Meta’s Paywall Era Arrives – Links Now Cost Money: Quickbits Chaos Update

00:00:05:11 - 00:00:26:08
Speaker 1
Hi there, it's Tim Conrad with the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast. I'm here with a quick bits and what I'm going to call these chaos updates, because I'm going to throw these ones out there that are something that's happening out in our world, that's shifting and changing and going to have maybe a bit more widespread impact than, you know, just a few or something.

00:00:26:08 - 00:00:32:09
Speaker 1
We just need to pay attention to that. It's like, wow, look at that. Look at what's happening there. So this is my first one.

00:00:32:12 - 00:00:56:14
Speaker 1
they are introducing this thing called meta one. Okay. It's so this is on meta. This is all meta platforms. So Facebook Instagram and WhatsApp. It's called meta one. And it's a subscription service with more features and a to create connect and stand out. So this this media this newsroom release came out on September 15th.

00:00:56:16 - 00:01:21:01
Speaker 1
I did get a little bit of wind of it last week. Sort of saw a little bit about it, but this is wild. Okay. So this is a new subscription service in our apps that offers higher AI usage and enhanced expression features, plus professional tools for creators and business. Meta one plans are rolling out gradually, with more than 50 features launched and 15 million subscriptions and trials to date.

00:01:21:05 - 00:01:48:08
Speaker 1
The core experience across our apps and meta AI will stay free. Okay, they don't give anything away in here, okay? What? They don't save too much, but it is a little bit for creators and businesses. Your only key here so far. So we go down a little bit and it says plans for individuals and AI power users. So they have Instagram Plus, Facebook Plus and WhatsApp plus.

00:01:48:08 - 00:02:11:00
Speaker 1
And they don't give much about what they can do here. It's just a it says that the cheapest is WhatsApp, which is 2.99 per month, and the the others are 3.99 per month. Instagram and Facebook. Plus you'll play for each individually. Okay, so each one comes at its own cost. These are individual plans okay. So stick with me here.

00:02:11:00 - 00:02:37:19
Speaker 1
It's going to be a little bit to get through until the kind of punchline that comes here. Then we have meta one core at 7.99 a month and meta one premium for 199999 a month. Okay, so getting up to around 20 bucks a month, I'm assuming in US dollars. Okay. And, we can assume that. And we will slide down here a little bit further.

00:02:37:20 - 00:03:05:03
Speaker 1
And it says plans for creators and businesses. Okay. So notice we went through the individuals section okay. But we get down here to this part. And this is the interesting part here. So if you're watching this flow in front of you, if you happen to be watching this on the video, it's saying add links to eight posts and eight reels, eight okay, eight posts and eight reels.

00:03:05:06 - 00:03:37:09
Speaker 1
Want to know how much that's going to cost you a month as a business page? As a page of any type? Probably. Are you ready? $149 per month to put eight posts up with eight reels? Eight posts with eight reels that have links in them? Okay, now if you only want four, that's only going to cost you 49.99 a month.

00:03:37:11 - 00:04:06:01
Speaker 1
So that's four links in four posts. That includes if you want to put them in the comments. So you're not going to be able to put links in your posts anymore on a website that's called social media. Now, if you'd like to get 12 posts, that's going to cost you 499 a month. Now this is the starting at price I.

00:04:06:03 - 00:04:35:02
Speaker 1
This graphic here doesn't tell the full story because you you have to slide down a little bit further to see that it's a little bit more than that. So it's it's actually starting at 49, 90, 99 month for 149.99 month is the expert plan. And then there's a max plan that's 499. Right. So it's scale. They say scale and optimize very little information as to what this all is.

00:04:35:02 - 00:04:56:06
Speaker 1
Now what I have heard this week, I've heard from a number of different folks in my network that are saying they are starting to experience this, that they are going to put a post up trying to put a link in it or in the comments, and they're being pushed to a subscription page for meta one.

00:04:56:08 - 00:05:28:08
Speaker 1
So times are changing. If you want to have access to your audience on Facebook, the one that you've built or on Instagram, the one that you've built, or on WhatsApp, the one that you've built, you no longer have that you're going to have to pay to access that audience, to simply put a link in so that people can go get information on, on maybe your website, you know where you are.

00:05:28:10 - 00:05:52:11
Speaker 1
So I don't know about you, but I think we need to come up with a different plan then meta one. So it's going to be interesting. I, I'm curious to hear what folks have to say about this. This is going to roll out, I would assume, fairly quickly. They have big, big plans folks, to spend big money on AI.

00:05:52:13 - 00:06:22:11
Speaker 1
So they've got to fund it somehow, and they've got to start pulling in subscriptions from somewhere and they've got people locked into it. So, you may be paying for an awful lot soon. There is an individual or as a page of any type, doesn't matter. There's probably not going to be a whole lot of gimmes here, you know, like because you're a certain type of group that does something really good, probably you're not going to get any extras here because you deal with robots anyway when it comes to Facebook and Meta.

