As you know, Facebook has changed their algorithm for business pages so that not everyone that ‘Likes’ a page sees the updates being posted. In order to make more money, Facebook has started charging to ‘Promote’ a post for you so that it reaches more people. When I learned of this, I thought it was time to take that FREE $50 Facebook advertising credit Mark Zuckerberg gave me and do a little research.

On Thursday, May 31st, I posted the following update on my fan page:

Hello friends of The Megalomaniac Mommy!! Could you do me a favor and Like this post if you see it! I am trying to figure out the adjustments Facebook has made and want to ensure you are seeing my posts!
Thank you!

This was just a regular every day post like all of the other things I post on my page.

4 hours later, I posted this:

Now we are going to see how many people see this ‘promoted’ post since I have free Facebook credit to use!

*********IF YOU SEE THIS STATUS, PLEASE HIT THE LIKE BUTTON AND/OR LEAVE ME A LITTLE MESSAGE SAYING HI—– AT THE END OF THIS LITTLE TEST I WILL BE DRAWING A WINNER FOR A ♫ ♪♫ TRULY OUTRAGEOUS PRIZE ♫♪♫ THANK YOU FOR HELPING OUT!***********

I paid $15.00 to promote this ad over a 3 day period.

Here are the results.

For those unfamiliar with the terminology, here are the definitions:
Organic: The number of people who saw your Page post in newsfeed or ticker, or on your Page’s wall.
Viral: The number of people who saw your Page post in a story from a friend.
Paid: The number of people who saw your Page post in an Ad or Sponsored Story

My first post was liked by 47 people whereas the 2nd post was liked by 138 people who viewed it. Oh, and there were also several people who commented on my promoted post that they didn’t even see it until 2 days after it was posted!

After seeing the numbers from this little experiment, I feel that I am still better off just posting a regular message without promoting it because it is obviously still being seen by others and seeing the numbers for the promoted post just seems like a waste of money.