Third Party Apps Reduce Facebook Engagement by 86%
Using a third party app such as Hootsuite or Tweetdeck to automate posting reduces Facebook engagement by 86%, according to app developer Applum.
It appears that Facebook penalises people who use third party apps by dropping their EdgeRank (the FB equivalent of Google’s Page Rank). Most apps also don’t allow you to take advantage of all the tools that Facebook offers on its pages. For example, Hootsuite users cannot create a gallery of images to share on Facebook but must upload only a single image per post.
Penalizing app users makes sense for Facebook. The social media giant has to keeps its pages human and avoid automation. It knows that users will quickly go elsewhere if they are constantly bombarded by robot-created spam messages. Pre-loaded posts are not exactly social.
