I don’t know if I’m a guru, @annfurnivall but I do have some interesting thoughts about this.  I think one thing is that Facebook data may be screwed up.  I recently read (and just spoke with) Jon Loomer about this issue.  He wrote about it here: http://www.jonloomer.com/2012/10/02/facebook-page-reach-down/ 

I think the important number to focus on is the People talking about this number.  The issue is whether or not your engagement is going down. 

The other thing that I think is that Facebook has maybe swung a bit out on how much pages are showing up in the News Feed so that people will pay to promote their updates.  But they can’t irritate people to a point where people give up on Facebook and leave.  I think they have begun to irritate people and that they will swing back to center a bit on the organic reach.  What are others thoughts on this?

I am in Jon’s Group on FB.. and he seems like a smart guy.  But for me personally and others in my niche who drive a lot of traffic (or did) to our sites with facebook, I simply can not agree. 

My facebook click throughs have dropped a SIGNIFICANT amount.. probably 60% from August (which was a high month) and at least 40% from months prior and Sept (Sept was about a 20% drop).

My FB mobile has dropped since 0ct 3 about 90% from Sept and around 150-200% from months prior.

The sad thing is that I do get good engagement.. but it doesn’t much matter anymore.. even with lots of likes and some comments FB is still blocking the posts. It takes 100′s of likes to even maybe hit 20% (which is impossible for most of my kinds of posts) .. and I have seen some in my Niche get 1000′s and still FB barely shows over 30%..

We have found a slight work around that FB will show posts to 5-10 times as many people if the post contains no links or photo (which is counter what most gurus say works for engagement) and then put the link in the 1st comment.  I get tons of engagement and lots of view.. but people are lazy and don’t click the link.  Plus I can’t schedule anything because I need to be there each time to insert the link. So it is give or take..

I am now scrambling to change my strategy for traffic (not that I wasn’t doing that stuff before but there are only so many hours in the day..)

@annfurnivall

I Have NO clue.. you are right.. it makes absolutely no sense.. But mine is the same.. back to regular views and interaction.. but I have less click throughs because the link gets buried.

From my own observations, I think facebook looks at their analytic data and makes fast (sometimes rash) decisions on what to “chop”.  So, they go ahead and trim some things only to find that it might of been too soon.  Sometimes, certain features take time to “cook”.  As a developer using facebook API, they change like the wind (which means they move swiftly) which I think is a strength, but also could be a weakness if they make a wrong decision.  Thats something I have observed lately.