Facebook: I'm Giving Up, You've Jumped The Shark

I'm giving up. Facebook Wins, We all lose.

Facebook's Edgerank Algorithm keeps getting worse for exposure of both personal and business posts. I'm giving up trying to share relevent and educational articles from other sites. Facebook buries them. Shared photos and videos? Facebook buries them. With my Personal account supporting The Chris Voss Show blog I have roughly 20,000 facebook followers/friends and still even paying to promote, the results suck. I can tell now by how Facebook puts certain boxes around my posts when they go up, some really small for Youtube shares, others simple around a shared news story, that almost no one will see it. You can tell by the lack of comments and engagement. Text posts seem to be the only thing that works anymore. Facebook has been honest about what its burying and the bottom line is they want you to buy ads to promote your interests if you want engagement.

Buy Ads or get nothing. Pay to Play. Content engagement isnt quality anymore, its just about $$.

I knew this would happen all along. I knew Facebook would go ad based and betray all the people who spent tons of money building their Fan Pages and then hold the followers for ransom. Did you really think Facebook wouldnt grow up into an ad service platform? Just think if you'd spent all that money building up your own .com site? This was seen coming by me for miles away. For 4+ years I've told clients I consult with to grab as much online real estate as you can, cause someday it wont be free. Some listened, fools waited. I've got news for all you complainers. It will keep get worse and you will have to pay more or sit out.

Necessity and economics drive change. Time is ripe for change again.

I remember the heady days of MySpace. Its was an awesome exciting platform at the time where you could share and communicate with your friends. For companies struggling with the recent recession it was a great emerging platform for small and large business. Then Rupert Murdoch showed up and bought the company for $580 million and MySpace suddenly had massive debt. It had to grow up and meet shareholder demands. The end result was more ads, more red tape and pages you had to go through to do anything. They killed its experience and we left for new open Facebook.

Even Facebook knows it has you trapped and surrounded.

Now Facebook has become the experience killer MySpace was. A small percentage of followers will see your posts in terms of 3-7% if your lucky. Thats likely Impression Rates too showing up on a giant feed wall so you might as well be yelling into an empty forest? Even Rupert Murdoch Tweeted a warning to Facebook 10 months ago: "Look out Facebook! Hours spent participating per member dropping seriously. First really bad sign as seen by crappy MySpace years ago." Mark Zuckerberg is furiously investing in other companies as people move to other platforms with their time spent online. He knows he's got to squeeze you for whatever $$ you have left as you spend more time elsewhere and hopefully he'll pick you up at the other site. If you really think about it, its pretty smart. Facebook will squeeze you for money, you run to another site, Facebook owns it or buys it and will eventually squeeze you there too. ITS LIKE A RAT MAZE GAME! All Facebook has to do for survival is just buy the next place youre leaving it for. Well at least Facebook was smarter than MySpace in that regard.

Are you expecting it to improve or get cheaper by complaining?

Its not gonna get cheaper or easier on Facebook. If you're complaining now, its only gonna get worse and more expensive. Right now the only thing that seems to get any traction, engagement and views, is writing an original text post and I'm not even sure a photo should be on it, Facebook might think its a meme. The sad part is this really kills sharing outside posts and information which is what social media is built on - the freedom and democratization of information. Facebook wants you to make content for them and if you want to SHARE other stuff as a distribution point for others, you'll need to pay for that too.

I learned a long time ago as a serial entrepenuer and investor that if you dont own it and control it, kiss it goodbye. I've never poured money into getting Facebook Fan Page tons of fans. All my money goes into a site I own and control: TheChrisVossShow.com. I can still send posts to everyone on my lists without paying more. Maybe its time we all invested into something we control for a change and quit the rat maze race?

So Facebook you win. You've killed my fun and experience. Its all about you and your money grubbing now. I'm pulling back all the sharing and just doing a few text posts and a picture or 2 giving you the bare minimums until something better comes along. Which it will. Who needs a Facebook "killer" when you've got Facebook suicide.

Time for a change.

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Do Pivots Matter?

There’s a sign on the wall but she wants to be sure
’Cause you know sometimes words have two meaningsLed Zeppelin – Stairway to Heaven

In late 2013 Cowboy Ventures did an analysis of U.S.-based tech companies started in the last 10 years, now valued at $1 billion. They found39 of these companies. They called them the “Unicorn Club.”

The article summarized 10 key learnings from the Unicorn club. Surprisingly one of the “learnings” said that, “…the “big pivot” after starting with a different initial product is an outlier.Nearly 90 percent of companies are working on their original product vision. The four “pivots” after a different initial product were all in consumer companies (Groupon, Instagram, Pinterest and Fab).”

One of my students sent me the article and asked, “What does this mean?” Good question.

Since the Pivot is one of the core concepts of the Lean Startup I was puzzled. Could I be wrong? Is it possible Pivots really don’t matter if you want to be a Unicorn?

Short answer – almost all the Unicorns pivoted. The authors of the article didn’t understand what a Pivot was.

