Facebook rolls out scheduled posts, hidden posts and better admin controls for Pages

24 Jul 2012

Facebook has introduced new features that will help marketers to schedule updates, hide posts from their Timelines and better manage permissions for third-party apps on their Pages.

Scheduled updates

In an update that Page managers have been waiting almost too long for, Facebook has finally introduced scheduled updates.

Page administrators can now schedule posts for publication at a later time, between 10 minutes and six months from when it was first created. Posts can also be backdated, in order to fill out the Page’s Timeline with any events worth mentioning on an assigned date.

The feature appears within the status update field as button with a clock face.

Facebook scheduled update

Users simply click the button, assign a date and time for publication (minutes are only available in ten-minute increments), click schedule, and the post is then stored in the Page’s Activity Log until it is published.

Facebook scheduled update

From the Activity Log, the assigned time for publication can be changed or the post can be deleted up to three minutes from the time of posting.

Facebook scheduled update

Hidden posts

Marketers can use Facebook’s market segmentation tools in order to direct posts to a particular demographic, and sometimes these posts may not be relevant to the brand’s Timeline (say, for example, a special offer in a particular branch may not need to be promoted on a Page meant for an entire franchise).

To keep Page Timelines streamlined and focused on brand identity as a whole, Facebook is now allowing Page admins to hide certain posts from their Timelines.

Though we haven’t seen this feature hit Siliconrepublic.com’s Facebook Page just yet, we expect it to be rolled out soon.

Page permissions

Facebook previously rolled out different levels of access for assigned Page admins, and this has now been extended to include third-party apps. From now on, if Page owners decide to integrate a third-party app into their Pages to help with managing content creation, moderation or ad creation, they can now manage the permissions of this app instead of granting it blanket access.

For example, an ads management app can be assigned ‘Ads Creator’ permission, which will allow it to do what it needs to do without assigning it permission to create and monitor posts, as well.

Elaine Burke is the host of For Tech’s Sake, a co-production from Silicon Republic and The HeadStuff Podcast Network. She was previously the editor of Silicon Republic.

editorial@siliconrepublic.com