Facebook Is the New Google. That's the Bad News

I remember waiting for the Google Dance.  Old school SEO experts know what I’m referring to.  Years ago, Google would update its index once a month.  Online marketers would watch their search listings hoping for a jump in rankings.  The next day, forums would fill with the lucky and the damned, those who thought Google was awesome and others that swore it was Satan incarnate.

Google still dances but its index changes are fine tuned and uneventful.

Now we watch Facebook like shy geeks at prom.

Last week, Facebook changed its Newsfeed algorithm again.  They say the change will surface your friends' posts and pages when they are the most useful and relevant.  I doubt it, but okay.

And right on cue, Facebook tacticians are looking for ways to recover diminished reach due to the change.

Like Google, we have pinned our hopes on a fickle hero. Perhaps it’s time we remind ourselves of the lesson Google taught us.

What Google and Facebook Really Wants

I don’t doubt that Facebook wants to make money by erecting tolls booths on the path to your followers but I don’t believe that profit is their primary goal.

Their goal is to get every human hooked on Facebook.  They do that by creating an insanely useful and relevant tool to connect with your friends.

Google already makes billions lining the path to your content with billboards (i.e. Adsense and Adwords). Sure they want to make a pile of cash but I believe their primary goal is what they say – to organize their world’s knowledge.

Both Google and Facebook need YOU to accomplish their goals.
They need you to care about your content’s quality and value.
They want you to attract audiences using innovative approaches and strategies.

Facebook AND Google cook up new ways to inform, entertain, and educate your audience at a dizzying pace.

The last thing they want you to do is to parse every change in their algorithm looking for patterns, shortcuts, and other nonsense.  Just create insanely great solutions, options, perspectives, and tools to problems that annoy the piss out of your audience.

You’ll Sleep Better

I’ve stopped watching Google and analyzing Facebook.  Its more productive and fun to watch and analyze you.  Afterall the best strategy has always been to give you what you need.

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