When it come to managing a Facebook business pages, some businesses and some marketers rely on third party apps like HootSuite or Hubspot to keep their social media up to date, schedule updates and allow business to set it and forget it in terms of social media.

Other apps will let you put functionality onto your page such as quizzes, presentations or even a little custom HTML.

Our recommendation to anyone trying to run their social media themselves is to not use third party apps to update their statuses. Further, if you are hiring a digital marketer to manage your social media assets, one question you should ask them is “how do you update my Facebook status?”

Social media is meant to be social. If you were at a party and just shouted out “Check out my store” that wasn’t appropriate for the conversation, would people take your seriously? Probably not and neither does Facebook’s algorithm Edgerank. Some new evidence has appeared that Facebook is discounting posts that come via third party apps.

By discounting the posts, it becomes less likely people will like or share your content and the less likely it will go viral. This has a negative snowball effect and can also effect your search rankings as it is believed both Google’s and Bing’s search algorithms take into account likes and shares on Facebook. As Facebook is only one site, they want people to remain on the site, not checking in from afar. The more people on the site, the more Facebook can sell advertising.

However, third party apps are a lifesaver for putting up static content and added functionality. We use a platform called Agora Pulse to put up HTML pages, Presentations, and coupons both for ourselves and our clients. Other Facebook management platforms include things like Short Stack which are a little more technical.

Conclusion

In conclusion, don’t use third party apps to manage your Facebook; but do use third party apps to add functionality to your page. Since most people login to Facebook every day, simply make it a practice to write out a quick status, share a link from your website or post a picture. It takes a couple of minutes and it will definitely help you get a few more likes.