Well, here we are just two weeks after starting the 60-Day Facebook Experiment, and I’m feeling even more frustrated and stymied by the Almighty Facebook Algorithm.

Sharing Doesn’t Help

I’m strong enough to admit that I had a relapse. I posted a few non-self-promotional items to our Facebook page over the past week. With the TED Week 2013 talks going on, our world was particularly buzzy with inspirational fodder. So sue me: I tried to inspire… 13 people.

That’s right, the number of Enve fans who actually saw this inspirational post with its beautiful message of freedom and creativity was about 1/3 the amount of our other posts.

This post was shared from a Promoted Story on my news feed. I don’t even follow the UCLA Anderson School of Management.

So I’m making two assumptions based on this:

1. Paying to have your stories promoted doesn’t generate all that much traffic from the pages that share it; therefore, it’s probably not worth it.
2. Sharing stories across Facebook, while a nice thing to do for your fellow man, doesn’t increase your visibility among your own fans. Some who are following this experiment have suggested that it might.

Two subsequent shared image posts were seen by 11 and 9 people, respectively. Eighteen people saw a link-related post.

Typically, this is where I would talk percentages, but I can’t do math through these tears of anger and frustration.

Is Floating to the Top Impossible?

So I guess, at least for now, I’m stuck in the land of 25-45 people. I mean, I get it: Facebook needs money. They’ve made some rather embarrassing, very public business maneuvers that haven’t quite worked out. But this is getting absurd.

One pleasant side effect of this particular experiment is that I really have broken the habit of checking Facebook obsessively throughout the day. And like a smoker who’s trying desperately to cut back even if they can’t yet quit, that feels pretty damn good.

Stay tuned for next week’s update….

Catch Up on the Experiment

Day 1

 

Day 8

 

FINAL RESULTS