With all the problems surrounding Facebook's launch on the stock market, initially a moment of glory but soon afterwards the opposite, it may come as little surprise that the bright entrepreneurial minds over in Silicon Valley have come up with a new method of extracting money from the pockets of ordinary social networkers: Promoted Posts.
They work like this. Facebook News Feeds are powered by an algorithm called EdgeRank. Everything you see on your feed, from a photo of someone's obese cat sleeping contently to the latest self-glorifying piffle from Jessie J has been strategically placed there according to your interactions with the person or page in question. This has always been the case. Until now.
The official line from Facebook regarding Promoted Posts is as follows:
When you promote a post, it will be shown in the News Feeds of more of the people who like your page than it would reach normally. Friends of the people who have interacted with your post will also be more likely to see the story in their News Feeds for up to 3 days from when the post was first created.
Facebook estimates that currently, only around 16% of people who 'like' your page will actually see the content you post on their own News Feed, due to the nature of EdgeRank. In exchange for a small fee, Promoted Posts give page owners the opportunity to cast their net a little further in the hope of bringing in more visits to their page and in turn, increasing their EdgeRank.
What appears on the surface to be a simplified form of advertising on Facebook could actually carry dire consequences, particularly for the sort of smaller music businesses which are so lively here in the north: independent record labels, unsigned artists, bedroom PR firms and all manner of budding localised companies. Although Facebook claims that the number of people viewing your posts will not change, the number of other users' Promoted Posts appearing on News Feeds will increase as will their time of 'decay' i.e. the length of time they will appear for.
The number of pages that an average Facebook user 'likes' can run into hundreds, even thousands, with the company explaining that:
A lot of activity happens on Facebook and most people only see some of it in their news feeds. They may miss things when they're not on Facebook, or they may have a lot of friends and Pages, which results in too much activity to show all of it in their news feed.
The big corporate players in each individual field have the unlimited funds available to propel their products constantly on to News Feeds across the network while small-scale operations and not-for-profit organisations risk floundering, their EdgeRank dwindling all the while. Users who 'like' several hundred pages are far more likely to see Promoted Posts from U2, Live Nation and NME than say, Newcastle indie-pop darlings Let's Buy Happiness, their local music promoter or a mate's music blog.
Music communities all over the country are built upon communication and mobility. Tightly wound 'scenes' and cliques whose spidery fingers reach out into the wider regional demographic and pull more enthusiasts in. Whether you agree with the shift into the digital age or not, Facebook and other social networking sites have become an integral part of the way we structure and share our love of music in 2012: from promoting upcoming events to plugging a new single release, Facebook is necessary, like it or not.
The north-east is no exception; our region prides itself on its closely-knit music community and staunch DIY ethic. Our record labels are run by bands whose members also work full time to support their music, our blogs are run by students who simply can't afford to plough more money into what is essentially just a really expensive hobby and our promoters consistently struggle to break even with gigs.
Facebook has no reason to mind; the financial support they receive from huge multi-national corporations like Sony BMG and Warner far outweighs the comparatively measly contributions any of our region's music makers are able to offer.
In today's capital-driven industry where variety in music is at its lowest ebb, web traffic and the number of collective 'likes' on a band's page are getting to account for almost as much as genuine talent. Perhaps Facebook should tread more carefully as they move into this new realm of promotion and advertising, or run the risk of alienating more and more independently creative minds.
Sadly, an irony of all this is, that if this article gets reposted on Facebook, statistically speaking only about a tenth of you will see it.
Dan Carson is a music promoter from Sunderland who also co-edits the local music blog, The Abacus Post.
