Meta is testing a new limit on some Facebook Pages where businesses without a Meta One subscription can include external links in just two organic posts or comments per month. It doesn't apply to every Page, but Pages included in the test are already seeing the limit.
And look, I'm absolutely not going to recommend a service business spends hundreds of dollars a month on Meta One purely so it can put more links in Facebook posts. Meta's business plans currently range from US$14.99 a month through to US$499 a month at the top tier, depending on plan, region and account.
But I also don't think this makes organic social less useful.
I think it gives us a pretty good reason to be more deliberate about what we're using it for.
You don't own the platform
We can build audiences on Facebook and Instagram. We can spend years creating content there. We can build trust, familiarity and a whole portfolio of expertise people can look through when they're researching us.
I talk all the time about social media being a compounding asset for a business.
I still believe that.
But Meta owns the ground.
They decide what features are free, what gets pushed into a subscription and how we're able to reach the audiences we've built there.
Personally, if I was researching someone in a service business, I'd probably check their Instagram and Facebook before LinkedIn because I like the visual and video side.
Someone else might head straight to LinkedIn.
Someone else will Google you.
They all contribute to the picture.
So I wouldn't abandon Facebook.
I'd get clearer about the job each platform is doing.
Two sales posts out of eight? I can work with that.
Say you're publishing eight Facebook posts a month.
If you have two external-link posts available, I'm going to be VERY intentional about those two.
What do we genuinely want someone to do?
Book the call? Register for the event? Read the article? Download something? Enquire about a service?
Those are the posts where I'd use the link.
Then I've got six other posts to share expertise, educate, show the humans in the business, tell client stories, answer questions, build connection and give someone a reason to remember you.
That still feels pretty useful to me.
If anything, there's something helpful about separating:
"This post needs someone to take an action."
from
"This post needs to build the relationship."
Not every social post needs to sell.
But when one does, I want to know what job I'm asking it to do.
I'd be looking harder at LinkedIn too
Particularly for service businesses.
LinkedIn gives you another place to build both the company brand and the personal brands of the people inside it.
I'm particularly interested in LinkedIn newsletters, and yes, I realise the irony as you read this in my LinkedIn newsletter.
I really like the format for professional services. Think email via socials.
You've got space for the thinking that doesn't fit neatly into a social caption, and people can actively subscribe. LinkedIn can notify subscribers through in-app notifications, push notifications and email when a new edition is published, depending on their settings.
That feels useful for businesses with expertise worth expanding on.
And put energy into the audience you do own
Your email database. Your CRM. People who have actively given you permission to contact them.
I would much rather see a business building that alongside its social presence than relying entirely on a follower count sitting inside someone else's platform.
Social can help people discover you, build familiarity, answer questions, show expertise and warm up a sales conversation long before anyone fills out a form.
Then give people a reason to join your database too.
An article. A useful resource. An event. A newsletter. A genuine reason to hear from you again.
Now you're building both: a public body of content people can find when they're researching you, and a direct audience you have far more control over.
So what would I do if my Facebook Page got the two-link limit?
I'd keep posting.
I'd choose the two posts that genuinely need an external link and make them count.
I'd use the rest to keep building expertise, familiarity and connection.
I'd look at what LinkedIn could do for the business and the people inside it.
And I'd keep putting energy into the website, CRM and email database sitting underneath all of it.
Social media still has a job.
I just wouldn't ask it to be the whole marketing system.
And I definitely wouldn't panic-buy a very expensive Meta subscription just because Facebook told me I'd run out of links.