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Stop! Don’t Use Networked Blogs, RSS Graffiti, or any other Feed Aggregator to Post on Facebook!

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Use of a Feed aggregator (Networked Blogs, RSS Graffiti, Youtube self Posting, Twitter, etc) for Facebook Posting is keeping your Posts from being seen!

LOOK what is happening!  Facebook is posting the BEST status updates (by their Edge Rank) or the first Networked Blogs post and then grouping the rest together.  They have been doing this for awhile but now it’s really happening  in a huge way.  They are not just grouping all of one pages statuses together now Facebook is grouping ALL Feed aggregator blogs posts that I get in a given time period together.

What’s the impact when you use feed aggregator posting like Networked Blogs, RSS Graffiti, etc?

Your posts are NOT being seen by your intended audience and if advertisers are paying you to post, they aren’t getting their bang for their buck either. Mari Smith, everyone’s Facebook Guru,recommends against using a feed aggregator on a regular basis:

Just be careful of overly using third party apps to post all your content on your Page wall. Manual posts get the best EdgeRank (News Feed optimization).

(And then she further commented on her Facebook on April 25, 2011):
Did you know? Your content posted via third party apps may be hidden (collapsed) in the News Feed of your fans!! e.g. It’s best not to automatically publish your Networked Blog posts to your wall – your fans may not see the content in their News Feed. I definitely recommend you use the app for great SEO, but turn off the wall posting feature and manually share your new blog posts directly on your wall for better visibility and engagement. (Aside from the collapsed posts in the News Feed of your fans, third party app posts get slightly lower EdgeRank scores anyway… unfortunately!)
..

and now you can see why!  Your page’s Facebook wall feed may not show that your posts are being being mushed in with all the other Networked blog feeds, or twitter feeds…so you may think that using your particular feed aggregator is no problem.  It isn’t.  See the example above and below.

Facebook-Third-Party-Feed-Aggregator-Image

What about Hoot Suite, a very popular tweet and post scheduler?  I have not observed the stacking of Hoot Suite posts but I wouldn’t be surprised if this was the same.  Can anyone else confirm from their newsfeed?

Should you be using a Facebook Aggregator for posting your blog posts to Facebook?

Update April 2011:

Here’s an interesting quote dated April 11, 2011 from What’s Next Marketing, Check it out:

Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, and other self-publishers use the 3rd Party API to provide their members the ability to post to Facebook Pages without going onto the site itself. Those services have even added the ability to schedule content to be auto-published at a later set time.

While very convenient for users, Facebook sees little reason to give this scheduled content a high EdgeRank weight. And why should they? Users aren’t going to the Facebook website, engaging with the infrastructure, or viewing Facebook Advertising. According to our recent research, manually posting content on Facebook, rather than via  a 3rd Party API publisher like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, can increase its viewership as much as 300%!

UPDATE Feb, 2011:

Here’s some more information from MaAnna, owner of Blogaid, who wrote the an article on 3rd party APIs (feed Aggregators) called Google and Facebook changed and so must I.

Two of my fave folks to follow on Facebook are Denise Wakeman and Mari Smith. Recently, both have made several posts on the negative impact of using third party apps to auto-populate your Facebook business page with blog posts from your main site. The app-populated posts weren’t showing up in the fan’s News Feed consistently, and the ranking was devalued by Facebook….After making the changes, within two weeks my Facebook stats nearly tripled quadrupled and they continue to keep going up.

Update: Feb. 2011

  Denise Wakeman, from the Blog Squad weighed in with this additional information:

Here’s the link to my post in which I share why I’m giving up on automation to my Facebook page:
http://www.buildabetterblog.com/2011/02/im-giving-up-on-automation.html

Please note that I continue to use Social RSS to auto post to my Page, but NOT to my wall. If someone wants to see my latest blog posts they can click on the link in the left sidebar to see recent content.

The Chief Blonde recommends against it heavily, based on what she has observed on Facebook today!

UPDATE: May 2011

You can also increase your views on your Facebook Posts by 650% by stopping this practice of utilizing a feed aggregator.   See this great article on NOT autoposting via third party APIs.

UPDATE 9/2011:

A Recent Mashable Article Reports that   a study by  Applum, creators of the Facebook Edgerank Checker, studied  a million+ Facebook updates on over  50,000 Facebook Pages  to test the hypothesis that posting to  via Facebook  third-party feed Aggregators won’t create the same interaction as posting manually to Facebook.   Applum determined that utilizing ANY of the top ten feed aggregators resulted in  88% fewer comments and likes, when contrasted with manually posting to Facebook.   WHY?  It’s suspected that Facebook punishes feed aggregators in the complex Edgerank alogorithm .  Often,  Facebook updates from feed aggregators are smushed into ONE SINGLE FEED story.  Although a couple of my blogger friends who use the feed aggregators have recently noticed that in their feed, Facebook has stopped this practice of collapsing all the feed into one.

