Is Facebook Plugging the Walmart Spring?

Something really disturbing happened to me on Facebook today. Deep down I’m hoping there’s a complicated, techy, and completely legitimate explanation for it, but I’m fearing the worst.

First, an explanation. Many of you know I have what’s called a “fan page” for World’s Worst Moms. Fan pages are different than personal pages. When I post something on my fan page, there’s a special algorithm that dictates who sees it. In fact, lately there’s been a whole bunch of hubbub because Facebook has moved to a money-making model wherein if I want more of my 1000ish followers to see my posts, I actually have to pay for it. This happened, coincidentally, shortly after their stock went public and quickly tanked.

Actually, if I want any decent number of people to see my posts, I have to pay for it. And even then, the numbers sort of suck. Just as an example, if I post some random thought, somewhere in the neighborhood of 25-30% of people will see it. If I attach one of my blog posts to it, that number drops drastically. For instance, I reached about 210 people when I put a link to my blog in a Facebook post. When I turned around and re-posted it, but put the link in the comments, I reached 375 (it knows).

Facebook claims it will double the number of people who see my posts if I pay them $5. That’s a lot of money because if you figure I post 5 to 10 times a day, that would be about $1000 a month. Yeeeaaah.

But on to the disturbing part. If you haven’t already heard — and chances are, based on what I’m about to tell you, you haven’t — Walmart employees are attempting to organize and strike on Black Friday. This is a big frickin’ deal. They aren’t part of a union, so there’s no one to help them all get organized. Or protect them. Or back them up in any of this.

Call it the “Walmart Spring.”

So in an effort to support these brave folks, I posted a petition from Credo on my Facebook page. And after four hours, guess how many views it had gotten?

Two.

 

That’s right, two.

Just to give you a comparison, after only three hours, I had 207 hits on some silly little post about the kids.

 

 

And even 144 hits after four hours on a story I shared (about a jerky, hypocritical congressman).

 

 

So what I’d like to know is, what’s the deal? Is there really something despicable going on here? Is Facebook part of some bigger conspiracy to help suppress the spread of this movement through social media?

Or is this just some weird. . . glitch.

I’ve been disturbed enough about the Facebook promoting fees. How they’ve basically destroyed a level playing field where the “little guy” with good content can compete equally with some big behemoth. It’s like Citizens United for social media. Once again, the money gets to talk.

But this? This is just plain nefarious.

Please. Someone. Tell me I’m wrong.

 

*By the way, if you want to help Walmart employees, many who are paid less than a living wage, you can contribute to buy grocery cards so they can feed themselves and their families. They’ll be losing wages during the strike.