Many in the window film world utilize Facebook as a source of free advertising. Well, as of January, that will all change.

According to information released by Facebook last month, the social media site will begin to weed out promotional content in response to user preferences.

“People told us they wanted to see more stories from friends and Pages they care about, and less promotional content,” the release reads.

According to the people who were surveyed, there are consistent traits that make what the company calls “organic posts” feel too promotional:

• Posts that solely push people to buy a product or install an app.
• Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context.
• Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads.

“Beginning in January 2015, people will see less of this type of content in their news feeds,” the release continues. “News feed is already a competitive place — as more people and Pages are posting content, competition to appear in news feed has increased. All of this means that Pages that post promotional [content] should expect their organic distribution to fall significantly over time.”

Since 60 percent of his business comes from Facebook promotions (for which he doesn’t pay), this change in policy doesn’t come as good news to Joe Piazza, owner of Evolution Window Tinting and Vehicle Wraps in West Babylon, N.Y.

“I’m not happy about that,” he says, explaining he’ll have to transform the way he does business. “Looks like I’ll have to get more people off the street then. [Business] will definitely drop.”

Marketing expert and Window Film magazine columnist Donna Wells, however, says not to be dismayed—as there are ways around being filtered.

“There’s always more than one way to skin a cat, you’re just going to have to get more creative in your thought process,” she says. “My suggestion would be to look at what you’re doing, how you want to achieve those particular clients and shape it in a way that entices them to give you a phone call. At that point, you can give the promotion, but don’t necessarily post it on your page. Then you shouldn’t have an issue with receiving additional [attention].”

Wells does say opting to pay the social media site is a viable option, but warns against going overboard.

“I still like Facebook even if you’re paying for it, but I don’t feel that this should be a major portion of your advertising dollars. There are a lot of ways to do self-promotion on a complementary basis,” she says, though she says Facebook offers a unique advantage versus other sites. “You can promote by photographs and people are very visual. They can what you’re doing specifically, as a company. I think that’s going to give you an upper hand.”

As the new rules come, Piazza’s not sure whether he’ll pay to advertise with Facebook. “If I had to, I would, but it depends on how much [it is],” he says, but will rely mostly on word of mouth, which he believes is the “best way to advertise.”