4 Reasons NOT to Use Automated Posting Tools
Today's business world can be extremely busy. For many business owners, automated posts may seem like a great way to get your information out to your customers on social meda. It would save you time and that's one less thing to have on your plate each day. Unfortunately, there is a downside to this seemingly efficient marketing solution. MSW Interactive Designs has put together this list of 4 important reasons why you should post your own content instead of using a platform such as Hootsuite to auto post.
Social media networks such as Facebook can tell when a real person is posting or if an app or other third party tool is doing the posting for you and will penalize you. Through research, TheSocialBusiness.com concludes, "Using scheduling services such as Hootsuite, Viral Heat, or Sprout Social to schedule your Facebook posts will gain you only one thing: an even lower reach." Facebook gives these automated posts less credibility than those made directly through Facebook. This will happen for those of you that have your Twitter automatically posting to your Facebook as well.
Not only can Facebook tell when a post is automated, your followers can too. Sites such as Hootsuite force you to use a custom url when posting from their site. When you see the ow.ly in the url of a post, you know that its been auto posted from Hootsuite. This may not be as big of an issue as Facebook knowing its automated, but its something to think about.
When posting via Hootsuite, those Facebook posts are not tracked in the Facebook's Insights section. Although you can still see number of "likes" and "comments" on your timeline or newsfeed, Facebook doesn't track these and you don't get "credit" for that engagement. Although Facebook's organic reach is gradually diminishing, the more engagement you have, the more likely people are to see your content.
Facebook and Twitter, although similiar in the fact that they are both social media networking sites that can be great for businesses, have their differences. Twitter is a platform where you can pump out a bunch of tweets and retweet stuff all day long. If you have that much activity on your business Facebook page, some people could consider it spam. By linking your Facebook and Twitter, allowing Twitter to publish tweets on your Facebook timeline, you could end up annoying your Facebook fans with too much content. Facebook will also notice the abundance of hashtags and can penalize you for this as well. Even vice versa, publishing Facebook posts to Twitter, is also not a good idea. First off, the post is probably too long for a tweet and will be cut off, forcing Facebook to create a url to the post. Second, if you have a nice picture in your Facebook post, it isn't going to show up on Twitter.
One way to combat these auto posting problems is to use Facebook's own scheduling tool. Business pages have the ability to schedule posts for the future directly within Facebook. There's no need to use one of these outside companies. Twitter also has this capability if you log in to Twitter Ads. You will still have to log into both accounts separately rather than logging in to one dashboard, but look at what that one extra step can do for your business. If you don't have time to post directly for your business, consider hiring a social media company. MSW Interactive Designs offers social media engagement packages, where we (real people) can actually go in and do the posting for you. Give us a call at 573-552-8403 to learn more about our social media services today!
~ Erin Burdette, Social Media Coordinator
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/hike-those-likes-market-place/10-practices-to-avoid-that-facebook-will-penalize-your-business-page-for/602406719808660
http://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/7-reasons-not-to-use-hootsuite/
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/disadvantages-linking-facebook-twitter-30823.html
www.MSWInteractiveDesigns.com
Phone: 877-211-5492
Info@MSWInteractiveDesigns.com
1. Your rankings and reach will be lower.
Social media networks such as Facebook can tell when a real person is posting or if an app or other third party tool is doing the posting for you and will penalize you. Through research, TheSocialBusiness.com concludes, "Using scheduling services such as Hootsuite, Viral Heat, or Sprout Social to schedule your Facebook posts will gain you only one thing: an even lower reach." Facebook gives these automated posts less credibility than those made directly through Facebook. This will happen for those of you that have your Twitter automatically posting to your Facebook as well.
2. People can tell when a post is automated.
Not only can Facebook tell when a post is automated, your followers can too. Sites such as Hootsuite force you to use a custom url when posting from their site. When you see the ow.ly in the url of a post, you know that its been auto posted from Hootsuite. This may not be as big of an issue as Facebook knowing its automated, but its something to think about.
3. You may experience tracking issues.
When posting via Hootsuite, those Facebook posts are not tracked in the Facebook's Insights section. Although you can still see number of "likes" and "comments" on your timeline or newsfeed, Facebook doesn't track these and you don't get "credit" for that engagement. Although Facebook's organic reach is gradually diminishing, the more engagement you have, the more likely people are to see your content.
4. Spamming issues could come up.
Facebook and Twitter, although similiar in the fact that they are both social media networking sites that can be great for businesses, have their differences. Twitter is a platform where you can pump out a bunch of tweets and retweet stuff all day long. If you have that much activity on your business Facebook page, some people could consider it spam. By linking your Facebook and Twitter, allowing Twitter to publish tweets on your Facebook timeline, you could end up annoying your Facebook fans with too much content. Facebook will also notice the abundance of hashtags and can penalize you for this as well. Even vice versa, publishing Facebook posts to Twitter, is also not a good idea. First off, the post is probably too long for a tweet and will be cut off, forcing Facebook to create a url to the post. Second, if you have a nice picture in your Facebook post, it isn't going to show up on Twitter.
One way to combat these auto posting problems is to use Facebook's own scheduling tool. Business pages have the ability to schedule posts for the future directly within Facebook. There's no need to use one of these outside companies. Twitter also has this capability if you log in to Twitter Ads. You will still have to log into both accounts separately rather than logging in to one dashboard, but look at what that one extra step can do for your business. If you don't have time to post directly for your business, consider hiring a social media company. MSW Interactive Designs offers social media engagement packages, where we (real people) can actually go in and do the posting for you. Give us a call at 573-552-8403 to learn more about our social media services today!
~ Erin Burdette, Social Media Coordinator
Sources:
https://www.facebook.com/notes/hike-those-likes-market-place/10-practices-to-avoid-that-facebook-will-penalize-your-business-page-for/602406719808660
http://iag.me/socialmedia/reviews/7-reasons-not-to-use-hootsuite/
http://everydaylife.globalpost.com/disadvantages-linking-facebook-twitter-30823.html
MSW Interactive Designs ~ We Put the Web to Work for You!
Phone: 877-211-5492
Info@MSWInteractiveDesigns.com
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