Is auto-posting to Facebook a bad idea?

by Lee Hopkins on August 9, 2011 · 2 comments

in Uncategorized

 

MARSHALL KIRKPATRICK over at the esteemed ReadWriteWeb argues that auto-posting your blogposts via WordPress’ brand new integration feature to your business’ Facebook Page is a bad thing to do.

Tests by ReadWriteWeb’s new Community Manager Robyn Tippins showed that manually posting (a ten-minute chore) versus auto-posting (a ten-minute one-time setup then no time involvement at all) brings better engagement results.

But while WordPress’ new feature is clever, the ability to have your Facebook Page ‘suck in’ your WordPress blog is nothing new; I’ve been doing it for months, via Facebook’s built-in RSS feed scraper (there’s also the ‘RSS Graffiti’ app which does similar).

I’m of the view, but admit I haven’t tested it yet, that if you post your blog article during peak reading times, and if your Facebook Page auto-imports it in a timely manner, then I can’t see a difference.

However, manually posting to Facebook does allow you to change the opening paragraph of the content, I suppose, so that it looks different, albeit marginally.

What’s your view? Do you auto cross-post from your WordPress blog to your Facebook Page?

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  • http://www.hellobenteoh.com.au Ben Teoh

    I manually post to Facebook.

    It allows you to present your content the way you want to. For example, you can pose a question which leads into your link. You also lose the capacity to tag people/businesses who you might want to get the attention of.

    I think it also takes away from the personal nature of being social if you’re simply cross posting/auto posting your material.

  • http://www.LeeHopkins.net/ Lee Hopkins

    Adding in the names of tagees IS useful, I agree, but something
    that can easily be done once the post is live on FB; and it looks
    like the world is agreeing on your view, not mine, Ben :)

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