An Open Letter to Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg After His Lame ‘Thank You for Being an Advertiser’ Pop-Up

Dear Mark Zuckerberg,

As I opened my Facebook Business page yesterday morning I got a big surprise … a pop-up message from none other than you, thanking me for being one of Facebook's 2 million advertisers. (See the image below.)

To me and other marketers who are talking about this (via social, of course), it's a major — and deeply impersonal — fail.

So Mark, if you'll indulge me, here's why I was so angered and frustrated by your message.

The truth is, I don't want to be one of your 2 million advertisers. I want to reach my hard-won Facebook likes (which I call communities) for free without having to "boost" every post.

I know that Facebook is a public company and needs to provide shareholder value and return on investment (I'm a stockholder, BTW). However, shareholder value at the expense of the your own clients doesn't cut it for most of us.

Think about this Mr. Zuckerberg: I spent a lot of time and money on Facebook to build my audience. For years I put your company's URL and logo on ALL of my marketing materials, from direct mail to my website. While you may not see it this way, I actually helped build Facebook. I certainly drove a ton of traffic its way, for which I didn't charge you, did I?

As a marketer, I've put my best efforts into building not just likes, but deeply engaged communities on Facebook. And when you changed Facebook to a "pay for play" business, I had to pay to build my fan base, and then pay again to get my posts out (i.e., boosted) to the same fans, I accepted it for a while.

But now I have to ask you this: Why the double whammy, Mark? Facebook isn't the IRS, is it? Why do I have to be taxed to build my community, then taxed again to send my community the content they clearly signed up to receive? In other words, why do I have to pay to reach my own fans?