—

What’s a pivot?A pivot is a fundamental insight of the Lean Startup. It says on day one, all you have in your new venture is a series of untested hypothesis. Therefore you need to get outside of your building and rapidly test all your assumptions. The odds are that one or more of your hypotheses will be wrong. When you you discovery your error, rather than firing executives and/or creating a crisis, you simply change the hypotheses.

What was lacking in the article was a clear definition of a Pivot. A Pivot is not just changing the product. A pivot can change any of nine different things in your business model. A pivot may mean you changed your customer segment, your channel, revenue model/pricing, resources, activities, costs, partners, customer acquisition – lots of other things than just the product.

Definition: “A pivot is a substantive change to one or more of the 9 business model canvascomponents.”

Business ModelOK, but what is a business model?

Think of a business model as a drawing that shows all the flows between the different parts of your company’s strategy. Unlike an organization chart, which is a diagram of how job positions and functions of a company are related, a business model diagrams how a company makes money – without having to go into the complex details of all its strategy, processes, units, rules, hierarchies, workflows, and systems.

Alexander Osterwalder’s Business Model canvas puts all the complicated strategies of your business in one simple diagram. Each of the 9 boxes in the canvas specifies details of your company’s strategy. (The Business Model Canvas is one of the three components of the Lean Startup. See the HBR article here.)

So to answer to my students question, I pointed out that the author of the article had too narrow a definition of what a pivot meant. If you went back and analyzed how many Unicorns pivoted on any of the 9 business model components you’d likely find that the majority did so.

Take a look at the Unicorn club and think about the changes in customer segments, revenue, pricing, channels, all those companies have made since they began: Facebook, LinkedIn – new customer segments, Meraki – new revenue models, new customer segments, Yelp –product pivot, etc. – then you’ll understand the power of the Pivot.

Lessons Learned

• A Pivot is not just when you change the product
• A pivot is a substantive change to one or more of the 9 business model canvascomponents
• Almost all startups pivot on some part of their business model after founding
• Startups focused on just product Pivots will limited their strategic choices – it’s like bringing a knife to a gunfight

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What if what happened in Vegas didn’t stay in Vegas?

I have yet to attend CES (the Consumer Electronics Show), the world-famous technology and electronics trade show held in Las Vegas that’s been around for nearly 50 years. However, I follow the goings on at CES with a great interest.

I thought that this year there were some absolutely fascinating launches, presentations, and meltdowns (anyone see Michael Bay’s freak-out at Samsung?). Of course, there is still a day left, but for the moment I would like to share my top 5 favorite inventions from CES.

5. Buzz off!

According to the NYPD, 14% of all crime in New York is iPhone theft. The start upYellowJacket, seeks to remedy this problem. Their smartphone case looks unassuming. Like many of these plastic sheaths, it can charge your iPhone, however it packs a punch—950,000 volts of electricity to be precise. Yes, this stun gun smartphone case could be a new answer in preventing petty theft of smartphones!

4. Living the video game

Motion detection technology will continue to surprise us all. YEI Technology makes a compelling case for this with PrioVR a motion-sensor harness that does away with a joystick and allows the player to use his own movement to control the action in the video game. This creates a wholly immersive experience, and can make the games less sedentary. Although now in its infancy, I wouldn’t be surprised if in a few years time these motion sensitive harnesses become de rigeur for gamers.

3. Mother, May I?

Mother comes to us from the minds behind Nabaztag, the creators of the now defunct robotic rabbits. This Wifi enabled matryoshka doll monitors objects in a house thanks to a series of colored motion detecting “cookies”. If, for example, you place a cookie on your medicine box, it will be able to detect if you’re taking your medications regularly and alert you if you haven’t. There are countless other applications that the creators have imagined in the video below.

2. The end of Passwords?

How many passwords have you entered today? For me, I’ve entered 6 and I’ve only been at the office for a few hours! We are all juggling a multitude of passcodes that, for securities sake, are often complex and diverse. That’s a lot of information to keep in our memories. This is why I loved Myris, by Eyelock. This tiny device scans the user’s iris and encrypts its unique pattern. Once installed, you can use the scanner to unlock email, bank, and social network accounts. Small, portable, and secure, this can change our online security.

1. Wrist Wars

The battle for our wrists continued at CES, with ever more smart watches being launched. Although as the New York Times pointed out, wearable devices face many obstacles before they become widely adopted by the general public. Key among them are battery life, price, and aesthetics. Never the less, CES still showcased some impressive wearable prototypes. I was particularly intrigued by the June bracelet by Netatmo which in addition to measuring the wearer’s sun exposure and informing them, via a connected app when they should apply sunscreen, was also one of the first “fashion forward” wearable tech I’ve seen. Expect to see the June watch featured in the pages of fashion magazines alongside bathing suits this summer.

I also was very interested in the Lumo Lift, which like the June bracelet, has a single function which is to improve posture. This magnetic chip that attaches to clothing like a pin closely monitors the wearer’s posture. If the wearer slouches or adapts a “closed” position, Lumo Lift sends a light vibration, signaling to the wearer that he needs to correct himself. Much like the Fuelband, the lift also monitors steps taken and calories burned.

It’s the sheer quantity of outrageous inventions that makes CES so unique. I hope that the gadgets in the above list make their way into our daily lives. But if not, no big deal, we’ll always have CES 2015!

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