They’ve done it again! Facebook has removed the “share” feature from posts that come from third-party apps like Hootsuite. The scuttlebutt says this is to cut down on spam. Many businesses use third party apps to schedule posts ahead of time. Removing this feature will make it difficult for businesses to get their content shared – which is a big component of showing up in the News Feed. Small business owners, in particular, don’t have time to be on Facebook 24 hours a day – monitoring their pages. But there are people who say, “Good! Facebook wasn’t intended for business.” Well, guess what, folks? Facebook sure likes those ad dollars that businesses bring in!
Third-party Workaround
Hootsuite and NetworkedBlogs have designed a workaround to this problem. In the picture below, you’ll see that Hootsuite has added its own “Share” button. However, these shares don’t get included in Facebook Insights.
Facebook’s Decision – Crazy Smart or Simply Dumb?
As a Facebook admin for several client pages, this move is puzzling to me. A couple months back, Facebook “fixed the bug” that was hurting the Edge Rank of third-party posts. But it seems as if there might be an internal war going on over the ability to schedule posts rather than interacting on Facebook in real-time.
My feeling is that if Facebook continues down this path, they will be sending businesses right into the arms of an anxiously awaiting Google+. I guess, as the saying goes, “time will tell.”
What do you think of this development? Please share your comments below and on my Facebook page! I’d love to hear from you there too. Visit www.fb.com/gloriarandcopywriter to become a fan. As an added incentive, I’m giving away a free website analysis to my 500th fan. I only need 7 more fans to get there, so you better hurry!
