Are Your Facebook Posts Hurting Your Social Media Marketing?
Being a social media expert can be challenging at times when there are so many things to consider and so many changes occurring each and every day. One thing I am sheepishly admitting to learning recently (thanks to a tip!) is that posting Facebook posts to your Fan pages through a third party API might be doing more harm than good.... or at least it did at one time.
Why?
Several articles floating around on the Internet suggest that posts cued up in third party APIs, like HootSuite or SocialOomph, decrease the likelihood of fan engagement by up to 80%. A company called EdgeRank conducted a study to prove as much.
Why Are Third Party APIs Providing Lower Engagement?
There are many technical reasons this may happen, but a less technical reason that I'm able to understand may be that Facebook knows you're "scheduling" or "automating" updates. This may be of concern to Facebook because spammers are notorious for scheduling and automating practices. There may be the signs of no human touch when content is automated.
What Should You Do?
- Don't sweat it. After EdgeRank wrote about this phenomenon, Facebook adjusted its newsfeed on Nov 6, 2011. EdgeRank conducted a new study and the findings showed that there actually may be no difference in impressions and engagement when you post your content to Facebook directly vs. through a third party API.
- Limit API use as possible. Post content when you're on your Facebook Fan page rather than schedule it. This allows you to be timely, relevant and real. That said, there are times when you can't be at your computer 24/7, so in those cases, scheduling is totally appropriate. The rule of thumb is it's better to have some posts that are automated than no posts at all.
You make the call. Do you prefer automating posts or posting manually. Be honest!