Why Hootsuite is BAD for Facebook Pages and is KILLING the Ability for Your Messages to go Viral
8.26.10 UPDATE
The people spoke, and Hootsuite listened!! Now when you post a link within Hootsuite that you want to send to your Facebook Page, not only does the “Share” button now appear, but prior to posting, Hootsuite allows you to select which image you want to appear with your link, the name of the link and the description just as though you were posting right on your Facebook Page – love this. Thanks for making these great improvements, Hootsuite:-)
A few posts ago we mentioned that Hootsuite is one of our favorite social networking tools- We’d like to clarify that statement. While we highly recommend Hootsuite for posting to Twitter, we don’t recommend it for posting to Facebook Pages. Why? Because the beauty of Facebook posts are their ability to go viral with the “Share” button.
You want people to be able to share your posts with their networks and so on so that your brand and your messages spread throughout the web. Did you notice when you post from Hootsuite to your page, there is not a “Share” option? No good for you.
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Have you found any other tools that allow you to update through a single platform like HootSuite to FB, LinkedIn and the like without losing the share button?
I use to use ping.fm without losing the share button on fb pages. I just logged into my account to try it out since it’s been a while since I used it and I can’t get it to post anything at all at the moment; hopefully they’re just experiencing a brief server issue or something. The only functionality that you lose when using ping.fm vs hootsuite is the ability to schedule posts. I have not yet found a service that allows you to schedule posts and keeps the share button. I’ve had some others asking about this as well so I’ve been doing some more research into it and will report back what I find.
Thanks for reading!
AK
Thank you for that info. I just realized too, that my Hootsuite posts didn’t have the share option. This is not good. I use Hootsuite for the scheduling ability. It is a drag now to know that if I schedule something for my Facebook wall, it will not have the Share option and it cannot go viral.
I used to use Ping.fm and PingLater but both these applications have not been working for some time now.
I guess it’s back to “live” Facebook updates until Hootsuite can fix this OR another application is created to do this and allow you to schedule the updates.
Hi Cindy – Thanks for your post. I wish ping.fm were working – don’t know what’s going on with them. I tried to contact them via Twitter and couldn’t get much help.
Hopefully we will be able to find something that maintains the share feature and also allows scheduling – the search continues!
Take care!
AK
What about Twitterfeed?
Wait, nevermind – posts via Twitter or Twitterfeed don’t have the Share option either.
Ugh, I know, it’s such a bummer! I was just recently on the hootsuite suggestion page and read that they are working on an update that will allow the picture to show up with a post, and I’m thinking that only occurs when the share button is present, so that might solve our problem. Will keep everyone posted!
Agree this is a major issue. Hootsuite allow users to vote on how to improve the service – this issue can be found here
http://feedback.hootsuite.com/forums/40182-hootsuite-com-web-dashboard/suggestions/597631-show-the-share-link-in-facebook-status-updates-pos
Thanks so much for sharing this link! Now get votin’ people!! Apparently you can put up as many as three votes. I am going to post this on the Saying It Social Facebook page, too. http://facebook.com/sayingitsocial.
For whatever it’s worth, this issue has been resolved 🙂 The Share link is now showing up on Hootsuite posts.
Thanks so much for keeping us updated Alex – this is grrrrrrrreat news!! Just tested it and love the fact that it also extended this feature to let you select the image, choose the link title and description – props to Hootsuite for these improved features! Guess I should update this post now:-)
Thanks. What is the recommended (online) tool to post “tweets” and messages to Twitter and Facebook (Walls!!!)? I tried Hootsuite and seesmic and they both failed 😦 TweetDeck was an option some days ago, but they seem to have tech probs now. BR
Hi – I use Hootsuite w/o any problems. Are you wanting to post to your FB personal wall or to a Business Page wall? If you just want to post to your personal Facebook you could try Yoono which I also use and love for posting to FB, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
When posting a link via Hootsuite, and people start to share it, they lose all the comments or info on the link, and have to choose again from the images, and get the original title, not the one that I posted.. etc. Give it a try and see for yourself.. anything that you added with the link will be lost, except the url alone. And when users share it, as if they are choosing the details of the links all over again, without what I choose..
Is there a way to fix that? or another tool that has “normal” behavior..?
Thanks,
Hi Michael, I know what you mean. I don’t know of a fix nor have I come across another tool that will retain all of the link information as you have chosen, other than of course just sharing directly on your Facebook Page. If I stumble upon anything I will certainly let you know.
Thanks for the reply.. another thing I noticed.. is that I have the option not to show the comments on the wall, however, comments on posts with Hootsuite tend to being shown directly on the wall!
Do you have a post or info about other tools to post links with images (schedule them) for facebook? it would be a great help..
Thanks,
I am not aware of any others that allow you to schedule and customize the link when it posts on Facebook Pages. I’ve been on the look out for other tools for a long time and will keep you posted.