How Facebook is Killing the Little Guy

I don't use facebook to follow you.  Instead, I use feedly that lets me know when a new post has been posted.  Facebook is not a reliable took UNLESS you turn on notifications for a page / group.   I do hope that the petition gets acknowledged because I don't consider Non-Profits as business.  Yes, they are a business; but, it's not for profit.  They are helpful organizations?  Anyway, thought I'd let you know that I never miss a post because i follow via feedly. :-) 

Robin,

 If this happens, is there a way, you can continue to send out notifications in our email acc'ts so we can continue to folllow you.

I am aware of the fees fb is planning.  It appears anything worth following on fb is being (in a form) censored by fb by charging a fee.

I am one who hopes you will send out mass emails so we will continue to be able to read your work. 

Even tho, I don't comment, that does not mean I, like many others aren't reading your work. 

But, honestly, your instinct is right: build your house on your land. I see what you post here because I found you on FB and added your blog to my Feedly. I know that FB doesn't show me everything ... and that's actually ok, because so many people follow so many others that single items get lost in the noise anyway. 

Use social media tools like Twitter and FB to drive people here, and put the content that matters here. 

I totally understand your frustration with Facebook and its "pay to play" mentality. I know there are other networks, which I've been considering. There's Ello, which at this point has a promise to remain ad-free forever (don't know how well that'll work, but hey), and I've been considering Tumblr as well because it's an image-heavy platform but you can still write posts on it, too. 

I'm honestly not sure what to do about Facebook. I have a relatively small community for my Paws and Effect page, but that community is really engaged and they enjoy sharing the life of the gang. I've found that community to be an incredibly supportive place, and to this point the "pay to play" thing hasn't hit me too hard. On the other hand, I know it eventually will, and I remember hearing that same talk at BlogPaws where the speaker said it's not wise to build your home on someone else's land.

For me, the technical challenge of creating forums and the like on my own blog is a little too much, so I don't think that's the route for me -- but what I would like to get is more people from my Facebook community engaged with my actual blog. How do I do that? Not sure yet. And getting people engaged on my actual blog is still kind of a struggle for me. Asking open-ended questions at the end of my post seems to be a great start, but I'd definitely like to see more conversation.

Maybe this is something to talk about at BlogPaws -- the idea of creating a community but not on someone else's land. This is one reason why I haven't gotten big into Triberr and some of the others. I definitely have a finite amount of time and energy to spare (between having a full-time job, a steady freelance writing gig, and volunteering for DCIN), so I want to spend that energy wisely. And how do we move our engaged followers from Facebook to another venue?

(Regarding boosting posts, the only post I ever boosted was the one I wrote about how I got my Belladonna into solid remission from diabetes, because I thought that was info that needed to be shared more widely than I could reach within my small community. It's probably the only post I'll ever boost because boosting does have a toxic effect in the long run.)

It's so hard to tell. How do we share our stories effectively with as large an audience as possible? *sigh* And you certainly deserve to have your stories shared widely because you and KA are doing amazing work!

P.S. I hope when you get around to redesigning your website, you use a mobile-friendly format. Half the time I read your posts on my phone during my lunch breaks at work and it can be a challenge because the page scales to the point where the type is really small.

Robyn I didn't use Facebook to find you, or to follow!

I would hate not seeing the updates that you post.

While on some level I get (kind of because honestly I do not pay too much attention to the chatter regarding fb and paying to use it) for business BUT the exception should be made for organizations like yours that is a non-profit for animals.

Maybe a petition should be sent to them to not charge groups such as yours. I would gladly sign it.

Although, without Facebook, I don't know that I ever would have "met" you, Robin, or Kitten Associates, but if they're going to charge you & other non-profit cat/animal rescue groups to have a presence, or post, I won't support that!  It's unfair, unethical & just plain greedy.  Unlike most people, I don't have a "smart" phone, so I can't do that RSS thing, or access Facebook in any way other that on my computer, but I will find a way of keeping it touch & reading your pawsome blogs about the kitties I've come to know & love, like Freya & The Dood!  

If I don't see any posts from you each day I go looking!  I HAVE TO see how the family (which includes you and Sam, of course) is doing.  I check For Freya, Kitten Associates, and CiCH.  I don't want to miss anything.<3