This too shall pass
March 23, 2026
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If you’ve heard that phrase before, you’re not alone. The phrase is rooted in older Persian and Buddhist teachings, and widely accepted as a testament
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Ronny Allan
Ronny Allan is a 3 x award-winning accredited patient leader advocating internationally for Neuroendocrine Cancer and all other cancer patients generally. Check out his Social Media accounts including Facebook, BlueSky, WhatsApp, Instagram and and X.
Background
A new page like and/or a post like, comment or share (engagement) is always appreciated due to Facebook’s new reach algorithm. In short, the Facebook reach algorithm means posts are now heavily restricted on your timeline from people or pages (such as mine) and which you don’t frequently interact with, sad but true. Thus why I have noticed a steady decline on my public pages which is impacting on my website/blog statistics. This algorithm is fundamentally unfair to those trying to help cancer patients. If interested in the detail, there is more info on this new algorithm via this link. However, it’s technical so I’ll summarise it here for your convenience:
- As of the end of 2020, organic reach (real followers, user posts) on Facebook is still on the decline. The average reach for an organic Facebook post (not paid to be boosted) is down to 5.2%. Down from 5.5% at the end of 2019 and in 2018 it was 7.7%. In short cancer support pages are being squeezed. Many “businesses” can afford to pay Facebook to “boost” and that might be part of Fakebook’s commercial strategy. However, this is not good for charities and patient advocates such as myself who provide free and not for profit services. What does this mean? It means that when I publish a post on my Facebook page, only around 1 in 20 followers will actually see it in their timeline. Despite seeing the post, not everyone will engage with it and this further dilutes the reach. See next bullet point.
- When I post something, I just don’t want someone to “see it” in their timeline, I want them to engage with the post, particularly if it contains links to my website/blog and where I have spent a considerable amount of time generating the content. If the above metric wasn’t bad enough, the average engagement rate in 2020 for an organic Facebook post was a miserly 0.25% (that number drops to 0.08% for those with more than 100k followers). What does this mean? It means that when I publish a post on my Facebook page, only around 1 in 400 followers will like, comment or share that post. An engagement rate of 0.25% (1 in 400) doesn’t seem like an acceptable return of my personal investment in terms of my time and my own resources in providing these free services.
In short, the algorithm can be pretty tough on branded organic Facebook content such as what I provide on the Facebook pages highlighted below.
What can WE do to help beat the algorithm?
- What I can do? I clearly need to learn about how Facebook treats pages such as mine, it could be that certain types of media fare better, such as pictures, videos, etc. I’m constantly reviewing how I present my posts and I can already see from events in 2020/21, my walking and outdoor posts tend to get better engagement than some of my technical posts. I’m learning from that. See also my other considerations in the summary.
- What can you do? You could do a number of things including but not limited to:
- Clean out pages you have liked or followed. It’s amazing how many you ‘collect’ over the years. I just carried out this exercise and got rid of (unliked or unfollowed) 54 pages that I no longer need to see in my timeline, perhaps the ones I do like or follow will now appear more regularly in my timeline.
- Bookmark my pages above by adding them as favourites (doing this may differ on phone/tablet/desktop/IOS etc). You can get some more instructions on that by reading Facebook help. Just check your device and select the right instructions here https://www.facebook.com/help/1634545223376778
- Regularly visit my pages above to make sure you have not missed a post due to the algorithm.
- Regularly interact with my pages – i.e. like a post, add a comment or share a post. Facebook will then remember your interaction and will be more likely to put my posts on your timeline.
- Invite others to ‘Like’ or ‘Follow’ my pages.
My Facebook Pages are listed below - please help
Neuroendocrine Cancer (The Original Neuroendocrine Cancer page)
Ronny Allan
World Neuroendocrine Cancer Day
Summary. In addition to the above, there are other options I may need to consider. I could submit to further personal financial outlay to boost certain posts which need wider distribution in an effort to get round the algorithm. I don’t really want to go down that road given the current costs of running my sites come from my retirement pensions plus occasional freelance work and some “coffee money”. It also might be just giving in to Facebook’s strategy to make more money. Other options include becoming a charitable organisation or monetising my website to help fund post boosting. The former is something I don’t really want to do. However, the latter, monetising my blog, is something still on the table as that means the receipt of third party income to pay for my financial overheads including where necessary, boosting certain posts, i.e. the use of sponsors – not uncommon in not for profit organisations and bloggers.
In the meantime, if you could help me with the tips above, that would be wonderful and much appreciated.
Many thanks for listening.
Ronny
Disclaimer
I am not a doctor or any form of medical professional, practitioner or counsellor. None of the information on my website, or linked to my website(s), or conveyed by me on any social media or presentation, should be interpreted as medical advice given or advised by me.
Neither should any post or comment made by a follower or member of my private group be assumed to be medical advice, even if that person is a healthcare professional. Some content may be generated by AI which can sometimes be misinterpreted. Please check any references attached.
Please also note that mention of a clinical service, trial/study or therapy does not constitute an endorsement of that service, trial/study or therapy by Ronny Allan, the information is provided for education and awareness purposes and/or related to Ronny Allan’s own patient experience. This element of the disclaimer includes any complementary medicine, non-prescription over the counter drugs and supplements such as vitamins and minerals.
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I would also mention those who contributed to my “Tea Fund” which resides on PayPal. You don’t need a PayPal account as you can select a card but don’t forget to select the number of units first (i.e. 1 = £4, 2 = £8, 3 = £12, and so on), plus further on, tick a button to NOT create a PayPal account if you don’t need one. Clearly, if you have a PayPal account, the process is much simpler
Through your generosity, I am able to keep my sites running and provide various services for you. I have some ideas for 2023 but they are not detailed enough to make announcements yet.
This screenshot is from every single post on my website and depending on which machine you are using, it will either be top right of the post or at the bottom (my posts are often long, so scroll down!)
