Kicking the Author in the Teeth
Craziness abounds.
Facebook has been giving me fits with their latest skullduggery. Apparently, if you have a Facebook Page, only a small percentage of people ever see it. It doesn't matter if you have ten followers or ten thousand. In order for everyone to see your page, Facebook will cheerfully charge you every month for the privilege.
It is no longer enough to ask someone to "Like" you. If they want to be sure to see your updates they must also add you to Interest Lists. Pull down the arrow next to the little star burst (shown in a blue tab when you click on it) and you'll find a list of options. Select "Add to Interest List".
If you hover over the Liked icon, it also gives you options like Get Notifications or Show in News Feed, but I'm told that's not enough.
It's a pain. I'm at the point now where I'm seriously considering deleting my Frugal Way Page. I usually just feed my Back to Basics blog and the freebies I find along the way, but there's not much point if only a small percentage of followers see them. And seriously, how many people are going to remember to click the extra buttons?
Anyway, if you want to see my updates, please add it to your "Add to Interests List".
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Amazon is getting into the circus by deleting reviews submitted by authors to prevent phony 5-star reviews from polluting the system. How do they know they're phony? They don't. So rather than leaving well enough alone, they punish everyone regardless if the review was legitimate.
I don't think I've lost any of my reviews, but I've had friends who've lost their reviews and that sucks. If you still have your reviews, I suggest copying and pasting them on a document file so you can at least put them on your web site for your fans to read.
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Apparently, insanity runs in my blood too. I had a chat with hubby and another friend who I've always counted on for sound business advice and I think I'm about to do something foolish. We'll see.
If I don't get any farther behind, I'll be able to make an announcement in a couple of weeks. If you really want to know what it is, you can write me privately. Just remember, I'll have to swear you to secrecy. I'm serious. Iko has the duct tape.
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So what's new? Has Facebook or Amazon annoyed you lately?
How do you feel about that Penguin/Random House merger? What do you think it will mean for our industry?
The NYT had an interesting article on the topic. Personally, I think the consolidation was done to keep their market share from shrinking. It may be too little, too late, but time will tell.
Comments
Ultimately, I'm like you in that I don't know if it's going to be worth the effort. Maybe I should just create a regular account for my author side of things? I just preferred the page because it made it easier to keep my personal and author stuff separate.
The Amazon thing stinks, too. I agree they should try to deter authors from writing their own reviews--well, not just authors, but ANYONE who reviews their own product. But a blanket policy like that is just going to create more grief I think.
Ref: Amazon
Back when people were complaining about phony reviews and demanding something be done about it, I remember thinking: Careful what you wish for.
Emails clog up my box anyway. I just want to see my friends' feed. That's why I signed up.
Ref: Facebook
I might post once a week or so. I'm there mostly to read everybody else's posts, but if FB won't show the feed, it becomes irrelevant to have them.
Facebook once blocked one of my Barbie shots as inappropriate. And she wasn't even nude, just one of their nanny programs being flaky.
If my dog had duct tape, she'd probably just try and eat it.
Amazon and the "let's just delete author reviews" blanket bit is still something I don't fully understand. It seems the ones that show as being "Amazon bought and verified" have yet to disappear. I wonder if it is just ones Amazon can't verify if it was bought? I don't know. So much confusion.
The pub house merger will show it's benefits or consequences soon. It will trickle via complaints or uber praise or fake uber praise until the stuff hits the fan. But, we shall see. Not much choice but to take a sit and wait approach.
Same thing can be said about one persons trash being another's treasure, one persons "insanity" can be another's "genius". I think you know which camp that you fall in as so far your business decisions have been winners.
(On that note my curiosity is killing me but waiting several weeks might not be too hard, just don't drag out the suspense too long!)
I don't think Amazon's deleted any of my reviews, yet. Fortunately, all my reviews are over at Goodreads, so wouldn't be completely lost.
But it seems pointless considering what its original purpose was.
But don't get me started on Facebook. I know they want to make money, but changing the whole reason why people use FB is ridiculous. They'll force people to go to Twitter, where they'll have to bow to you in your Twitter tiara. ;-)
I dunno. It's too complicated for my simple brain.
And yeah, Amazon, another pain in the butt. I did lose a review--but it wasn't an author (I don't think)so I don't know why. But yeah, it is is silly especially since authors DO read.
But more stuff to figure out.
I really wish it would stop changing, but I fear now that they need to make a profit they'll eventually find a way to charge everyone for using FB.
Hmm...so that blows that theory out of the water. I wonder what's going on.
Here's my little side story. I met with a social marketer (at $75.00 per hour) about ten days ago, primarily for some help with Facebook. She walked me through the system of liking a page, and then posting on my author page with the highlighted (@Lincoln, or whatever) reference, which she said would then show up on their timeline. Well, I posted out the wazoo with "like" symbiosis to quilting, birding, train, Civil War, Lincoln, Chihuahua pages, thinking my posts would show up on their timelines. Ha, the rules had changed, and my social marketing guru wasn't even aware of the shift. And now we don't even know who sees our posts. I realize this is all about more revenue for Facebook, but if I have to start paying for my marketing there...