My answer to this rhetorical question is yes - unless you are willing to rethink your Facebook strategy and spend money to sponsor your company page posts. While you do not have to spend a large sum of money, my experience has shown that Facebook organic reach is rapidly diminishing and it is almost not worth the effort to continue with the "free lunch" approach.

 

LinkedIn just announced that it has reached an agreement to acquire Bizo, a company that helps advertisers reach businesses and professionals.

LinkedIn says the deal is worth around $175 million — 90 percent cash and 10 percent stock.

Bizo spun out from business directory ZoomInfo back in 2008. It raised a total of $20 million in venture funding (at least as of its Series B two years ago) from investors including Bessemer Venture Partners, Venrock, and Crosslink Capital. It also raised $12.5 million in debt.

The image-based discovery platform is rolling out pins for specific interests, another feature that will benefit online businesses. So how can marketers best use Pinterest for e-commerce?

Pinterest continues to boost its e-commerce services in order to help brands further engage with consumers. Shortly after it designed a new Follow button for brands, the platform has unveiled another new feature to make brands' pins more discoverable.

Facebook is worth more than Amazon. Following yesterday’s earnings report, Facebook shares hit an all-time high in after-hours trading at $75. Price has been very stable this morning as well, confirming yesterday’s pop. Shares opened at $75.96 a share, then set a new record at $76.74. Now, shares are trading at $75.13.

In other words, Facebook’s market capitalization is now around $190 billion, which is above Amazon’s market capitalization of $165 billion.

Over the last year-and-a-half, organic reach of brand or fan posts have dropped significantly. Some reports claim it to be below 5 percent. Brands that spent years building out their Facebook following are now seeing their organic reach fall significantly.

Facebook has said that this is due to changes made to the algorithm that determines what content is shown. With the promise of viral marketing on Facebook now slipping away, what is a social marketer to do?