, if you’ve ready that philosophy, you know those thousand would do anything for you, but your common fan (i.e. the majority of one’s Facebook following) will not, but they will repost a funny meme that they saw you posted while they were taking a pee. . .
So with all that being said, we at EDMTunes feel we are in a similar boat as MAKJ. We can get frustrated when all of our top-quality content doesn’t reach every single one of you, but that doesn’t stop us from posting some of those funny post-festival videos or humorous Deadmau5 articles to keep all of you lovely readers chuckling.
