THE FACEBOOK

Every couple of years somebody declares Facebook dead.

The kids left. Your feed is ads and AI-generated videos of shrimp. Your uncle is arguing with a stranger in the comments again. Nobody you know posts anymore.

And yet, if you need to sell a dresser by Saturday, find out why there are six police cars on your street, or get a recommendation for a plumber who actually shows up, where do you go?

Yeah. Me too.

Facebook didn't die. It changed jobs. And if you run a business, or you're just trying to make a little money, it helps to know what job it does now.

The short history

February 4, 2004. Mark Zuckerberg and a few roommates launch TheFacebook out of a Harvard dorm. It's a directory of classmates, with your photo, your classes and your relationship status. That's it. It spreads to other colleges, then high schools, drops the "The" in 2005, and opens to anyone 13 and older with an email address in September 2006.

2006 to 2009. The pieces you know show up fast. News Feed arrives in 2006, and people are furious that their updates are suddenly broadcast to everyone (sound familiar?). Pages for businesses and the first ads show up in 2007. The Like button arrives in 2009. Somewhere in there, Facebook passes MySpace and never looks back.

2010 to 2014. The movie comes out. Facebook goes public in May 2012 and passes a billion users that fall. It buys Instagram for about $1 billion in 2012 and WhatsApp for about $19 billion in 2014. Business Pages are booming. If you had a Page with a few thousand fans back then, your posts actually reached a lot of them.

2016 to 2018. Marketplace launches in 2016. Then the bad years: fake news, the 2016 election, and in 2018 the Cambridge Analytica scandal, when it came out that data from tens of millions of users had been harvested for political ads. That same year, Facebook changes the feed to favor friends and family over brands. For a lot of small businesses, Page reach falls off a cliff and never really comes back.

2021. The company renames itself Meta and bets big on the metaverse.

2022 to 2025. Facebook chases TikTok with Reels and recommended content, then admits in 2025 that the "magic of friends has fallen away" and starts a push back to "OG Facebook," including a Friends tab that shows only your actual friends, no recommendations.

So that's twenty-two years: a college directory, then the world's town square, then a cautionary tale, then a giant swap meet with a news feed attached. Meta doesn't even report Facebook-only user numbers anymore, but its apps together reach well over 3 billion people a day. Your customers are still in there. They're just in different rooms.

What it's actually good for now

Here's the honest version, depending on who you are.

If you're selling something on Marketplace

This is the part of Facebook that never stopped working. Meta has said more than a billion people visit Marketplace every month, and younger adults who barely touch the rest of Facebook use it all the time. It's free, it's local and people actually show up.

What works:

• Good photos, good light, every angle. Show the scratches. Honest listings sell faster and get fewer arguments at pickup.
• Search what yours is actually selling for, then price a little under the pack if you want it gone this week.
• Write the description for search. Brand, model, size, condition. "Black IKEA KALLAX 4x4 shelf, great condition" beats "shelf, works good."
• Answer fast. The first seller to reply usually gets the sale.
• Meet somewhere public and well lit. A lot of police stations have a designated safe exchange spot. Use it, especially for anything expensive.

What doesn't, also known as how people get scammed:

• Anyone who wants to send you a "verification code." That's someone trying to take over your Google Voice number or your account. Never share a code.
• Overpayment. "I sent you extra, just refund the difference." There is no extra. The original payment will bounce.
• Deposits to "hold" an item you haven't seen, paid by Zelle, gift card or wire. Once that money's gone, it's gone.
• "My cousin will pick it up, I'll pay you by check." No.

If a deal feels rushed or weird, it is. Walk.

If you run a business with a storefront

Your Page still matters, but not for the reason you think. Don't expect your posts to reach most of your followers. Organic reach on Pages has been tiny for years. Think of your Page as a listing, not a megaphone. Keep the hours, phone number, address, menu or services, and photos current, because people check it before they visit and it often shows up in Google.

What actually moves the needle:

• Reviews and recommendations. Ask happy customers to leave one. It's free and it's the thing people read.
• Local Groups. Every town has community groups, neighborhood groups, parent groups and "anyone know a good..." groups. That's where the word of mouth lives now.
• Messenger. People message businesses on Facebook instead of calling. Answer quickly, and set up instant replies for hours and FAQs.
• Events. Still one of the best free tools for getting local people to actually show up somewhere.
• Ads, carefully. Facebook ads can still target people within a few miles of your shop for not a lot of money. Boost your best post, not your newest one. Start small and watch what it costs per message or visit.
• Meta Business Suite lets you post to Facebook and Instagram at the same time, so you're not doing the work twice.

If you're a sole proprietor looking for clients

This is where people leave the most money on the table, because the best tool isn't a Page at all. It's you.

Your personal profile is connected to everybody you've ever met: old coworkers, classmates, your mom's friends, the parents from your kid's team. Most of them have no idea what you do for work. Tell them. A clear post about what you do, who you help and how to reach you, shared every few months with some real work you're proud of, is worth more than a Page with zero followers. If you want, you can turn on professional mode on your profile to get some business tools without starting from scratch.

Then go where people are asking for help:

• Join local and industry Groups and actually be useful. Answer questions. Give real advice for free.
• When someone asks "does anyone know a good...?", answer helpfully, and if you're a fit, say so plainly, once.
• Don't spam. Dropping the same flyer in fifteen groups gets you muted or kicked out, and people remember. Every Group has rules. Read them.
• Get your happy clients to vouch for you in those threads. Nothing beats a stranger saying "I used them, they were great."

The pattern I see over and over: the people who win on Facebook now aren't the ones posting the most. They're the ones who show up in the right rooms and help.

The part I keep coming back to

Facebook started as a way to find the people around you. Twenty-two years, a billion features and a few scandals later, that's still the only thing it's ever really been great at.

It's not a broadcast tower anymore. It's a neighborhood. The bulletin board at the coffee shop, the swap meet, the friend of a friend who knows a guy.

So stop yelling into your Page and start talking in the neighborhood. That's where the business is.

— g