Distribion Update: Facebook Social Media Posting Changes
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Effective August 1, 2018, Facebook is removing the functionality that allows us to post to a platform users timeline, or 'wall'. This applies to both user-initiated and OBO social deployments.
However, Facebook will allow, and is augmenting the functionality to post to 'pages' within their network.
This means beginning August 1, any users that wish to post for themselves, or via OBO permissions will need to have a 'page' associated with their account for any curated content. It is our expectation that many users will already have a 'business' page setup, but if not, you will need to advise them on the actions required of them to continue social participation from the platform.
If the users 'profile' is primarily used for business rather than social purposes, it can be converted to a business page. Facebook has provided a primer for both creating a new business page, and for converting an existing profile into a business page. Here.
Why? You might be asking yourself? Mark Zuckerberg has recently announced that the company’s new priority will be to encourage its users to “have more meaningful interactions,” the goal being for more users to post organic content, that is, content about their own lives. This means that Facebook will prioritize person-to-person interactions, so in the future you will see less posts by pages and companies, and more by people. You will also be seeing changes to the way content is displayed in your feed. Content will be sorted by most likes-and-shares, rather than by what Facebook considers to be relevant.
So, what will change in the platform? Not much really.
Users should not have to re-authenticate. We will however, on their behalf, automatically remove the OBO permission setting for their main profile page on 7/31/2018.
They will also no longer be able to view or select their main profile page within the User Interface. Only 'pages' will display.
There are many articles 'out there' to help you understand the coming changes, but here are a few for reference.
A good overview: https://stellarbluetechnologies.com/2018/01/what-businesses-need-to-know-about-facebooks-upcoming-changes-to-the-news-feed/
A bit more technical read: https://techcrunch.com/2018/04/24/facebook-api-changes/
From Facebooks own CTO: https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/04/restricting-data-access/