Think an ad-free Facebook would be awesome? Read on!

Poor Zuck and Co. They’ve taken some heat over the last 5 years for privacy issues, security issues, marketing issues, and presidential election issues. But one thing they have not taken heat for is turning a profit. It doesn’t matter that our personal Facebook experience is sucking more by the week. It doesn’t matter that the backlash is large and furious every time Facebook pulls a boner. It doesn’t matter because Facebook is a monopoly. Facebook should be broken up. And Facebook starting their own currency is even more ludicrous. Dear Facebook, go Poke yourself.

What about Facebook sucks?

• Your newsfeed is at about 3% stuff you care about (friends and their updates).
• Your control over the ads you see is a joke, they don’t care, and they aren’t shaping your ad viewing experience based on your feedback.
• Self-produced ads are getting worse and worse, sexist pictures for social media companies, and smiling young women selling you everything.
• A platform that is slow, constantly changing, and frequently breaking. If this were an application we’d kill it and find a better one.
• Facebook Stories are a sad attempt to get the Instagramers onto Facebook. Guess what, they don’t care. Facebook is for old people. Like me.
• Business pages garner about 1% reach to the people who SUBSCRIBED TO GET THEIR UPDATES. Why? Because Facebook wants you to pay to reach the people who want to hear from you.
• When using the Facebook Page marketing tools, Facebook will give you a warning saying you are abusing the platform. Hmm, let’s see, I invited 10 people who liked one of my shares… That’s a violation of what policy exactly? Using the system as a social media system and not a pay-per-view system.
• Ever-changing rules about sharing, privacy, and marketing permissions.

The Truth Is:
We should all get off Facebook for good.

Without some consequence for their bad behavior, Facebook is going to continue to flaunt their shitty practices in our faces and continue to ask us to pay more and more to reach our friends. A funny phrase about Facebook, “If you are not paying for the service, you are the product.”

On Facebook You Are the Product

Facebook is a marketing platform. Your data, your friend’s data, and all the connections between you and all of their other friends are being used, packaged, and sold to marketers all over the world. Run this test like a single AD on Facebook about shoes. And BOOM not only will your Facebook feed be full of shoe companies, but your off-Facebook viewing will be stuffed with shoes as well. This is called RE-marketing. And it sucks. I remember checking out a Les Paul on Guitar Center and then being stalked by that exact guitar for months.

Can We Opt Out of Facebook?

NO. We could quit Facebook. However, I have several businesses that rely on my Facebook content and reach to spread their message to a wider audience.

Would You Pay to Have an Ad-Free Facebook Experience?

YES. Absolutely. The only problem is, they can’t charge you enough to make up for the money they are making on you. For example: if you paid $20 per month to use Facebook free of ads, Facebook would lose more than $40 in business profits from selling your informaiton. (I made these numbers up. The reality is much worse.) So we won’t be seeing an ad-free Facebook anytime soon.

What’s the Alternative to Facebook?

A Facebook killer app (several have tried, but when Google+ shut down, the biggest hope went dark with it.)

Use LinkedIn More

Call and Text your friends, don’t watch them on Facebook

Write a blog and create a community of like-minded people and connect there – without advertising

But Facebook is Not All Bad

No, for me and my clients, Facebook provides a willing and highly segmented market to advertise to. I can see all of your data, a guess at your income, religious affiliation, sexual orientation, movies/books/causes you like. I can even get a glimpse of your sentiment online: are you always complaining, or do you praise things as well? Facebook is a very powerful marketing platform. And while you, as a user, are not paying for the service, I as an advertiser and marketer are paying to get my ideas in front of you. Until there’s an alternative marketplace for that kind of reach, I’ll keep paying Facebook. I’ll even pay them to reach my SUBSCRIBED AUDIENCE. But it’s not right.

John McElhenney — let’s connect online
Facebook & LinkedIn & The Whole Parent

Please check out a few of my books on AMAZON.