Meta Wants Businesses to Pay to Share Links

Meta, you are out of your damn mind.

So last week, Meta announced Meta One, which is a new subscription product.

I honestly didn’t think much of it at the time because it just felt like one more way to try to jam AI down our throats.

I first learned of Meta One from an Instagram post by Instagram’s chief Adam Mosseri.

It was all about how it will give people and businesses more ways to use AI in their content at a fee.

Mosseri’s post went over very poorly, as you can imagine, with many replying that they don’t want more AI.

And when I hosted a weekly webinar for my private community, I went over the top level items related to the business version of Meta One.

I’ve gotta tell you that Meta is doing an absolute dreadful job of making this sound valuable.

It’s basically the classic case of leading with a list of features rather than highlighting the problem they solve.

But even when I spent time trying to understand it, I glossed over the most ridiculous part of all.

One of the primary benefits of Meta One is that it allows you to share links.

When I saw that initially, I thought it was some special organic format that highlighted links better or something.

And even when I saw people on the internet complaining about no longer being able to share links, I just assumed they were misunderstanding what this was.

Because, as we know, misunderstanding things is the internet’s greatest skill.

So I dove in, determined to find clarity.

And then I found it spelled out on a separate Help Center page.

Once this rolls out completely, businesses will be limited to two link shares per month.

That includes both the classic link share that includes a thumbnail and description, but also adding a link to the comments.

This isn’t just on Facebook either, but links to Instagram, and for images and Reels with links.

On one hand, you can say you saw this coming because the limit on link sharing is something that was tested within the past year or so.

But the problem is the solution Meta is offering.

This isn’t a matter of Meta saying you need to sign up for their Meta Verified subscription and pay $10 a month or whatever to share links.

Not even close.

There are four levels of Meta One.

The first is the Essential tier, which is $14.99 per month.

You’re still limited to two link shares per month.

The second tier is called Advanced, which is $49.99 per month.

It allows you to share 8 links to Facebook and 4 to Instagram, both as posts and Reels.

The Expert level is $149 per month.

It allows you to share up to 20 links to Facebook and 8 to Instagram, both as posts and Reels.

And finally, the Max level is $499 per month.

It allows you to share as many links as you want.

This is absolutely ridiculous, and let me explain why.

Look, granted, these membership levels include access to other features, too, but Meta is clearly prioritizing the link sharing as a primary benefit.

But let’s assume you’re a small business and you don’t want all of those extra bells and whistles and shiny objects that you wouldn’t use anyway.

You share links to your business’ website to promote products or blog posts or lead magnets.

And this small business even has a dedicated ad budget that it spends on Meta ads every month.

So I’m not talking about the kind of business that wants everything for free.

I’m talking about the kind that understands the value of ads, but they also try their best to leverage the organic side.

Meta just killed that business’ organic referrals to their website.

Or, in another way of saying it, Meta is holding that company hostage to pay at least $149 per month if they want to keep sharing about a link per day.

What is so insane about this is the path we’ve taken to get here.

Meta started suppressing organic reach generally and link reach specifically for brand pages more than a decade ago.

It’s something I’ve mostly understood because we often have unrealistic expectations regarding how many people should see our organic posts.

So Meta has been actively suppressing links to the point where they’ve been devalued.

Yes, you can share links, but your expectations should be low regarding the traffic you send with them.

That doesn’t make sharing links completely worthless, in most cases, but it just is what it is.

So on one hand, Meta is saying that you shouldn’t share links and that if you do, you won’t drive much traffic with them.

And then now, the privilege of sharing links is a primary benefit of a subscription that can cost up to $500 per month.

And Meta’s made no promises that the impact of sharing those links will be any different.

Meta can’t both actively devalue the sharing of links and then hold link sharing as a primary benefit for a pricey subscription.

I think I could understand having to sign up for Meta Verified or the Essential tier of Meta One to get unlimited link sharing.

But this?

It makes no sense.

So, look, I’m one of those businesses that both runs ads and shares links organically.

It’s part of my routine that every time I publish a new blog post, podcast episode, or video, I also share it to Facebook and Instagram.

And the traffic generated by those shares isn’t nearly what it once was, but it’s not nothing either.

But is it worth $50 or $150 per month to keep sharing them that way?

I doubt it.

I’ll likely break that routine.

What’s crazy is that I also started a little side project on a website I created.

And, of course, I created a Facebook page and Instagram account to post content multiple times per day that drives traffic to that website.

That website isn’t a business at this point as I haven’t even designed a way to make money with it.

It’s just a passion project.

So I’ve got to imagine that passion projects like this one are essentially dead in the water if I can’t drive traffic to it.

Or at least, using Meta to drive that traffic is off the table, beyond using ads.

And ads are one of the potential solutions here, of course.

As you know, I’m running ads, so it’s not like I’m one of those anti-ads people who insists on Meta sending me traffic for free.

But what I’ve gotten away from is running ads to drive traffic to my blog posts.

It’s just not cost effective anymore, and Meta makes it worse because the optimization options are dreadful.

You can’t optimize for truly engaged readers without using custom events, and I question how useful even that is.

I feel like what this could end up doing is bringing me back to the possibility of remarketing at a very low daily budget.

So target only Facebook and Instagram followers to promote an ad set of 50 links at something like $10 per day.

It feels stupidly old school, and it’s something I’m mostly completely against.

But even if you’re spending $150 or $300 per month on ads to do this, it’s likely more effective than paying $150 or even $500 per month to simply have the privilege of sharing links organically.

Because those organic links aren’t guaranteed distribution.

So here’s the bottom of the glass.

I hate this latest announcement about Meta One and link sharing, and it’s not because I’m cheap.

It’s just nonsensical.

You can’t devalue organic link sharing for years, take it away, and then hold it up as the centerpiece of value for a monthly subscription.

This is the equivalence of tanking the value of your own subscription product.

There are other features and benefits of Meta One, but this change is going to be the most impactful.

While the biggest brands will just pay $500 per month without blinking, most others will have a more difficult decision to make.

And my bet is that, unless Meta does something to significantly improve the value of this product, it’s not going to go over very well.