I very rarely update or even check my personal Facebook account these days, but I do like to see what my favorite brands and retailers are posting about. What about you?
And have you seen ToolGuyd’s Facebook page? I don’t often upload photos or post new content there, but I sometimes point back to ToolGuyd tool previews or reviews for tools I am especially excited about. Would you go there more if there was more to see?
Our ToolGuyd Facebook page only has around 2,300 “likes,” but because Facebook wants me to pay to “promote” posts, very few Facebook followers will ever see anything I post there. And so I don’t really spend much time creating unique content for ToolGuyd’s Facebook followers. You would really have to actively check our Facebook page to see any new content that is posted to Facebook.
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A reader wrote in last week, asking for headlines of ALL new ToolGuyd posts to be pushed through to Facebook, and I’m still thinking about that idea. Right now all headlines are pushed through to twitter and our automatic daily and weekly email newsletters, but I don’t see as much benefit in doing something similar with Facebook.
I’m mulling over whether to make it a point to regularly add new exclusive content to Facebook. Maybe first looks at new review photos, or something to that effect. What do you think? Would you like to see more stuff on ToolGuyd’s Facebook page?
P.S. This might be a good time to let you all know that I plan to increase ToolGuyd’s newsletter frequency. We’ve been sending out automatic daily and weekly updates for years, but I haven’t sent out a non-automatic newsletter in a very long time. I’d like to start using newsletters as a place to give subscribers early impressions about tools that have been tested but not yet reviewed on ToolGuyd. What do you think about that?
Brian
That’s why I like and use Twitter more. If I follow you on Twitter, I see what you post. Facebook decides what I see and what I don’t. I don’t “LIKE” that at all.
Todd H.
Don’t care for Facebook or Twitter, they both suck! I don’t care for forced advertising either. When sites do that, I stop visiting them completely. Time to put the foot down. Enough is enough!
Stuart
You mean “roadblocks?” I’m not a fan either.
I try to follow a “if it bugs me it’ll bug everyone” policy.
Sometime this year – maybe next month if I get around to it – I might experiment with an exit box that reminds visitors about the newsletter, or giveaways, or whatever. I don’t like ones that pop up right when you get to a site, but might experiment with one that tries to detect when someone’s about to leave.
Farid
I am with you, Todd – neither for me. It is very sad when good websites, stores, etc start relying on “Fakebook” (Facebook).
Another issue I saw a lot of this holiday season were giveaways by stores that were limited to entry via fakebook only. This is illegal as the giveaway now becomes lottery, which are regulated (requiring someone to subscribe to a particular service such as fakebook in exchange for a chance to win is called “consideration”, which legally is equal to pay-for-play. But I am amazed how many places still do that.
I am Glad Stuart does not do that.
Stuart
Facebook is free to join, so lottery rules might not apply. If a giveaway has a clause that says “purchase to enter” – that’s where the line gets crossed.
Farid
It does not matter if the account is free. In order to Join Facebook, you have to supply personal information to a third party site. That alone is “consideration”. Don’t believe me? check with your attorney general office.
Michael Quinlan
Not to sound like a Luddite, but I don’t even have a Facebook account, and don’t plan to either. I only recently created a Twitter account – needed to participate in a contest – but haven’t looked at it since the contest ended (I was a winner, BTW). In the course of my internet surfing and/or research, I come across things of interest and if it’s a forum I can visit I add it to my bookmarks; if it’s something else and I can add a feed to my news reader for it, I do. Otherwise it’s forgotten.
paul
same here… don’t have one, don’t want one… it’s one huge drama inducing pain in the ass invention in my opinion… i’ll keep visiting sites like this one the “old fashioned” internet way 🙂
Matt
This…Completely agree
Rob
I have facebook, but never use it. Have ZERO (0) friends..people laugh when i tell them that, don’t care. Waaay too much info on that site…big waste of time. Don’t want to see pictures of your kids every day.
Jerry
Stuart, I hadn’t thought about your Facebook page. Your ‘likes’ should be increasing by one.
Jon
I don’t have nor do a care for facebook. Call me old-fashioned but I use and RSS reader to see all my content from web sites.
Honestly annoying that I have to like something on facebook in order to receive extra “points” towards an entry.
I figure it’s only a matter of time before something replaces facebook the same way we saw myspace fade…
Stuart
I use an RSS reader as well.
The RSS feed currently shows full content, but I might have to change that in the future. There are too many content scrapers and thieves out there, and it’s harder and harder to deal with them.
Some RSS readers can follow excerpted RSS content to their full content without leaving the reader, but I’m still concerned about how annoyed readers who rely on RSS will be if I move away from a full content via RSS.
