It looks as though Facebook may be coming for a lifesaving workaround… but this is not the end of the world.
In the olden days, adding a link to a post was standard.
But then Facebook began clamping down on the reach of these posts. Why? Because the longer you spend on the platform the more attractive you are to advertisers.
Now, a vanishingly small 1.9 per cent of people’s Facebook timelines are this kind of post.
The workaround has long been been putting a link in the comments.
But Facebook are now actively experimenting with throttling this approach by disabling links added as a comment. In other words, the link posted did not turn into a hyperlink that allows the user to click through to a webpage. Instead, it just sits there as pointless unclickable text.
I first came across this on some newspaper sites so thought I’d take a look at public sector pages.
A straw poll I carried out of 50 public sector Facebook pages 32 per cent of links in their comments have been disabled.
The pages were selected at random and there was no link between what kind of organisation they were or even if they used a third party scheduling tool.
Here a post via Orlo doesn’t have a hyperlink…
Here a post via Orlo has a link…
Neither organisation have done anything wrong as I can see.
But one link works and the other doesn’t.
This is part of a wider strategy
Facebook have been talking about restricting links and charging via a subscription. So, this is no surprise.
There is a suggestion that links within Facebook itself are not yet affected.
So what can public sector do about links?
It boils down to this. Stop using them unless you absolutely have to.
Instead, tell the story on the platform ideally with video, a carousel of images or text.
For more, I deliver training to help you make sense of the changing landscape.
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Working link vs not working link – is there a difference in that the non-working link is the end of the post, whereas the working links have text after them? LinkedIn does this were it disables links that are the whole or or the end of the comment, but if you make sure there’s text after the link or even just a return or two after the link and it works.
Hi Lisa, honest answer is that the sample isn’t big enough to draw conclusions. I’d probably say this looks like a testing period so things are very up in the air. The lesson I’d draw is to be alive to it and check against delivery.
Is there a difference between a comment which is just a link, and a comment with text and a link?
Hi Abigail. It was a small sample I took. Fifty posts and 16 were disabled to be just plain text. There was no clear lesson from them. I’d say this looks like a testing period so there’s no firm conclusions.