Let me start by saying that I normally never do this. I let others dole out their soapbox opinions, because I just want to talk about books. Specifically, my book. But I refrain ‘cause blah blah it’s annoying. Blah blah spam.

However, the more I see about Facebook cutting back on page views, the more compelled I feel to speak out. I majored in Economics from the University of Tennessee. I’m not saying I’m an expert by any means, because I cut most of my classes in favor of writing or napping. But I do think I have an idea of what’s going on.

The posts we create from our pages are getting fewer and fewer views. Facebook said it was because they have pictures in them, links in them, share requests in them, and so on. But now, Facebook is saying that posts with just text in them are getting shown to fewer viewers.

Why would fans like our page if they didn’t want to see our posts?

They do want to see them.

And Facebook spouting that it’s the viewers who don’t want to see pictures or links in their news feed is a load of crap.

I think it’s Facebook who doesn’t want to see our interactive giveaway posts or picture posts with huge amounts of comments and shares, because they have all those big name retailers breathing down their neck.

Think about how bookstores, grocery stores, or Wal-Mart all have highly desirable positioning spots within their stores that they sell to the highest bidder. When I worked for a large music group as a college marketing rep, I would go into Target or Wal-Mart and ensure we had the number of “facings” our contract required, which means I just made sure our artists’ CDs were facing out in the number of rows the music group had bought.

Our news feed is Facebook’s prime positioning spot. And those big retailers, whose ads are popping up more and more, want those spots.

Our posts (however trivial they might be) are direct competition to those big ad space buyers. When we scroll down through a news feed full of giveaways or pictures or whatever, our attention is automatically pulled away from those ads.

But if you have a news feed full of just text posts, and even not too many of those, all we see are ads everywhere.

Facebook wants our attention directed to those who pay for it. That’s it.

I buy Facebook ad space, but I wonder why when I see more and more ads show up on my news feed that are definitely not targeted towards my tastes.

Facebook is turning into Wal-Mart. We are going to have to hunt for what we want, and even then it might not be worth wading through the junk to get to it.

What do you guys think?