Brandon
I didn’t know web authors used the excerpts in RSS feeds to prevent piracy. I always assumed they wanted to get their clicks up by making me visit their actual site to read what they posted. That makes it a little less annoying, but not much. Most sites that have excerpts in my RSS feed don’t get looked at unless the headline *really* piques my interest.
Stuart
That’s part of the reason as well – RSS reads aren’t countable, and so it it’s harder to gauge reader interest and measure performance .
Also, and more importantly, RSS leaves out comments, navigation links, and any formatting a post might have.
Basically, RSS can be a nuisance and even valueless, from a content-creation standpoint. I have kept a full content feed going for so long because, as someone who also reads RSS feeds, I prefer full content.
I had to block another scraper this week, and it was a major pain. But when that’s not an issue, the loss of control over how things look and what’s included in a feed is really the major frustration.
Derek
I mainly use RSS and sometimes click through to read the comments. I appreciate that you have kept it going as most of the other tool blogs have excerpts.
I know feedly tracks and reports some statistics so you may be able to get some of the data from them.
Toolfreak
Facebook is ancient news in internet terms. Read up on some statistics and you’ll find that most people under 65 have been leaving facebook in droves, and only the over 65 crowd is still on there.
That’s not to say a business or website shouldn’t still promote itself there, or on every social media site there is, but it’s worth noting when you’re dealing with a social media site that is slowly fading away into obscurity rather than one that is growing or is at least current.
I only have fake accounts on social media for when businesses have special offers, coupons, discounts, etc. that are offered through their social media accounts.
I’d never actually input my real info or “like” or “follow” anyone or anything on social media, since they use all that for data mining and it goes into a database that you can never get yourself removed from. Not to be all conspiracy-theory but I at least like the option to be removed from mailing lists or decline to have my personal habits monitored and recorded.
I’d say it might be worth your while to have facebook auto-update with each new article on the site just like with twitter, but unless you’re getting some other benefit, I’d stick with communicating directly with readers through blog comments, email, and the newsletter.
Stuart
Thanks everyone, I appreciate the feedback!
I’ve heard the same, that fewer people are using Facebook these days. As mentioned, I don’t really do much with my personal Facebook account, but I tend to like looking at companies’ pages for news and promotions. I guess that would probably change if more companies had their own blogs.
I also agree about how gathering “likes” or “follows” as giveaway or contest entry is kind of pointless.
Some potential advertisers want to know ToolGuyd’s Twitter and Facebook count, and I often remind them that you can buy thousands of “likes” and “follows” for a couple of bucks.
As for the data-mining, that’s a reason why you won’t find a Facebook comments plugin, or a quick “like us” button. I had one a while ago, but learned that Facebook tracks readers’ activity on such sites. And so that’s why the Facebook button on the top of the page and in “Share” sections of posts are dumb links.
Mike
Your comment about the benefits brings up something I’ve often wondered. What benefit is there to posting on Facebook when you have your own site? It seems like Facebook would always be the winner is such situations. Their rules, their advertising, traffic to their site, what’s the advantage?
Stuart
Some people check ToolGuyd.com regularly, others “Like” the Facebook account and then never visit the site again. More Facebook content might persuade some to come back and join in the discussions here.
But it's me!
Well, my 16 year old tells me Facebook is passe, as he is all knowing! Guess it makes me a Luddite, but I have never had a Facebook account, nor do I have any inclination in getting one. The wife does and she is active with it, but the whole thing baffles me, and I am technologically proficient scientist of sorts. I do have a Twitter account, but only for notifications for my kid’s soccer teams (the 16 year old made it very clear any postings by me would be grounds for never speaking to me).
But I digress as usual. It bugs me to see entities push their Facebook page on users. Give me an option, please. I for one would not see your Facebook postings, much preferring the website. Just my two cents worth!
CB
That’s a negative ghost rider. I associate Facebook with adolescence (Perhaps unfairly) and I can’t find the time or any solid reasons to peruse the site that I feel is either full of posts with low value information or trying to feed me with some marketing scheme.
I don’t associate Toolguyd with Facebook because you seem to post useful information relevant to adults.
I’m in my youthful forties but perhaps your Facebook postings could be more useful to your readers in their youthful twenties.
OnTheWeb
Like others I have a dummy Facebook account to go there only when I have to.
kv
I’m going to side with the “Why would I want to check Facebook” crowd on this issue. No, actually make that on virtually every issue. I stopped looking at Facebook years ago because it was an endless stream of mental flatulence made up of random crap that people ate for breakfast intermixed with ZOMGClickMeNowLinks and a generous portion of “You can change the world if you ‘Like’ this horrible thing going on somewhere far, far away.” The fact that FB has since started making decisions for you what you to show videos and other advertising really just re-enforces my decision.
I personally don’t see any compelling reason to check Facebook for anything that I can find elsewhere. I know I’m old and crusty, but an RSS feed is just perfect for letting me know when new articles are posted that I might find interesting.
