It's Official: Free Organic Facebook Advertising is Out the Door

From Forbes Magazine on June 6:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/ewanspence/2014/06/06/facebook-puts-everyone-on-notice-about-the-death-of-organic-reach/

Facebook’s Brian Boland has taken to a Facebook blog to talk about the decline of a post’s organic reach in the social network. In his role as ‎VP Ads Product Marketing, he walked through the implications as organic reach becomes a less effective engagement tool.

Boland has suggested why brands should continue to engage in Facebook and gather fans, but the suggestions all feel rather ‘second tier’ to me; fans give you credibility; fans can offer insights into your customer base; fans can be used to create social context which improves auction price for advertising; and fans can make ads more effective when they interact with them, increasing the chances of them being shown on the news feeds of other fans.

Those last two points are my big takeaway. Not that fans can improve your adverts, but Facebook signalling that you should be using adverts around your brand on Facebook if you want to reach your fans and other users. For all the talk of improving the news feed and making it a more engaging place, these efforts are on making it a better place for users. Not for brands.

From Boland's Blog specifically:

There is now far more content being made than there is time to absorb it. On average, there are 1,500 stories that could appear in a person’s News Feed each time they log onto Facebook. For people with lots of friends and Page likes, as many as 15,000 potential stories could appear any time they log on.
As a result, competition in News Feed — the place on Facebook where people view content from their family and friends, as well as businesses — is increasing, and it’s becoming harder for any story to gain exposure in News Feed. In addition to the growth in content, people are also liking more Pages. Facebook’s director of product management for News Feed told TechCrunch this April the total number of Pages liked by the typical Facebook user grew more than 50% last year. With each new Page like, competition in News Feed increases even further.
The second reason involves how News Feed works. Rather than showing people all possible content, News Feed is designed to show each person on Facebook the content that’s most relevant to them. Of the 1,500+ stories a person might see whenever they log onto Facebook, News Feed displays approximately 300. To choose which stories to show, News Feed ranks each possible story (from more to less important) by looking at thousands of factors relative to each person.

A Facebook presence still has a role to play in boosting your SEO via Open Graph Protocol.  By associating your personal Facebook ID with your website, or individual pages within it, the site's content has more credibility as that created by a human being, rather than mass spam content from Timbuktu.  Which can improve your search engine rankings and increase your visibility.  It will also improve your site's appearance on Facebook or Google + if a visitor shares the info on their personal profile.   Of course you can always pay for ad placement in Facebook and adjust your advertising budget accordingly.

But at the end of the day, whether your website makes sales or changes a visitor's mind on an issue, depends on the quality of what you say and the quality of the visual presentation.  As usual, the techniques to get them through the website front door are constantly changing and require more than one approach, including the old-fashioned, in-person handshake.

Dunwoody Town Hall hosted by District 3 - TONIGHT

You wanted 'em, you got 'em!  The next in the local neighborhood Town Hall series is at the Dunwoody North Driving Club tonight.

A word to the wise:  everybody has something they disagree with City Council on.  (Ask me how I know this...!)  Give them a chance to answer questions, even if you're pissed about something.  It's the courtesy you would want from them.  Hear the answers and give them a shot before blowing off the official you already decided you don't like.  Some of the nasty comments in the gallery after the first town hall at DHS directed at Mike Davis were really discouraging.

Due to work obligations I can't attend tonight, but I do have some questions of my own.  If you seven folks are reading, please consider an answer to the following.

1)  Feelings about developments at Brook Run are still raw.  Some will never forget the number of trees that were removed for the walking trail.  There is still conflict over the location of the dog park and whether the trees there are in fact harmed by the dogs.  Then you have the nearby neighborhoods who are watching for any trouble due to both of these.  You're also in the process of (finally!  thank you!) destroying the unusable buildings toward the front.  The trail is as yet unfinished and the outcome of the dog park move remains to be seen.  Why would you consider an unsolicited offer from a company to make use of the park for an obstacle course (which is not even close to being on the parks master plan) when there are still conflicts and concerns for "negative impact" over current developments?  Why was it necessary to move ahead with a treetop obstacle course plan when current development in other areas is still underway and their benefit and potential problems are far from clear?  Why did you not choose to put this request on hold until prior developments and their questions were closer to resolution?

2)  Congratulations on the state grant to fund the redevelopment of the Tilly Mill/N. P'tree/Peeler intersection.  As a resident who drives through it several times a day I concur it is long overdue.  I would have been satisfied with any plan, so long as it expedited traffic through the intersection safely.

With that said, there is much more to safety and shorter wait times than just infrastructure.  Because these roads are arteries to I285 and Georgia Perimeter College (GPC) you have some additional issues:  namely, a large concentration of college students with a limited amount of driving experience and the "ten-feet-tall-and-bulletproof" view of themselves that all college students experience.  Infrastructure alone - including striping, bike lanes, signage, lights, etc - does not necessarily persuade drivers (including bicyclists) to drive safely.  In addition to speed traps and occasional jaywalking warnings at the college itself, how is the City working with GPC to reinforce and encourage safe driving/bicycling habits in this population?

