You write the post, add the image and include a link so customers can find the details. Then a message appears: You have used your allotted posts with links for the month. Want to share more? There is a paid subscription for that.
That is what we encountered while preparing posts for Oklahoma’s Choice Weekly in late September.
The notice in our Meta Business Suite account limited us to two posts with links per month and offered Meta One as a way to post more. For a business sharing auctions, events and advertiser information, two links do not go very far.
This does not mean every Facebook Page faces the same restriction. Meta has been testing link limits on certain accounts, and experiences can differ. It does mean businesses need to pay attention to what their own accounts allow, rather than assume yesterday’s posting routine will work tomorrow.
A website link serves a purpose. It takes someone from noticing an auction to reviewing the catalog, from seeing an event to finding the details, or from discovering a business to exploring what it offers. When that step becomes harder, the advertiser has to find another way to help the customer follow through.
Facebook can still be useful. Businesses can show their work, answer questions, introduce employees and stay involved in their communities. We continue to use it ourselves.
When your entire customer connection depends on a platform you do not control, a change in that platform becomes a change in how you do business.
But a Facebook Page should be one part of a business’s advertising plan.
The practical response is to give customers several ways to find you.
Keep your website current. Make your phone number, location and hours easy to find. Build an email list with permission from the people joining it. Use print and digital advertising to reach people beyond your followers. When you post on social media, include enough useful information that someone can understand the offer even without clicking a link.
Then pay attention to what produces results. Ask customers where they heard about you. Notice which efforts bring calls, visits, inquiries and sales. Those answers can help you decide where your advertising dollars belong.
Before purchasing a subscription, consider what it actually provides and whether that feature is worth the cost to your business. Being able to publish more links is one benefit; getting customers to act on them is a separate challenge.
At Oklahoma’s Choice Weekly, our approach includes print, digital editions and social promotion because customers discover businesses in different places. A shopper may keep a printed ad, browse a digital edition or notice a social post. Each gives that business another opportunity to be found.
Small businesses already have enough to manage without rebuilding their advertising plans every time a platform changes a feature.
Keep using the channels that work. Keep watching the results. And give your customers more than one road to your door.