NoDeuces
Not a Facebook fan. Love twitter brevity. I’m often saddened when great websites move content or community to Facebook (wood whisperer).
Rick
No facebook or twitter accounts here. I don’t even know what an RSS reader is. It’s not that I am not internet savy as I feel I am. I am not a fan of social media as enough of my information is out there already. I don’t need any more.
Tomas
I have a facebook page for a site that I run, although the FB page has about 5,500 likes, so far I haven’t seen much (if any) crossover traffic to the main site. I use it mainly to post a few contests, some related articles that I wouldn’t bother sending a newsletter out for etc. Seems like the FB crowd that takes a second to click “like” on a post isn’t the same person that reads in-depth articles & reviews. At least that’s been my experience.
DanG
This is the first time I ever checked to see if you had a Facebook page. I’m not really into Facebook. (I did add a like to your page) I doubt I will visit it frequently. I just go after your emails and read those pretty thoroughly.
pencil neck
Why bother? Are you catering to narcissist hipsters?
GaryT
I don’t have a Facebook or Twitter account. The less information I have about myself on the Internet means the less people can steal my info. My claim to fame is you can Goggle my name and I do not show up anywhere on the Internet… especially pictures. I am comfortable with myself that I don’t need some narcissistic garbage site to dump my life no one would really care about. The real reason I believe most people check FB, etc., is for the Schadenfreude moments in regards to their peers. My teenage kids don’t even use them anymore.
Hang Fire
FB is useful for corporations with a lot to sell and support, and small companies getting started…. both for the same reason, reaching and interacting with people.
TG has already reached “critical mass” and already has user interaction. While a FB page may be useful, it is not a critical marketing tool to drive TG readership. If you can make money by advertising other sites on the ToolGuide FB page, go for it. Spend money? Don’t bother.
Jim Felt
SEO is “driven” by volume and that has no negative to you Stuart or really anyone. All the data mining “concerns” are negated if like me you use Amazon Prime almost daily.
So basically I don’t care. We’re all an open book to the NSA, the Chinese and Jeff Bezos.
RSS, Twitter, Facelessbook, Tumblr, Pinterest are all useful or not as we pass along the Al Gore interwebs…
Kevin
I wouldn’t pay to promote your page either because it dilutes even further who sees your posts.
Veritasium covers this in depth.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oVfHeWTKjag
Robert
There are too much noise in failbook unlike your website where your voice is heard uninterrupted. When I had a failbook account i wouldn’t spend more than 3 seconds to read something.
I am a web dev and it is a pain in the rear when a client wants a failbook, instagram, and twitter accounts with their website and does not have the time to maintain it.
JMG
I created a FB account only because it was required for a specific beta test of software program. While I do not regret joining the beta test group, I did regret having the FB account within fifteen minutes of creating it, due to being found by several people I would have preferred never having had a conversation with then or in the future, all courtesy of FB routines. I check my page only when required for testing, or one or two times a year otherwise.
I almost never visit other pages without required necessity.
rob
I would say focusing on content specifically for Facebook would be a waste of time because it does not provide you a platform you completely control like your website does.
What happens if/when Facebooks model changes and you have to pay to post on it? Or if they decide to purge your content for some other reason.
Post your content on your site and push it out through social media channels to get more clicks and views back to your website so you can monetize it through ads, paid reviews etc instead of creating original content that Facebook can monetize.
The whole point of Facebook / twitter etc should be to get eyes back to toolguyd.com.
Mahalo
I, for one, have found the content you provide to be so useful to me that I have your site bookmarked and check-in frequently. I don’t see the harm, though, in auto-pushing every page update to the FB account. That’s what many other tool sites do, and it doesn’t really bother me. Sometimes it makes it easier to just click the link and be redirected to a review on the official site. Concord Carpenter, Toolbox Buzz, etc. all basically use FB as an extra link back to their real homepages. They do make an effort, though, to respond to thoughtful comments posted on their FB feed, though.
I don’t think that you need to have any FB exclusive content on there. It doesn’t add too much value for it to be “exclusive”, at least not to me as a frequent FB and toolguyd.com user.
DaveMD
I read a couple of blogs similar to ToolGuyd but different subject matter. When the other blogs started FB accounts I quickly joined but quickly unfollowed. The problem was seeing duplicate post on the site and then FB, it became annoying quick. I think most of us have you on our bookmarks and I regularly check in along with my news sites.
Dobes
I will never use Facebook so if they list deals on it I assume it’s something I can live wirhout.
ChrisK1970
Stuart, I don’t participate on Facebook or any other sites. I have a Google + account but truthfully don’t use it. All in all forums are it
Grady
Sorry I can’t help on this one .
I am anti social media !