2a)  Even though a street is on the drawing board for redevelopment, the lane striping still needs maintenance.  It is not acceptable for striping to be allowed to disappear from use just because a refurbishment is coming.  That's an accident waiting to happen and you don't need the liability.  Try driving south on N. Peachtree approaching Tilly Mill.  The center yellow lines are *gone* and it is almost impossible to determine where the left-hand turn lane ends and the northbound lane begins.  See above re:  college students.  You also have a population driving through here that doesn't live in Dunwoody, is not as familiar with the streets as those who live on them and an accident is bound to happen.

3)  You may be interested to know that if the City plans to install tennis courts at Brook Run in place of the office buildings (thank you, again!) and even refurbish those at Windwood Hollow Park (please?), facilities grants are available from the USTA for their installation.  (http://www.usta.com/About-USTA/USTA-Awards/grants/ - scroll down to "Facilities".)  Milam Park in Clarkston (http://www.southern.usta.com/milam_park_conversion_opens_in_clarkston_ga/) was a recipient of one of these grants and they created an outstanding facility for their community, including scaled-down "quickstart" courts for smaller children.

If/when these courts are installed/upgraded, please consider additional markings to scale the courts down to 60' and 36' for younger players.  (aka, "blended lines")  You don't have the space for dedicated smaller childrens' courts, and I'm sure you're not planning any professional-grade play, so additional blended lines will do the job.  (For info see:  http://www.usta.com/Facilities/facilities_frequently_asked_questions/#1345)

This is just an FYI from a tennis mom who has seen kids of all ages enjoy the sport when it is scaled for them.  I'm sure other sports enthusiasts can include their two-cents on other sport amenities.

Thanks for hosting this event tonight and I look forward to hearing your responses to the above questions and more.  Please give answers as honest as the questions.  They are going to be posted somewhere, right?

Vote in the May 20 primaries

May 20 is an odd date for a US or state election so pollsters are anticipating "low turnout".  So every vote will carry more weight.

I was going to write up a litany of candidates in the Republican primary that are getting my vote tomorrow (no listing means my thinking is still in progress) but I would be repeating what some of my neighbors are saying.  So I'll include links to their thoughts and you'll get the gist.

State School Superintendent - Nancy Jester

I supported Nancy from Day One in her campaign for school board and have never regretted it.  The only way to get any improvement in systems in crisis is to put officials in place who call a spade a spade and aren't cowed by the inevitable slings and arrows from the sectors clawing their way up to the status quo.  I'm relieved that Stan is running unopposed for District 1 of DeKalb Co. Schools

Dunwoody Talk on Nancy

State Representative - Tom Taylor

I had no idea who Brad Goodchild was until I started getting stark campaign letters with vague positive language and no specifics.  Which immediately buried the needle on my personal BS detector.  Then I saw Erika Harris' letter in rebuttal to a campaign letter I had not yet seen.  I've met Erika briefly when she was discussing GLASS at one event or another.  I completely agreed with her points as I've heard Tom speak directly to what was at stake with his local school district bill and how difficult it would be to get it into law.  But surely, she was exaggerating, right?  Who could be that silly to call Tom's bill "DOA"?

Then I received my copy in the mail today.  The articles were not an exaggeration.

I roll my eyes at a lot of campaign materials, even those for our own City Council.  (Sorry, guys.)  I was utterly offended by this one.  You don't accuse someone of "just showing up" and then fail to show up in any public venue to promote yourself and your ideas.  You don't campaign for a seat in one of the biggest shark tanks in the state and then refuse a community-level candidate forum over alleged lack of fairness.  (You want to see "unfair"?  Sit on that floor for an hour and watch the rhetoric, then watch the local media spin at 11 PM.  Now that is unfair.)  You REALLY don't criticize a long-haul effort for reform in educational structure without knowing what was happening any step of the way.  Even an elementary school chess club knows that to secure an advantage and win a battle you have to move your pieces backwards and sideways in your strategy.

Anywho, Erika's words speak to my thoughts in the link above.  Goodchild doesn't have a pot to piddle in compared with Taylor

State Senator - Fran Millar

Believe me, I do not sit around agreeing with Fran on every little detail.  No question the man is a politician and good at that role.  But has he performed in any way in the State Senate than warrants broad spectrum attacks from Dick Anderson?  Not that I can see.  Fran hasn't deviated from the Constitution (state or federal) so that someone has to come in and "return" to it.

Commentary from Bob L including observations of this race.

Now I'm hitting the hay so I can get to vote ASAP in the morning.  Make the time to vote - it's always worth it.