In an article posted this month on Inside Facebook , it was announced that the famous social media company, as of November 22^nd, would no longer contain the RSS automatic import feature in the Notes application. This feature consists of an automation of the blogging agenda, where links from a recent blog post to the Facebook Notes page are automatically updated once posted. For bloggers, this controversial decision spells a difficult turn within the blogging community, though not that difficult for those of you, who were unaware of such an application available in the first place.

The reasoning behind such a decision stems from the results of its use over the years. According to Facebook stats, a majority of this ‘auto-posting’ actually results in significantly lower feedback and interest in blogs, a total of 70% of ‘Like’ and ‘Comment’ users, actually. Similarly, this article speculates that the removal of this feature is an effort to get users of the ‘auto-post’ to, instead, customize the link to their blog with images and different types of text in order to further implement and market their posts. With respect, the auto-post does fail to add that personal effect and creates a rather robotic feel.

However, one can also argue that forcing the author of said blog posts to physically manipulate the links, such as cutting them from the actually blog page and pasting them to the Facebook page, will result in less usage and interest as well, especially from companies implementing this feature in their social media departments. Administrators of these blog accounts now will have to take the time to further manipulate the blog posts to coincide with the Facebook page. It’s not exactly an efficient way to connect the dots, and as they say in any business, “time is money”, especially in these harsh economic times.

Luckily, other connecting applications, such as Tweetdeck, NetworkedBlogs, and Hootsuite, will remain available. These ‘third-party syndication app providers,’ as they are described in the article, utilize the continuous RSS feed and therefore still allow bloggers or simply users of these specific social launch sites to automatically sync their content onto Facebook. However, since the amount of blogging sites, which contain a continuous RSS feed, is limited, the sudden loss of this Notes feature will instigate significant change in the Facebook blog-posting community. The results of Facebook’s decision remain to be seen, leaving only speculation, yet it all comes down to the priorities of the user. If the users post for an economic benefit, such as a large-scale company or even small-time business, the loss of efficiency will simultaneously remove their desire to post such content on Facebook through a non-RSS feed site; however, adding that personal tweak to your blog-post link on the FB page, could be the last necessary push to increase the amount of viewers to both sites. It looks optimistic; Facebook providers are anything but pessimistic, considering the sheer mass of users (FB accounts reached 800 million this year worldwide). Thus they can afford to take such minimal risks. The question is: Can you afford efficiency or the personal touch?

Related articles

• Facebook Kills Notes Import (accesscomptech.wordpress.com)
• Facebook to kill RSS support for Notes (zdnet.com)
• Facebook to Put an End to Automated Notes – RSS/Feeds Import (techie-buzz.com)
• Facebook to Shut Off Automatic Feed Syndication in Notes App (insidefacebook.com)
• Facebook Clandestinely Adds Tag Approval! Hooray! (levynewsnetwork.wordpress.com)

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