Nathan
I don’t do book of faces either. the wifey does, but I can’t stand it. and I don’t want to give hits to that jackholes that created facecrack. I don’t twit, either. the only reason I have google + is because I have a google account. so the only advice I can offer is – please keep this site running. if it gets to where you need help perhaps there can be a funding exercise or something. I’m new to reading this site but I’d be willing to help out
Adam
I only have a FB account for coupons
Greg Post
This website is a million times better than a brand Facebook website. I prefer a good stand-alone dedicated website or blog over that.
R
Please don’t use Facebook. Post content only to your web page.
There are too many privacy issues with Facebook use.
I and many others I know simply refuse to use it for at least those reasons.
ktash
Facebook and twitter are just distracting time-wasters in my opinion, plus designed for teens even if they don’t use it any more. I like your site and check it frequently. Mostly, I just want to do woodworking in my free time, or read related sites in my free computer time. I’m online enough for work.
jason. W
I don’t have a problem with facebook. I check it daily. I have friends that live out of state and this helps keep me informed about them. I enjoy seeing there pictures and reading there posts
That being said. I check this site almost daily as well. So I see no need for a facebook for you
Pete
I think you should have asked for people to post their approximate age to know the correlation with age and facebook use in conjunction to your site.
26 here, I use facebook daily to keep up with friends and companies/pages I’m interested in. And see what toolsinaction posts- I don’t check their page daily so when I see them make a facebook post On their site I click the link and check it out.
As far as some commenters comments about you using Facebook I would value their comments worth what you paid for it.
Joe W
Whatever you choose to do with Facebook, please do not go down the road that many have and post “exclusive” content to Facebook. As someone who does not participate in social media, it is extremely frustrating when a site or company that I follow posts content (and special offers/contests, to a lesser extent) on Facebook. Even on public FB pages when I go there specifically for some bit of interesting content that I missed, I find the interface clumsy when trying to read a post that’s more than a few sentences, especially if pictures are included.
What is your goal for the Toolguyd FB page? I understand why companies try to entice people into “following” them, because they are actively feeding their followers advertising. Being that you aren’t trying to sell anything and have already run into the obstacle of paying for prime advertising on FB, is there any benefit to it? Maybe you’ll reach some casual followers who don’t check the site frequently and aren’t on the email list, but I don’t see much other advantage.
FWIW, I’m perfectly happy with the format of the site and check updates several times a week. If you are somehow able to monetize your content through FB, I fully support that, I wholeheartedly feel that you should be paid for what you are doing. Just please don’t start segregating content between multiple portals.
Tyson L
I don’t use facebook anymore. Ever since I switched to instagram, it’s been no looking back. You can tag brands and others in your images. It’s also much easier to upload personable pictures and info.plus you can generate much more of a following. Switch to instagram!!! You can post to facebook from there too.
Chris L
I agree with the others that it wouldn’t be right to add exclusive Facebook-only content, but even if Facebook acts a bit wonky when it comes to your posts making it to fans’ timelines (especially if they use the default Top Stories view instead of manually switching to Most Recent), it would still be a benefit to have the Facebook content match that of the website. I usually don’t have a problem seeing regular posts from other blog-type pages, and it doesn’t appear as if they’re actively promoting them. The only time I see a “promoted” post is if it’s some specially flagged post that always stays on the top of the feed. I don’t think it’s a necessity for regular everyday posts.
I like Facebook. I’m in my early 30s and don’t bother with Twitter let alone Instagram, yet I also wish to keep my email inbox as clean as possible since I find I never go back and read the newsletters I get at inopportune moments (often I’ll end up forgetting and it’ll get buried by other mail). Facebook, however, I check frequently and is my preferred aggregator for news, articles, and the like. Even if it shows 1 post out of 3 it’ll tempt me to click through to your page and see what’s new, whereas I hit the website up only occasionally as the thought hits me “oh, it’s been a while”. Let me say that during the busy holiday season (where most of our heads are scrambling) it would have been beneficial to see a post or two about some of the Black Friday specials that were happening in the tool world.
robyn cobb
facebook sux, they decide what we see and when. even though i have ‘get notifications’ set on several pages, i still don’t see things until hours later
Kurt
I recently signed up for the Facebook version, but since I check your main site once a day it’s not really useful. Probably the best thing is to concentrate on this site, and like other people have stated, use twitter to post updates as needed for those who don’t stop by regularly. Creating content for multiple platforms seems a lot of unnecessary effort.
Phil
I never go to facebook for any sort of serious activity. I absolutely detest the content flow and the poor signal-to-noise ratio on FB. Far more posts are missed than seen, and, of course, there’s all the tracking, monitoring and marketing going on there. Even if I would “like” stuff you’d post there, I’d still miss most of it. Don’t make any of your posts “facebook only” or exclusive either.