The change in Facebook’s API does not affect many of the companies using SMclicks since they do not use it to post to their personal Facebook profiles. Many use SMclicks, a division of Image Building Media to post to their Facebook business page, and then share posts to their personal accounts using their smartphone or other devices, which helps with visibility and engagement.
If you are using SMclicks to post to your personal Facebook profile, Facebook’s change of their API will no longer permit you to make these posts. You can, however, keep your profile connected to SMclicks and receive reports regarding your personal profiles.
What Happened?
Facebook has changed its API multiple times recently as the company feels pressure from congress for loosely managing personal information, as with the case surrounding Cambridge Analytica.
Facebook announced in April of 2018 that it would change its API and no longer permit third-party applications to post to personal profiles.
Although we were hopeful that Facebook would reverse their decision, as it had done regarding posting to Facebook Groups, the API has been changed to disallow applications like SMclicks from posting to Facebook personal profiles.
Best Practices Moving Forward
As a result of Facebook changing its API, we suggest the following:
- Take advantage of SMclicks’ time-saving automation to post to your Facebook Business Pages and your Facebook Groups.
- Manually share some of those posts to your personal profile. You probably do not want to share all of them, however, so you do not spam your personal profiles.
- Continue to use SMclicks with your personal Facebook profiles to get reports and insights to continue growing your network.
If, by chance, you would like to convert your personal Facebook profile to a Facebook Business page, see this documentation: https://www.facebook.com/help/116067818477568.
For help with SMclicks:
In the Future
Facebook, Twitter, and other social media companies have been changing their API in response to social and political pressure. In all likelihood, these companies will eventually add back many of the features they have discontinued.
As a matter of fact, we are already seeing some of the APIs loosen up. For example, Facebook recently again added some features for third-party applications to post to Groups.
In the long run, after the APIs open back up to a more normal status, we will probably look back and see that going through this process has been beneficial in helping us better secure personal data.
To experience SMclicks’ time-saving automations that massively increase productivity, sign up for a 30-day free trial, or schedule a demo.