Does the change to Facebook Groups on April 22 affect you? 🤔

| SOCIAL SCOOP | You are receiving this Social Scoop email newsletter as you subscribed via my website and / or via my Social Scoop Facebook Group. If you prefer to STOP receiving emails from me, you can simply unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of this email. Thank you! Greetings {NAME}! You may have heard by now that Facebook will be removing access for all third-party apps inside GROUPS on April 22, 2024. This is, the deprecation of the Facebook Groups API for all apps. Which means two critical things to you, if you are a Facebook group admin: #1. Change how you SCHEDULE posts in your Facebook Groups Starting April 22nd, you will no longer be able to use your favorite social media management platform to schedule content in any Facebook groups you run. Which is a real nuisance for a lot of group admins, I'm sure. 😣 BUT, you *can* use the native scheduler inside Facebook groups. Or you can use Meta Business Suite to schedule content in up to three groups at a time that you manage. And, I just heard today that some apps are going back to the olden days of sending PUSH NOTIFICATIONS for when it's time to publish your content. For example, I understand Buffer is offering this. If you're using a social media management tool for all your channels, then this is a reasonable workaround. I'm also learning that some third-party platforms are pivoting to creating a CHROME EXTENSION version of their tool, which can work well. For instance, [PostMyParty](=) offers such a system for the direct sales industry. There's also PostCron, Social Pilot, and others. See more info on this [Perplexity search](=) I made for you. [Disclaimer: I am not personally endorsing any of these mentioned tools as I do not have personal experience of them, other than Buffer. Please do your own due diligence]. #2. Change how you LIVESTREAM into your Facebook Groups Starting April 22nd, you won't be able to easily live-stream into your groups at the press of a button from any third-party streaming platform. 🙁 BUT, the good news is you can still livestream into your Facebook group using one of three methods: - Facebook Live on your mobile device. This is the native 'Live video' option with the red camera when you tap in the publisher area (the field where you go to make a post). - Facebook Live Producer on your desktop computer. Similar to mobile, you just click on 'Live video' in the publisher. From there, that takes you to Live Producer and you can go live now or schedule a live event. - Any third-party streaming tool via Facebook Live Producer with RTMP* Stream key. Once you've done this a couple times, you'll realize it's relatively easy. You might try a 'dummy run' first in a test group. For an easy step-by-step guide on how to set up the RTMP method, take a look at this [helpful tutorial]() on YouTube by my friend Luria Petrucci. Or [this video]( by my longtime friend, Molly Mahoney. *What is RTMP? RTMP stands for Real-Time Messaging Protocol. It’s a live video streaming technology that lets you transfer data over the internet. It’s a widely used protocol for streaming video, live television and internet phone services. [More info](=). NOTE: for both native Facebook options (mobile or desktop), it's more limited than using an app. You can see comments simply by using a second monitor/screen. But, to my knowledge, you cannot put comments ON the screen unless you use a streaming software. And you should be able to use on-screen graphics with native Facebook Live streaming via desktop. However, it's a bit clunky and not the same at all as our beloved streaming apps! Additional Resources: - Facebook's own help section article on the topic: [How to go live on Facebook with streaming software]( - My Page post from Feb 5th talking about the [deprecation of the Facebook Groups API](=) That's all for now. You're welcome to reach out to me anytime. You can reply to this email. Plus, come connect with your fellow marketers in my wonderfully supportive [Social Scoop Facebook Community](. Cheers 'til the next time! Mari Smith CEO, Mari Smith International, Inc. Premier Facebook Marketing Expert Top Social Media Thought Leader Author, The New Relationship Marketing P.S. Can I just point out that the correct word for getting rid of something is deprecate. (Pronounced DEH·pruh·kayt). As in Meta removing access to the Groups API. In software, deprecate means the removal of a feature. However, a lot of folks mix up this word with depreciate. I know the two words are super close - just add an 'i'! 😆 But depreciate means to lower the value of, not to get rid of. I can be a real stickler for grammar and spelling. (Although, like everyone, I make mistakes, too. haha). P.P.S. As promised, I'm still planning to lead my FREE webinar on Facebook Marketing in an AI World. You didn't miss it!! 🤪 In all transparency, my productivity has been rather hindered for 2.5 weeks with my family visiting again. Lol. Oh well, all good. Sis and BIL set off on the next leg of their travels this Sunday. I'll circle back in another few days with an update on the webinar for you. If you have any questions or feedback, you can reply directly to this email. If you prefer not to receive any emails from me, click to [Unsubscribe]( from all communications, including my Social Scoop newsletter. Mari Smith International, Inc. 1467 Siskiyou Blvd #7 Ashland, Oregon 97520 United States (858) 215-3001 Manage how we communicate with you, [update your preferences]( anytime.