I've been having issues with posting to Facebook multiple times from HootSuite. As you know I tend to post a lot when I'm at various events. A few weeks ago I was at the launch of the GRAIL space craft at Kennedy Space Center. I was posting a lot and kept getting errors when posting to Facebook from HootSuite. I could post to Twitter fine but not to Facebook. It appeared that Facebook would only allow me to post so many times in a row and then it would block me for a certain period of time.
I only had this issue with HootSuite. From TweetDeck I was able to post to both Twitter and Facebook as many times as I wanted in as short a period of time as I wanted without issue.
I'm a HootSuite Pro user due to the number of accounts I manage so I'm paying for this service. That also means I get support. They closed my first ticket on this issue without a resolution so I opened it up again. Below is what they said. They basically repeated themselves and said it isn't there fault despite the fact that this only happens with their app.
In the mean time when I'm doing a lot of posting, as I will be doing next week at the White House, Capitol Hill and NASA HQ I will probably have to use TweetDeck so that I can post without getting blocked.
Thoughts?
Support Ranger, Oct-07 10:49 (PDT):
We do know that this is a result of Facebook's rate limiting. At the moment, we do not know what the exact amount of posts that triggers the rate limiting, but we do know this occurs. Do note that the rate limiting is not result of using HootSuite, but it is a result of sending a certain amount of messages to your Facebook profile.
As Facebook's API is not something HootSuite controls, we can not adjust the amount of messages you are able to send within a certain period of time.
At this time we suggest that you reduce the amount of Facebook messages you send out in a given period of time, and space out these posts in longer increments.
Thank you for using HootSuite,
IB
Jonathan Smith, Oct-05 17:21 (PDT):
However that doesn't explain why HootSuite gets blocked but I can switch over to TweetDeck and get my messages to go through just fine. If Facebook has a limit I would think it would apply to all apps using the API and not just to HootSuite so once my account was blocked from posting via HootSuite that same block should apply to TweetDeck if it is a function of the API. I have never had an issue posting in rapid fire fashion via TweetDeck.
Again, I appreicate your response and that does help but in some ways it creates more questions than it solves. Does TweetDeck us a different API that is not limited?
Support Captain, Oct-05 16:55 (PDT):
Facebook does rate limit the amount of posts you are able to send during the day. At the moment, we do not know what the exact amount of posts that triggers the rate limiting, but we do know this occurs. Do note that the rate limiting is not result of using HootSuite, but it is a result of sending a certain amount of messages to your Facebook profile.
If you would like Facebook to give you further insight into this matter, please visit Facebook Help Center:
http://facebook.com/help
Do note that because HootSuite does not build Facebook's API, we can only provide service as is.
Thank for using HootSuite!
Jonathan Smith, Oct-05 16:38 (PDT):
1. I can post to Facebook, it just stops working when I post 3 or 4 times in a row and then I have to wait an unspecified amount of time before I can post again. So when I travel and am posting frequently it fails for periods of time after 3-4 posts in a row, within a minute of each other. To get around this I have to use TweetDeck which allows me to post over and over again with out issue.
2. The error message is just a red bar that says Trouble Sending to Social Network. When I send to Twitter it always works but when I send too many times in a row to Facebook I get this. After waiting for an unspecified amount of time it lets me do it again but after a few in a row it stops. The only error message is Trouble Sending to Social Network, no details or anything.
3. It seems to me as though HootSuite has a limit on the number of times you can post to Facebook within a time period and once that is violated it makes you wait for an amount of time before you can post again.
4. On a normal day I post to Facebook 8-10 times but they are not in a row. When traveling and at events i'm covering I'll post back to back to back posts and that is where the problem appears.
5. I have done everything asked of me in the tickets to try to solve this. I believe this to be a HootSuite problem that needs corrected. Resetting my account yet again or disconnecting from Facebook and reconnecting yet again won't solve this as I've done that and the problem keeps happening. Facebook states they have no limits that would cause this and I should check with my vendor.
I apologize for being so blunt but I hope you can understand my frustration - especially when the ticket is marked closed and no solution has been provided.
Support Ranger, Oct-05 12:29 (PDT):
Are you still unable to post to your Facebook account?
Are you seeing any error messages in your Facebook Pending stream? Are you seeing any red messages at the Past Scheduled section of Publisher? If a message has not been sent, there should an explanation in both views for why this is the case.
Thank you in advance.
IB
Jonathan Smith, Oct-05 12:18 (PDT):
It is a bit frustrating that I did everything you reqeusted, no resolution was made available, and yet the ticket was closed.
Posts
Hello Jonathan,
ReplyDeleteOur sympathies for what seems to have been a frustrating exchange over HootSuite Help Desk. In answer to your question, we'd like offer insight into why you may see rate limit variances across different Facebook clients.
When people communicate through HootSuite to Facebook, they're going through a centralized server that parses the API calls. If Facebook hits a certain limit (we don't know what this limit is) from a certain profile, they will hit "the wall" so to speak -- and will be unable to send messages to Facebook until a certain time.
When people install a client like TweetDeck on their computer, they're not going through a centralized server. Rather, their computer is communicating directly with Facebook's API. To be frank, they still are being ratelimited, but the results may be skewed due to not communicating through a centralized server.
The advantage of parsing through a centralized server is that, no matter where you are in the world, you can log into HootSuite and know that the same messages you have scheduled will be visible in your Publisher queue. Hence, there is no need to install HootSuite on multiple machines since HootSuite is a service that is offered "in the cloud".
We hope that clarifies why rate limiting may be different across different Facebook clients.
Chris,
ReplyDeleteThank you very much for your reply. That really helps me and hopefully others understand what is going on and is the first definitive answer I've gotten from anyone.
I certain understand what's happening now that you have clarified things but would hope that HootSuite, in an effort to serve paying customers, would figure out a way to increase that limit so none of their users would get blocked. You are correct, HootSuite being in the cloud is very beneficial however this seems to be the one downside.
At least we have a backup. At the very least I could post to Twitter via HootSuite and Facebook via the their app but I don't like posting the same thing twice. In my case I just switch to TweetDeck because during such period of high volume for me I don't care how it gets out, I'm just trying to get things posted in as efficient and fast a manner as possible.
Again, I really appreciate you chiming in on this discussion and I hope that HootSuite can work to improve their strength in this area as opposed to their cloud platform being a limitation here. Hopefully you are big enough that Facebook would be willing to play ball. As it stands now it appears that if I post too much I may be upsetting the ability of other HootSuite users or they could be upsetting me.
As a final follow-up to this story I got an email from a HootSuite Customer Success Director who had the following to say.
ReplyDeleteHi Jonathan,
I came across the exchange you had with our support team earlier today, on your blog.
I just wanted to reach out and apologize for the initial frustrating exchange you had. I'm glad that we were able to ultimately get you a response which addressed your concern. I do understand that it doesn't fix the issue specifically, and I will get that escalated internally for discussion.
Again, in regards to your customer experience, my apologies for the frustration you felt. We've had a mini team meeting in regards to your specific exchange, talking about how it could have been handled differently and better. If you have any thoughts you'd like to share, I'm wide open to any constructive feedback.
Have a fantastic weekend, and you have my contact information if you have any questions or concerns.
Best regards,
--
Sharad Mohan
Director, Customer Success
I really appreciate that they noticed the discussion I posted here and responded. It also says something that they took quick action internally to address the support issue as well as the technology issues.
I plan to post more about the technology issues but from a support perspective they have won me over. I hope HootSuite maintains this level of support for me and all their customers.