Facebook, what are you playing at, mun? ๐ณ๐ท
Just when you thought running an independent website wasnโt already expensive enough, Facebook has apparently found another way of putting basic functionality behind a subscription.
While attempting to create a new Facebook post for The Riff Report, we were greeted with a message that made us genuinely stop and stare at the screen.
According to the notification displayed directly inside Facebook:
โYou can add links to 2 posts per month, and youโve used them all.โ
Yep.
Two. Links. Per. Month.
Want to share more?
Facebook is pointing users towards its paid Meta One subscription.
And for independent websites, bloggers, bands, photographers, promoters, venues and small businesses that rely on Facebook to send people towards their websites, this could be a pretty significant change.
Grab a cuppa โ or something considerably stronger โ because this oneโs going to annoy a few people. โ๐ค
๐ What Happened?
We were creating a Facebook post containing a link when a pop-up appeared informing us that weโd reached our monthly allowance.
The message reads:
โGet more from links with Meta Oneโ
It then explains:
โYou can add links to 2 posts per month, and youโve used them all. Unlock more links, custom previews and call-to-action buttons on every post with Meta One.โ
Facebook then lists three benefits of subscribing:
๐ Share Links More Often
The subscription allows users to drive traffic to their website beyond the monthly limit.
๐ผ๏ธ Choose Your Preview Image
Subscribers can select the image people see when sharing a link.
๐ข Add a Call-To-Action Button
Users can add buttons designed to encourage people to interact directly with the post.
At the bottom of the message sits the big blue button:
โGet Meta Oneโ
Or, alternativelyโฆ
Close.
Cheers for that, Facebook. ๐
๐ณ TWO LINKS A MONTH?!
Letโs concentrate on that number for a second.
Two external-link posts per month.
For somebody who occasionally posts something on Facebook, perhaps that doesnโt sound catastrophic.
For a website?
Itโs ridiculous.
The Riff Report can publish several stories in a single day.
Weโre covering:
๐ธ Rock and metal news
๐ค Festivals
๐ค Gig reviews
๐ธ Concert photography
๐ฅ Band announcements
๐๏ธ Tours
๐ฟ Albums and singles
๐ช Festival guides
๐ฌ Entertainment
๐ Interviews
๐ฌ๐ง UK music news
๐ Welsh bands and festivals
Two links wouldnโt even get us through breakfast on a particularly busy news day.
๐ท AND THEN COMES THE SUBSCRIPTION
The solution Facebook presents is simple:
Pay for Meta One.
The subscription being offered can run into roughly ยฃ40 per month depending on the plan and account, meaning something as straightforward as regularly posting links back to your own website could potentially become another monthly business expense.
Think about that.
Youโre creating the content.
Youโre paying for your website.
Youโre paying for your hosting.
Youโre spending hours writing articles.
Youโre taking photographs.
Youโre travelling to gigs.
Youโre paying for equipment.
Youโre building an audience.
Youโre creating posts for Facebook.
And now you could potentially have to pay Facebook simply to regularly link those posts back to your own website.
Thatโs a hell of a business model. ๐๐ท
๐ฐ THIS COULD HIT INDEPENDENT PUBLISHERS HARD
This is where things become considerably less funny.
Large media organisations can potentially absorb another subscription fee.
For small independent publishers, every additional monthly expense matters.
There are thousands of independent music websites, blogs, photographers, community news outlets, football sites, gaming websites and specialist publications using Facebook as an important way of reaching their readers.
Many donโt have massive advertising budgets.
Theyโve spent years building Facebook audiences organically.
Those followers have actively chosen to follow those Pages because they want their content.
Yet if external links become heavily restricted without a subscription, reaching those followers with website content becomes considerably more difficult.
๐ธ THINK ABOUT SMALL BANDS
It isnโt only publishers either.
Imagine youโre in an unsigned Welsh rock band.
Youโve released a new single.
You want to post:
๐ต Spotify link
๐ฌ YouTube video
๐๏ธ Ticket link
๐ Merchandise store
๐ Band website
๐ฟ Bandcamp release
Thatโs already six different links.
Under a two-link monthly allowance, youโve potentially used your allocation before youโve even started properly promoting the release.
The same applies to promoters.
Tickets on sale!
Thereโs a link.
Stage times announced!
Another link.
Congratulations.
Monthly allowance gone. ๐
๐ช FESTIVALS COULD FACE THE SAME PROBLEM
Festivals use social media constantly to direct fans towards external websites.
Ticket sales.
Camping information.
Accessibility information.
Travel guides.
Merchandise.
Line-ups.
FAQs.
Accommodation.
Applications.
Press information.
A festival could easily need dozens of external links during a busy month.
For independent festivals already operating on tight margins, another subscription isnโt exactly going to have organisers cracking open the celebratory cans.
๐ฑ FACEBOOK WANTS YOU TO STAY ON FACEBOOK
There is also a bigger issue lurking behind all this.
Social media platforms understandably want people spending as much time as possible inside their ecosystems.
External links do the opposite.
You click.
You leave Facebook.
You visit somebody elseโs website.
For independent websites like The Riff Report, thatโs exactly what we need.
Social media isnโt our website.
The Riff Report website is our home.
Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube and the rest are brilliant tools for discovering our content, but ultimately we want readers visiting the actual publication.
Thatโs where the full articles live.
Thatโs where our festival guides live.
Thatโs where our reviews live.
Thatโs where our archive lives.
Thatโs where The Riff Report belongs.
๐ค SO WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?
For publishers, this is another reminder of something weโve been saying for years:
Never build your entire audience on somebody elseโs platform.
Algorithms change.
Reach changes.
Features disappear.
Rules change.
Subscription tiers appear.
And something that worked brilliantly yesterday can suddenly become useless tomorrow.
Thatโs why independent websites remain important.
Your website is yours.
Your mailing list is yours.
Your community is yours.
Social media should help people discover that community โ not become the gatekeeper standing outside demanding another monthly payment.
๐ THE RIFF REPORT ISNโT GOING ANYWHERE
Facebook can change its algorithms.
It can change its subscription plans.
It can decide that weโre only allowed two links, twelve links or one link every time Halleyโs Comet flies over Merthyr.
Weโll adapt.
Because The Riff Report wasnโt built around Facebook.
It was built around music.
Bands.
Fans.
Festivals.
Venues.
Photographers.
Promoters.
And the gloriously chaotic rock and metal community that keeps this whole thing alive. ๐ค
Weโll continue publishing.
Weโll continue supporting bands.
Weโll continue covering festivals.
Weโll continue taking photographs.
Weโll continue shouting about brilliant music.
And weโll continue finding ways of getting those stories in front of you.
Even if Zuckerberg makes us send the bloody links by carrier pigeon. ๐ฆ๐
๐ฌ WHAT DO YOU THINK?
Would you pay around ยฃ40 every month simply to be able to regularly share links from your Facebook Page?
Or do restrictions like this make you less interested in using Facebook altogether?
For independent publishers and small businesses, this could become yet another reason to concentrate on websites, newsletters and platforms where they have more control over their audience.
One thingโs certain:
Two links per month isnโt going to cut it for The Riff Report.
Not when the rock and metal world produces approximately seventeen breaking stories while weโre trying to make a cup of tea. ๐โ๐ธ
Proudly Welsh. Proudly Loud. ๐๐ค
The Riff Report
Supporting bands, festivals, venues and the rock community โ one ridiculously loud story at a time.
