Facebook limits page discoverability.
Pages are the business version of a profile. I’ll use the two companies I founded as examples here, (Create/Explore Workshops, Workshoppers.org). Neither of these two companies has a marketing budget, so I must find ways to promote that don’t cost anything. Facebook is one of my options. My primary goal for being on Facebook is to spread awareness for my two young brands.
The problem is that Facebook goes out of their way to limit how effective having a Facebook page actually is. I’m finding that natural discovery of my brands is limited and communications with the fans is also very naturally limited. So here’s one example of what I mean.
Let’s pretend that I’m interested in seeing what pages my friends like. Exactly what Facebook is for right? Ok, so let’s use my profile as an example so we can see what pages I like. First I have to find and click ‘info’ on side under my picture and this is the relevant area of what I see. 
So to even see what pages I’ve liked in the past, I have to click “Show Other Pages”. And this is what I see.
Ok, so what’s wrong with that? It’s not in any sort of order that I can figure out. Not chronological, not alphabetical, not popularity, not in any sort of order that I can see.
Also, separating only by commas makes it really hard to read. Not inviting for me to actually read through that list at all.
Also, that’s not my whole list. I bet you didn’t notice that the very last item in that list says “and 116 more”
So to see my whole list you have to click it and you’ll get the entire list of pages I’ve liked.
Can you find Alicia Kidd Photography? It’s in there somewhere. Good luck finding it because there is no order and it’s hard to find anything in that non readable list. The chances of me spending more than 2 seconds scrolling that list is nearly 0%.
Now as a comparison for how it could be improved, here’s the groups I’m in. Still not perfect, but so much easier to read! I’d really prefer to see thumbnails too.
My point is that it’s the businesses on Facebook that drive the commerce and allow Facebook to exist in the first place. It’s really important that people are able to find pages.
I have many more thoughts about this particular topic and I’ll go into them in further blog posts.
You should be able to drag and drop them on your edit page in order to alphabetize them (or prioritize them in another way) if you wish.
I agree that I would prefer if that were standardized, but at least you have some control over it on your own page.
interesting… I just tried that and I couldn’t do it. Can you try it and confirm that it works for branded pages (not books or movies)?
I’ve never thought of it but you’re right. I honestly don’t even know what half of my “Likes” are anymore. Glad to see on Twitter that Facebook heard about this and are working on making it better. That’s solid.
Thanks for the comment, but I can’t take credit where it’s not due, facebook didn’t hear me (that I know of), I just meant that on the same day I posted this, they announced their new facebook pages policies and layouts and have now allowed page admins to use facebook as that brand. I think it’s an important alleviation of one of my primary complaints about pages not being easily discovered. It was totally a coincidence but I am glad to see improvement within the pages platform!