Scheduling on Facebook vs. HootSuite: Facebook Allows Brands to Schedule Posts from their Company Page

Recently, we have seen Facebook produce a variety of enhanced features; from introducing high-res images to showing the amount of reach a post has under every update. But the newest update will have a much bigger impact on users and third-party platforms. Facebook has just given brand page admins the ability to schedule their own posts directly from the platform. This new feature will definitely have an affect on an administrator’s job, but what will it mean for third-party applications like HootSuite?

HootSuite vs. Facebook Scheduling

Why is it a good idea to switch your content management strategy over to Facebook?

When you post a link from HootSuite to your Facebook page, you may notice that beneath the post there are no Insights. When you schedule a post with a link included from the Facebook platform itself, you will be able to see how many people it reached, giving you a better idea of whether that type of content is engaging.

Additionally, Facebook gives you the ability to schedule different kinds of material from the platform. Where HootSuite did not allow you to schedule photos to Facebook from their platform, admins will have the ability to do so when scheduling them from Facebook.

Why is it a good idea to stay with third-party apps like HootSuite?

As with all new features, Facebook scheduling does have a downside to it. In apps like HootSuite, the dashboard gives you an organized view of all the content that you have scheduled for the future. You are able to manage and edit all of your content after you have scheduled it. With Facebook scheduling, you are only allowed to edit the time and date once you have scheduled your content. That means if you have made a typo in one of your posts, you will have to redo the whole thing.

To find the location of all your scheduled posts in Facebook, you will have to go to your Admin Panel. Click on the Manage dropdown menu at the top of the page and click on Use Activity Log. Here you will be able to see everything you have scheduled, and you can edit times and delete unwanted posts. Usually after you schedule a post, a window will pop up that brings you directly to the Activity Page, (although it has only popped up once for me). If you just want to check on your content without scheduling anything, use the method mentioned above.

Will you be using Facebook to schedule posts or are you going to stick with third-party applications? What do you think would happen if Twitter started allowing scheduled posts from their site? Could this be the beginning of the end of third-party scheduling platforms? Time can only tell.