Facebook Flop?

I am confused. Something is happening on the interwebs pertaining to my blog posts and I just don't get it. In the last week-and-a-half-ish, views on my new posts have plateaued. Actually, to be more accurate, they have tanked! Why? I promise, I'm not trying to be self indulgent here (OK, maybe keeping a blog in the first place is naturally a little self indulgent) - I'm just trying to figure out what happened. Can you help me understand the phenomenon?

When I started this blogging thing, just over three years ago, I was lucky to get 25 views for a post. Since then, though, more friends and family have started to follow along with the Life and Times of the Welschies and up until very recently, posts average anywhere from 60-90 views. Maybe that's an embarrassingly small number in the greater blogosphere (I really don't know what keeping up w/ the Blogging Joneses looks like), but I've been thrilled with it. Each of those views means one more person is connecting with us, keeping tabs on our growth, and sending love and support our way. It's great! And so are the Facebook comments when I share the links there. Some great conversations have come about because of those link posts to my timeline and I'm forever grateful for building community and keeping in touch with loved ones here, there, and everywhere.

And while I've gone over some TMI lines at times and delved into the scary, deeper stuff here this year, it doesn't seem like any recent posts have been alienating, so why am I suddenly back in the teens for views on the last few blog posts? Like I said online yesterday - I don't expect people to drop everything every time I post (which this week is a lot), but to go from 80 to 40 to 20 to 11 views with my last four links? That's just bad math!

To try to combat this, I decided to create a Facebook page for The Modern Maiasaura, even though I know this is perhaps entirely counterproductive since FB is perhaps part of the problem with the original links not showing up in the newsfeed for folks like they once did. But my thought was that if people liked the page and then selected "Get Notifications" under the "Liked" button, maybe they'd see the links when I share them here? I really don't know. And since I'm not willing to pay for Facebook to "boost" my posts, it's possible the page won't do a darn thing to get my stories back to those who want or care to see them, but I have to start somewhere, so here is that place: TMM on Facebook.

If any of you are more FB savy than I (that might not require much skill, actually) and have advice, please share. Trust me - the foolishness of blogging about blogging and lamenting Facebook's algorithm while promoting a Facebook page is not lost on me. I'm just thinking in print, as I often do, and wondering, as I often do, what you all have to add to the conversation.