In a recent blog post titled – How to Link Your Blog to Your Facebook Fan Page – I showed you how to set up your blog to automatically import to your Facebook Fan page using the NetworkedBlog application.
However, there is a down side to having automatic updates on your Facebook page. Online Visibility Expert, Denise Wakeman published a post discussing the reason you may not want to have your blog automatically update your Facebook fan page wall. She’s given me permission to share her post with you. You can view the original post here.
Guest Post by Denise Wakeman: I’m giving up on automation…
…at least as far as syndicating my blog posts to my Facebook page.
Here’s the deal.
I’ve long suspected that blog posts that are syndicated using a third party app to pull the feed to Facebook pages and profiles don’t get nearly as much visibility and engagement as posts that are manually added. I can tell because when I manually post a link, I will always get “likes” and comments. However, automated posts often get NO engagement whatsoever. If the point is to share information, build a community of readers and inspire conversation and interaction, then my efforts are wasted if no one is seeing my content.
I had this confirmed by Mari Smith.
Manually posted links carry more weight with Facebook. And, most people interact with your posts via their News Feed so if you’re post doesn’t show up, no one sees it, because they don’t go to your Page. This has to do with something Facebook calls EdgeRank which you can read about here in a post by Mari Smith.
Getting your Facebook fan page posts seen in the News Feeds is one of the most important – and elusive – aspects of marketing on Facebook. Jeff Widman of BrandGlue.com discovered that some 88% of Facebook users never return to a fan page once they’ve clicked the Like button. Instead, they see and engage with your content in their News Feed.
In my recent poll, I revealed that a majority of bloggers prefer NetworkedBlogs for syndicating their blog content to their Facebook Page. But I’ve tried them all with equally dismal engagement results: NetworkedBlogs, Social RSS, RSS Graffiti, Notes Application, Dlvr.it, and Feedblitz.
That’s why I give up on Facebook automation for my blogs. I want people to like, comment and click through to the full blog post. That means the links need to be manually posted in order to get the best chance for engagement.
I’m going to follow Mari’s lead and keep the Blog tab on my page which is kept up to date by Social RSS. And, from here on out I will manually post links to new blog posts with a brief introduction to the content.
What’s your take on this issue? I know from polling that most bloggers use automation to get their blog posts onto their Facebook page, but are you getting the engagement you want?
My Thoughts
I want to send a thank you out to Denise for letting me share this information with you. I agree that manually posting your updates likely carries more weight than auto updates. However, I think you also need to take into consideration whether or not you will get it done. If you stop the automatic blog updates will you make the time to manually post an update to your Facebook fan page when you publish a new blog post. If you know you won’t then it may still be best to have the blog auto import. Look at your social marketing plan, determine your strategy, and implement!
All the best,
Lisa Nelson
Lisa, Thanks for sharing my post with you readers. I’ve found that it takes about 1 minute to manually post a link on my Facebook wall. It’s simply part of my marketing process. You can also have a VA do this for you. I continue to advocate the automation for “behind the scenes” and getting Facebook page content indexed by the search engines, but without visibility in your fans’ newsfeed, you won’t have engagement and few people will see what’s posted on your wall. Facebook is a complex creature and feeds off of live interaction. Anything else gets lost. I agree that you need be clear about your social marketing plan and do what it takes to meet your goals. If generating traffic and leads from Facebook is a goal, then manually posting is going to work best for your visibility. Blog on!
Very interesting! Maybe that’s why I don’t see engagement from my Facebook fans. I used to get more comments and likes. I can’t remember when I switched to Networked Blogs and if interaction decreased at the same time or not, but it’s worth experimenting.
Honestly, it doesn’t take that much time to post to Facebook. If you blog 2-3 times a week, then it won’t take more than 5 minutes a week to post to FB. Thanks Lisa and Denise!