Just a little while ago I was writing about how HootSuite could organize your social media and I had nothing but praises for the app/website. Unfortunately, I may have to take it all back . . .
While HootSuite is a convenient way to automatically schedule and update multiple social networks simultaneously, it appears as if it also drastically reduces the visibility of those posts. Facebook (and possible Twitter) largely suppress updates generated by 3rd party sites. So those great articles you have been sharing may all have been for nought.
If that weren’t bad enough (and it is!), posts made through HootSuite lack some of the basic functionality of regular Facebook posts – namely, the ability to “share” it! So even if someone does see an article that you posted and they like it, it’s harder for them to share it.
I myself have noticed less engagement when I post through HootSuite. I simply pegged it as coincidence – perhaps some of the articles were uninteresting or were posted when few people saw them. I began to wonder when it was only my HootSuite posts that were lacking attention. Now I know the truth!
The verdict is out. I have already stopped using HootSuite and have reverted to posting individually on both Facebook and Twitter. It is a real shame considering how convenient it was. I suppose it was too good to be true as I’m sure these websites were taking away a lot of site traffic. Maybe Facebook will make right if we yell loud enough?
Learn Something New 
Wow! I just checked one my FB pages and I see the problem. The newsletters we auto-publish with MailChimp have much lower impressions than regular posts and no ability to share. This is not good.
We found this to be true as well using Sendible. Any third party posts suffer. We used a workaround of picking key posts to do manually and the others with Sendible.
Thanks for the comment Maura. That’s a good strategy. It may not be harmful to use 3rd party software for the average post. Certainly the more important ones should be hand-placed.