D F
(@blackburnlife)
We also have the same problem with the Plugin.
We had been been using Facebook Page Publish (FPB) for some time with success, but loved the integration option of Simple Facebook Connect (SFC)
We setup SFC and as soon as it started publishing to facebook our impressions dropped massively.
We get an average of 500 impressions on posts via FPB but this dropped to under 100 with SFC.
The only difference I can see between the posts is that with FPB it posts a small globe at the end of the post info line eg “Like · · Share · 28 October at 12:17 via BLife” whereas SFC posts a small logo at the beginning of this line. This was the same way LinksAlpha posts and this also caused my impressions to drop.
Here are some screen prints so you can see the difference:
With FPB:
http://www.blackburnlife.com/wp-content/ads/300sq/FPB.jpg
With SFC:
http://www.blackburnlife.com/wp-content/ads/300sq/SFC.jpg
The “facebook-page-publish” plugin is publishing to the “links” endpoint instead of the “feed” endpoint.
You can try changing sfc-publish.php to publish to the links endpoint if you want. Just change this:
$url = "https://graph.facebook.com/{$options['fanpage']}/feed";
to this:
$url = "https://graph.facebook.com/{$options['fanpage']}/links";
Shouldn’t really make any difference though.
I’ll be trying testing this, too.
Let me know the results in any case.
Maybe I didn’t do it right? Changing the code from ‘feed’ to ‘links’ is still sending through my FB app. You can see in this screenshot my test. The bottom two updates were organically posted links which usually garner 1,000 or so impressions.
The 2nd to top was using the auto-publish.
The very top one was my test. I changed the SFC code, went to the latest post, and clicked the Publish to Fan Page button. It looks identical.
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/lbXp7h0U64hkgm0-XUJwNmi8lahl3bZshUv8ZC4N-9o?feat=directlink
It’s always going to send through the FB App. There’s no way for it to *not* send through the App. Even facebook-page-publish has to send through the app.
Anything posted automatically, using the Graph API, will always show “via whateverApp”. There is no possible way to not do this.
If you don’t want to auto-publish, then don’t. Use the manual publishing button instead. Or post it “organically” if you think that’s better. I can’t find any such differences on my apps/pages, but you do what you think works for you.
BTW, the manual publish will indeed look identical, unless you changed this line:
$feed['method'] = 'feed';
To have “links” instead. The instructions I gave above only reflected the automatic publisher. The word “feed” is used in several places, you’d have to change more than one place to “links” to catch them all.
That’s what I figured (it will always send through the app), but was confused by BlackburnLife saying that FPB items published showed up with the globe instead of through an app and you said that’s because it sends to the links endpoint.
As for using the publishing button for SFC, I’m beginning to think that it’s equally as effective (or equally as non-effective) as the auto-publish.
But, Facebook has changed their feed settings again, allowing for sorting and such, so I’m interested to see if that has any effect on visibility. I appreciate your attention to this and continued following-up.
D F
(@blackburnlife)
I changed from ‘feed’ to ‘links’ and it looks much more like Facebook Page Publish on facebook now using the automated posting. The only difference now being that the heading shows “Blackburn Life shared a Link”, whereas FPB only ever shows “Blackburn Life”.
Don’t know if this will have any impact on impressions, will have to wait. I will report back.
http://www.blackburnlife.com/wp-content/ads/300sq/SAL.jpg
The reason it says the “shared a link” is because SFC is not populating the “message” field. Thus, the default of shared a link is used by FB. I didn’t see the point in populating the message field with the text of the post, since the text of the post is shown in the preview area there anyway and it makes it look redundant and silly.
Further proof that this is more a bug with Facebook and their Pages. It’s like they pick and choose which items go into people’s feeds.
Here’s an example of something non-SFC related.
I wrote a Note for a page and it didn’t show up in my feed, so I decided to share the note on the wall of the same page I posted it for. You can see the first one clearly didn’t go into many others’ (if at all) feeds, but the one I shared did show up (in my own feed and into others’)
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/VwMIW70RPaoWjWjMOLHZt2i8lahl3bZshUv8ZC4N-9o?feat=directlink
D F
(@blackburnlife)
Changing my automated posts from ‘feed’ to ‘links’ has absolutely solved the impressions problem for my facebook page. I have instantly gone back to having 400 – 500 impressions per post since changing the code.
Thanks
Good to hear. Other than the “shared a Link” bit, are there any differences with the posted articles that you can see?
D F
(@blackburnlife)
Just the position of the logo as mentioned in my first post. I am convinced facebook spot this logo and then lump the posts as similar posts in other people’s feeds as a similar thing used to happen when I used alphalinks that posted with a logo at the front
@blackburnlife Did you change the “feed” to “links” in multiple places in sfc-publish.php? Or did you just change it in the one spot?
D F
(@blackburnlife)
Just once I think. Didn’t realise it was in several places!
