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Here's what LittleThings had to say about being dependent on Facebook in June 2016: >“I think we need each other. We need them for the traffic; they need us fo

Here's what LittleThings had to say about being dependent on Facebook in June 2016: >“I think we need each other. We need them for the traffic; they need us for the content,” Mr. Speiser said on this week’s WSJ Media Mix podcast. “I think [Facebook] cares very much. I think without the content all these media companies are providing there’d be that much less reason to go on to the news feed.” https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-loves-publishers-says-littlethings-ceo-1467235057 https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-loves-publishers-says-... Turns out no, I like my newsfeed better without all that content. The content I want to see on facebook is things that my friends post.

natch 9y ago
As noted by Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/02/28/littlethings https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/02/28/littlethings
- _rpd 9y ago
  > As noted by Daring Fireball > Any publisher that is dependent on Facebook, or that trusts Facebook, is out of their goddamn mind. I think it is okay to bootstrap this way, but you must have an exit strategy.
  - wlesieutre 9y ago
    Yeah. This isn't the first time we've seen Facebook pull the rug out on something. Used to be that my news feed was absolutely full of posts from the Facebook apps/games platform spamming your whole friends list to join into Mafia Wars or FarmVille. Eventually Facebook caught on that this was annoying and not a good use of the news feed, but if your business was dependent on it I imagine the effects were similar. Having seen that happen before, building a company based on what Facebook decides to put in the news feed sounds insane.
  - eli 9y ago
    What would that even look like? I think it would be very hard to transition a Facebook-only audience to some other platform. Collect everyone's email address along the way? Then you might as well be an email newsletter business.
    - WorldMaker 9y ago
      Give users reasons to engage with the website directly rather than always gated through someone else's experience? That doesn't necessarily mean "email newsletter business", it could be any of the number of ways businesses have tried to convert first impressions into continued engagement. The referral platform shouldn't particularly matter, really. Today's complaints about Facebook-driven traffic drying up are last century's complaints about Yellow Pages-driven phone calls drying up. How are you handling people after they arrived/called? What other avenues for referrals have you explored? There's a lot of business advice that I don't think has largely changed there anywhere near as much as the technology medium has.
      - eli 9y ago
        It's really hard to convince people to regularly "pull" content from you versus agreeing to have it "pushed" to them somehow. You need one heckuva brand. I like email because it's one of the only "push" media that's both widely deployed and decentralized. (I once thought RSS would become that for the web, but it hasn't worked out that way.) In any event, if you've been relying on Facebook to supply 75% of the traffic that goes in the top of the funnel, you're going to be having a bad day when that disappears. Even if the funnel is great.
        WorldMaker 9y ago
        Just because it is hard doesn't mean the companies get a pass for not doing it. If you don't have a brand that users want to "pull" from you, what are you even doing as a publisher? That's almost Publishing 101. It's easy to blame Facebook for the hard work that they should have done all along, is all I'm saying here. ;) As an RSS fan (and still an active user), I do agree that one of the prime failings here was that publishers in general too strongly backed the Facebook horse instead of, say, training users about the advantages of RSS. But yeah, why do the hard work today when you can wait for the rug to pulled out from under you by a third party and then do the hard work anyway?
cheeze 9y ago
>they need us for the content Wow, that's adorable
WingH 9y ago
“I think we need each other." This is the epitome of cognitive dissonance. Deluding oneself into thinking Facebook "needs" them, when in actuality it's Facebook with 1000 times the power. Did anyone seriously believe this?
- ggg9990 9y ago
  1000? More like 1000 times that!
ghostbrainalpha 9y ago
Wait you didn't enjoy having "7 Things In Your Home That Could Kill Your Cat Right Now" shared on feed? What's wrong with you? Do you just not give a fuck about cats??

natch 9y ago

As noted by Daring Fireball: https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/02/28/littlethings https://daringfireball.net/linked/2018/02/28/littlethings

_rpd 9y ago
> As noted by Daring Fireball > Any publisher that is dependent on Facebook, or that trusts Facebook, is out of their goddamn mind. I think it is okay to bootstrap this way, but you must have an exit strategy.
- wlesieutre 9y ago
  Yeah. This isn't the first time we've seen Facebook pull the rug out on something. Used to be that my news feed was absolutely full of posts from the Facebook apps/games platform spamming your whole friends list to join into Mafia Wars or FarmVille. Eventually Facebook caught on that this was annoying and not a good use of the news feed, but if your business was dependent on it I imagine the effects were similar. Having seen that happen before, building a company based on what Facebook decides to put in the news feed sounds insane.
- eli 9y ago
  What would that even look like? I think it would be very hard to transition a Facebook-only audience to some other platform. Collect everyone's email address along the way? Then you might as well be an email newsletter business.
  - WorldMaker 9y ago
    Give users reasons to engage with the website directly rather than always gated through someone else's experience? That doesn't necessarily mean "email newsletter business", it could be any of the number of ways businesses have tried to convert first impressions into continued engagement. The referral platform shouldn't particularly matter, really. Today's complaints about Facebook-driven traffic drying up are last century's complaints about Yellow Pages-driven phone calls drying up. How are you handling people after they arrived/called? What other avenues for referrals have you explored? There's a lot of business advice that I don't think has largely changed there anywhere near as much as the technology medium has.
    - eli 9y ago
      It's really hard to convince people to regularly "pull" content from you versus agreeing to have it "pushed" to them somehow. You need one heckuva brand. I like email because it's one of the only "push" media that's both widely deployed and decentralized. (I once thought RSS would become that for the web, but it hasn't worked out that way.) In any event, if you've been relying on Facebook to supply 75% of the traffic that goes in the top of the funnel, you're going to be having a bad day when that disappears. Even if the funnel is great.
      - WorldMaker 9y ago
        Just because it is hard doesn't mean the companies get a pass for not doing it. If you don't have a brand that users want to "pull" from you, what are you even doing as a publisher? That's almost Publishing 101. It's easy to blame Facebook for the hard work that they should have done all along, is all I'm saying here. ;) As an RSS fan (and still an active user), I do agree that one of the prime failings here was that publishers in general too strongly backed the Facebook horse instead of, say, training users about the advantages of RSS. But yeah, why do the hard work today when you can wait for the rug to pulled out from under you by a third party and then do the hard work anyway?

cheeze 9y ago

>they need us for the content Wow, that's adorable

WingH 9y ago

“I think we need each other." This is the epitome of cognitive dissonance. Deluding oneself into thinking Facebook "needs" them, when in actuality it's Facebook with 1000 times the power. Did anyone seriously believe this?

ggg9990 9y ago
1000? More like 1000 times that!

ghostbrainalpha 9y ago

Wait you didn't enjoy having "7 Things In Your Home That Could Kill Your Cat Right Now" shared on feed? What's wrong with you? Do you just not give a fuck about cats??