UPDATE: 5/2012

Facebook just added the capability to preschedule your posts right in your Page’s status posts.  SEO types are excited.  No word yet on if this new function will help or hurt edgerank!

Schedule your posts on Facebook

Facebook Link for details:

https://www.facebook.com/help/?faq=389849807718635#How-do-I-schedule-a-post-to-appear-on-my-Page-later?

Was this post useful to you?  Could you Stumble it  or Like it (buttons just below)?  The Chief Blonde love you too!

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Comments

  2. Sweet Mummy says

    I TOTALLY stumbled this post! I had NO idea that this was happening. Thanks for the tips!! I’m fixing things right away!

    itsoktobeweird.com/2011/04/let-them-be-little-family-time-friday.html

  4. Tracie says

    I noticed this happening with Networked Blogs the other night, but was too lazy to do anything about it. Thanks for this reminder…I just went in and disabled it and will be posting manually!

  5. Tiffany @ No Ordinary Homestead says

    I stopped using an app to post long ago because you really lose the personal flavor and people get so bored when they just see you putting in the same headline over and over. Posting manually is the one sure way to get your post noticed on a regular basis — especially when everything is getting run through the wall so quickly with game feeds and all that.

    Very interesting post! Thanks for sharing it!!

  6. Danyale says

    this is good you posted this i noticed this awhile back with ones i follow on networked blogs but i myself have never used it or will i when i can just post to my facebook wall myself for others who like me to see

  9. Rachel R. says

    Thanks! I was using Networked Blogs but then Facebook messed up my Facebook page, and I’ve had to manually post my blog updates.

    I find that forcing me to go to Facebook for each update makes me engage with my Facebook fans more, even though it’s a little more tedious. Glad to know it may actually be helping me!

  10. Mallery says

    I noticed this on my private page when I am on a PC but if I am scrolling through my newsfeed on my phone it doesn’t lump them all together.

  11. Darcy says

    Ugh. I like the auto posting so it spaces them out instead of me posting a lot at once. Plus, when I manually post it only grabs my logo. NB has the first image in the post (if there is one). So if I manually do it, they all look the same. Double ugh.

    • Mimi says

      I was just thinking the same thing as I read through the comments. A benefit of using NB is that it posts information about the actual post not just my blog button and my “about” information. Sigh…I just started using it and having another step in the process seems too much for me (only because of where I am in life). Then again, the possible loss of people seeing my actual posts isn’t good either! Such a quandry!

    • stillblondeafteralltheseyears says

      Hi Karissa,

      Manual is really the only way to go. However, you could still use the Aggregators in a pinch. You’ll be surprised how much more you interact when you are doing it manually. I have never used the automatic post.

      The Chief Blonde!

  14. Keenly Kristin says

    Thanks for sharing this (I’ll be sharing this post!!)…this is not really a “tip,” it’s vital information, in my book! (Btw, between you and Stacie and all your advice/guidance, I may need to cut back on sleep so I can get my ducks in a row. LOL.)

  15. Sherri S says

    I don’t use Networked blogs to POST my content, I post directly on my wall. However, I do have the Networked blog ‘app’ …not sure how to get it off or if it matters???? I’m confused. LOL
    I have noticed today where I have 50+ Networked blog posts instead of each one. So with everything else on FB if it isn’t showing on YOUR page yet…it’s coming.

    • stillblondeafteralltheseyears says

      Sherri, you are fine. Post directly/manually to the wall is what they are recommending.

      The App is not the problem unless you have the app checked to autopost (I never did it) It is very hard to delete an app. Google it, there are many good posts that will walk you through the deletion process.

      Hope this helps. The CHief Blonde!

  16. Katie says

    I only noticed the grouping over the past couple of days on my page. I use networked blogs to put my posts on my facebook, I guess I’ll have to look for an alternative

  17. Stacie says

    I learned about this during the Blogging Summit but never bothered to put it into practice. Thanks for kicking my behind and making me take notice. I deactivated RSS Graffiti from my page and my strategy now is all manual updates!

  18. MaAnna says

    It took both Mari and Denise Wakeman a while to convince me there was no way around all the problems caused by using 3rd party apps to auto import blog feeds because I enjoyed the convenience. But I finally changed my ways and quadrupled my page views in no time. And, it makes a difference whether you post them on your wall or on your Notes page too.

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