Many of you have artist fan pages on Facebook. Many of you also have a blog. I’m sure a handful of you already import your blog to your Facebook fan page. And I’m sure you have at some point been scratching your heads and wondering “Why isn’t my latest blog post showing up on Facebook?!”
With plenty of third-party RSS applications for Facebook out there to choose from, it’s a mystery to me why none of them still don’t actually work. I’ve tried them all – Social RSS, Simply RSS, Involver’s RSS app, and even Facebook’s own “Notes” (how intuitive is it that someone’s blog can be found under a tab called “Notes”?! ). My blog posts pop up in people’s newsfeeds hours, days and sometimes a whole week after it was actually published, and often in the wee hours of the morning when my friends are all asleep.
If you type in ‘RSS’ in the Facebook search box, the top result “Social RSS”, despite having a wopping 546 689 active users, has been given the poor rating of 2.3 out of 5 stars by its users.
So if none of the RSS applications work, what do we do?!
Until some kind soul out there designs a working RSS app, I have found that the best way to publish your latest blog post is to simply take 2 seconds out of your day and post the link to your article in your status. Accompany the link with a catchy question or title that catches the eye. You can still have an RSS application of your choice with a tab on your Facebook fan page, so that your latest 10 blog posts (or 5, or 20) are still visible to the world long after they’ve disappeared from your friend’s newsfeeds and your page’s wall. Just make sure to turn off the “publish to wall” function (in Social RSS, this setting is at the bottom of the application’s settings page)
so that you don’t wind up double-posting – you don’t want to spam your friends so they hide you from their newsfeeds, right? 
Another good option out there that may interest some of you is a blog-community called Networked Blogs, they have their own application for Facebook and this one actually WORKS! My blog posts show up immediately after they’ve been published; at worst a couple of hours later. A positive thing about this app is that it is increased exposure for your blog, since you become a part of a community where your blog is searchable and can be pushed to the top through likes, number of followers and star-ratings. The negative thing about the app is that when someone clicks on your link in their newsfeed, they are taken to a page within the Networked Blogs community instead of being directed to your actual blog. You can still see how many have viewed your Networked Blogs page, but for those of you with webshops and other fan-interaction functions on your homepage this might not always be the best option.
As it is today, you unfortunately cannot import your blog into your own Static FMBL tab – you would have to design your own third party app or have someone else do it.
Have I missed a great RSS application out there, or do you have any other tips? Please feel free to leave a comment below!
There is also a fantastic service called artistdata.com that collects social media data and distributes it to various pages on the web. Time saving to say the least! Great article though.
Awesome!! Just registered an account and will check it out. Thanks for the tip Joni =)