If you’re trying to build a platform, advertise a business, spread a message, etc. on Facebook, you’re contending with opaque and capricious algorithms.
Here’s my personal experience:
My Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/marcarginteanu.md , has more than 75,000 followers. It provides the same sort of content found on my Substack. You may have noticed, I’ve posted a new short story, a medical thriller, Bullet to the Brain, chapter by chapter on Substack
. I hope it fosters interest in my writing and builds my brand.
I’ve also posted each chapter on my Facebook page. The first chapter earned more than 12,000 views and more than 300 likes, ample encouragement to produce a second chapter.
When I posted the second chapter… crickets: 6 likes and a few hundred views. I was disheartened. Maybe the first chapter was a fluke. But then I wondered whether something else might be going on. The posted image displayed ammunition floating in a whiskey glass. And the title contained the word, ‘whiskey.’ Maybe Facebook didn’t like one or both of those things and was burying my post. There’s no real way to know for sure.
I removed the word ‘whiskey’ from the title and changed the accompanying image. Everything else remained the same. I reposted the same chapter about a day later. Within a few hours I’d earned more than 1,500 views and more than 100 likes.
Bottom line is, Facebook isn’t your friend. It’s certainly a useful tool, but it’s shifty as a weasel and mean as a snake.