From an a post on Google Plus by Darren Rowse, it seems that Facebook is being more than awkward with regard to applications that provide automatic updates.
The root of the problem is that tools, like Facebook apps that pull in RSS feeds, are being penalised by Facebook. For those who love detail, Edgerank Checker has posted a report on what they think is going on, Does Using a 3rd Party API Decrease Your Engagement Per Post?
When an object is created in Facebook, it is assigned a weight. We believe that Facebook strategically reduced the weight of objects created through the API. The reason behind this strategy would be to encourage more content creation within the Facebook Platform. This ultimately increases the value of their platform while increasing ad impressions.
This affects Network Blogs as well, they use RSS feeds to grab content. Darren points this out in his post. I have also noticed (and seems obvious now) that my own Facebook page for this site can take ages to update with RSS derived updates.
So it seems that any external service that connects with Facebook or app that pulls in RSS feeds to create posts, will not have the same affect as a manually posted update.
This is going to upset a lot of bloggers as they rely on external services to update Facebook as well as other social networking sites in one swoop.
Have you noticed any problems? Please leave a comment below with your view.