00:06:22:11 - 00:06:56:00
Speaker 1
Right. So we know we don't have good customer service there. You're going to have to pay for the customer service if you want that. By the way, that's includes one customer service. You get that but only a little bit at the start. And if you if you want a little bit more customer service, they'll give you that. So I mean, at least you get to buy some giving up your data and giving up the posts and the work that you've done, the videos and all that and the information that they had and put on their platform and, you know, used to draw revenue that's not no longer worth anything, unless you pay for them

00:06:56:00 - 00:07:00:07
Speaker 1
to put it out there. So.

00:07:00:09 - 00:07:09:18
Speaker 1
How is that for chaos? A so I've got a new episode coming up. I'm not sure what order I'm going to put out these next couple of episodes. Next few episodes for that matter.

00:07:09:18 - 00:07:14:19
Speaker 1
We've got a few in the can right now, and I just I'm working through some of them, but

00:07:14:19 - 00:07:17:19
Speaker 1
I'm going to give you this one from Kiki Cloutier

00:07:17:21 - 00:07:19:05
Speaker 1
Police Association of Ontario.

00:07:19:07 - 00:07:26:23
Speaker 1
and she will be in one of the upcoming episodes that you'll hear here on the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast.

00:07:26:23 - 00:07:49:23
Speaker 1
Our member associations and police services across Ontario have done a really good job at quickly adapting to the rapidly changing media landscape. Many now invest heavily in digital communications, social media and direct member updates. I will say also to video has been incredibly powerful, I think, for capturing the work that police do as well as the authenticity behind it.

00:07:49:23 - 00:08:11:20
Speaker 1
So from a police services perspective, there are some examples that I like to shout out for sure. So services have been sharing drone footage so on social media showing how they're combating crime every day. So I found these really great social media posts and engaging video that they put out there. And it really shows the ins and outs of policing and the work that goes into catching these criminals.

00:08:11:22 - 00:08:16:11
Speaker 1
So I think it gives people a little bit of a glimpse behind and humanizes the work that they do.

00:08:16:13 - 00:08:38:06
Speaker 1
Thanks a lot for Kiki. She's going to be on this upcoming episode. I've got a bunch of really good episodes coming up. Not to say that the last ones weren't, because they are. I've been really lucky. Lately, I've been so fortunate to land some of the guests that I've had come through and come to me wanting to be on the show, and there's just a really great lineup coming up.

00:08:38:08 - 00:09:04:13
Speaker 1
I have a huge, huge list, to be honest, to, to work through and try and get people on. So, so yeah, this this meta news, though, really pushes the, the thing that I've been saying for a few years now at least, going back to 2023. It's about owned platforms. It's about what you own and your lists and your, your, your page and all of that, your network.

00:09:04:15 - 00:09:25:12
Speaker 1
If you don't own it, you don't own it. It's that simple, right? So, you're going to pay for it or you're going to have to earn it. And we're running out of earn earn spots out there. We're now going to have to pay more for a lot more access. You know, to get any access to to any audience.

00:09:25:14 - 00:09:50:00
Speaker 1
Despite you having to put in all the work to create the content. And. Yeah, like this, this, this, this kind of money is, I think back, you know, to to earlier my career. This kind of money is what we would spend on radio and people would go, that's a big radio budget, you know, and sometimes for a decent sized organization, like, I had some pretty sizable budgets throughout my career.

00:09:50:00 - 00:10:19:03
Speaker 1
My largest was $1 million a year. Okay. So I had $1 million budget for communications and marketing to work with, with one. One particular position I had, but in other spots I've had quarter million dollars. Not unusual. And, yeah, this kind of money was sometimes what we spent on, on a single media back in the day. So they have basically come in and replaced the media and now are replacing it with a, an ongoing cost for for how long.

00:10:19:06 - 00:10:34:11
Speaker 1
Right. Like and how long will that. That price is not going to stay there obviously. So because they said starting out. So who knows where you're going to be starting at yourself right. As an organization they may say, oh, you've got a really big audience already. So you're going to have to pay more money. We don't know what it's going to look like.

00:10:34:11 - 00:10:57:15
Speaker 1
So very interesting things ahead and look forward to, unpacking some of this stuff as it comes along. But I'll leave this one to settle out there. We'll see if this actually becomes true. As to what it looks like and what I am hearing in my network. Sometimes these things happen, and then they pull back a little bit, or they pull back totally.

00:10:57:17 - 00:11:16:16
Speaker 1
Once it starts to get out there and people start to go. I don't think so, but I, I don't know the way things are these days. They are wanting to spend a ton of money developing AI and data centers. Somebody's got to pay. And it looks like it's going to be individuals and businesses that use the meta platforms.

00:11:16:18 - 00:11:25:10
Speaker 1
Thanks for joining me. This is Tim Konrad. I'm the wildfires, Floods and Chaos Communications podcast a quick bits chaos update. Goodbye. Hear me later.