What Mark Zuckerberg Isn't Telling You About Your Company's Facebook Page

The billionaire entrepreneur recently explained why Facebook pages don't reach as many customers as they used to, but Inc. readers were quick to question the company's motives.

Last week Inc.'s Oscar Raymundo wrote about Mark Zuckerberg's Q&A session, in which the Facebook founder talked about why startups' pages on the social network may be losing influence with customers.
Zuckerberg expressed empathy for small businesses, but said they must be smart about what they post because of increased competition for space in users' newsfeeds. He denied claims that Facebook has taken measures that force businesses to pay if they want their posts to reach a critical mass of customers. Inc. readers turned to Facebook to react to the story, and the response was overwhelmingly critical of Zuckerberg and his company. Here is a sampling of their comments:
Laura Malick Smith: If it wasn't the only place I communicate with many friends and some family, I'd dump Facebook. But believe me when I say that I'd NEVER put up a business page. I see how absolutely useless it's been for the company I work for. There's near zero reach anymore and gets worse each month/year. I don't see the same issues on other social media platforms. I think Zuckerberg is full of it. They want you to pay. Period.
Nicole D. Miller: Yeah ok. You can't tell us that limiting organic reach isn't an initiative to make businesses pay to play. If that wasn't the case, users would have a "Show All Posts" option for the Pages they really care about and want to follow.
Alyson Bonnie O'Mahoney: He's just biting the hand that's fed Facebook's coffers all along. Let consumers decide which ORGANIC content they prefer vs needing to blast them with ads.
James William: Facebook is a joke. Grow organically do not pay because it does nothing more for you.
Dave McCall: Sure. he really cares about the start ups. Riiiiiiiight. He wants to earn money, and please his stockholders; which is fine, but pretending otherwise...
Michael Beckerman: Here's a thought. STOP trying to use Facebook to market to customers in the first place! That's not what this platform was intended for. No one likes seeing companies trying to market to them on a social media site. Remember, just because you can do something, doesn't mean you should!
Andre Watts: That's interesting because my business has 2600 followers and unless I pay to promote my posts, which I frequently have to do, only maybe 100 or so people see them. That's a little extreme.
Emmanuel McDaniel: The reality of the situation is Facebook gives you a massive reach to advertise your business, big or small. In the real world and the real economy, something like shouldn't be free in my opinion and I am speaking as a small business owner who has and will again run a few small ad campaigns here when I deem it necessary. My problem with Mark and FB in general is the outright denial that algorithms have been changed with the intent of squashing organic reach...that's what they did and I'd have a lot more respect for the organization if they would just admit to that and stop trying to avoid the reality that Facebook is a business and businesses need to make money.
Stuart Montgomery Long: The biggest issue is not just reach going down, it's that pages created five years ago were able to grow without the constraints imposed on new pages today. New pages should have equal opportunity, and have the same reach that pages created five years ago had. Because the pages created five years ago add to the value of Facebook and new pages deserve the same chance to succeed. New pages are at an extreme disadvantage over older, more established ones, as it stands right now.