Notifications for FB pages is NOT a solution

Last week, Facebook admitted they’ve been quietly testing a new way for fans to see posts from the pages they’ve “liked.” For the test group, hovering their mouse over the “Liked” button on pages provides a new option: “Get Notifications.” You know—that little globe in the top left corner of the screen, where you’re alerted when someone comments on your posts, tags you in a photo, etc. (depending on how you have settings lined up).

On the surface, this looks like a lovely idea, bringing pages and fans back together again.

But it’s not. It’s actually the fast track to pages losing their fans….and fast. 

Yes, page posts are missing from fan news feeds (The 3/50 Project page, for example, worked hard to build a fan base of 92,000+, yet only a sliver see our regular posts in their news feed). It’s a shame, since users/fans opted in. They said “Sure, send me your stuff…I’m interested,” yet EdgeRank has erected a barrier wall that prevents us from doing so (as I’ve posted about here and here and here).

Now…Notifications as a solution? What happens when a user—who has “liked” 87 Pages, for example—starts getting pinged for every. Single. Post. From. Every. Single. Page. All. Day. Long?

Let’s compare the options, from a fan’s point of view:

Receiving page posts in News Feed

1. See the post

Receiving page posts in Notifications

1. Click on the Notifications globe
2. Click each individual notification link
3. Be taken to each individual page
4. Then, finally, see the actual posts

One. By one. By one. By one. By one. By one.

Four times the work, four times the hassle.

It won’t take long for irritated users to start un-liking pages just to get Notifications under control, cutting the final connection left between fans and pages. For those of us running grass roots campaigns, this so-called solution is the fast track approach to destroying so much of what we’ve built…..

I, for one, will not be asking fans to add us to Notifications. Just can’t risk being lost in the crowd of endless notifications they day each frustrated fan wades into it with a hatchet.