TL;DR
Why we launched daily limits, some clarification, what we’ve learned, mistakes along the way and how we are fixing them. Yes, we are increasing the limits 🙂
We recently launched some changes to TinyTorch. Specifically affecting the number of posts that can be scheduled to a given Facebook account (profile, page, event, or group) in a 24 hour period. There have been a number of questions, concerns, and feedback presented, and we appreciate all the thought you have all put into this. We recognize that TinyTorch has been an important part of the online marketing success of many of your businesses. We want to help clarify some misunderstandings around those changes.
One misunderstanding is related to how the various scheduled posting limits work. There are three types of limits on scheduling to a social account: queue, rate and daily.
The Queue
The queue is the total number of pending scheduled posts you can have at any point in time. These posts could be scheduled every minute or every day. Once you hit the limit, you have to wait for some posts to get scheduled before you can schedule more.
For example:
I have a Facebook page: “Adam’s Online Store”. In one sitting I could, for example, schedule 100 posts over the next few weeks. Then I reach my limit – I now have a queue size of 100. Once the first post is scheduled my queue size is reduced to 99 and I can schedule another post. Free accounts have a limit of 100 and Pro accounts have a limit of 200.
Rate
We limit 1 scheduled post per minute. One of the most common causes of rejected posts to Facebook is trying to schedule too many posts at the same time. We encourage users to space posts further apart (a minimum of 30 minutes) for better reach and visibility, however, we don’t restrict that.
Daily
This is the number of posts you can schedule to a specific social account (Facebook profile, page, event, group, or Twitter account) within a 24 hr period.
For example:
I have an event: “Adam’s Bday Party”. With a free TinyTorch account, I can schedule up to 15 posts to that event on Monday, then another 15 posts to that event on Tuesday, etc. I can also schedule up to 15 posts to another social account on any of those days. Pro accounts currently have a limit of 20 posts per social account per day.
TinyTorch has and will always offer a free tier of service for our users. With that comes some challenges: we have grown very quickly and have a wonderfully active community of users. That has put us in hot water several times with Facebook. We’ve unfortunately seen many users put in “Facebook jail”, and our entire application has been temporarily suspended due to automated spam triggers within Facebook’s platform. These have some very negative effects for our users, as well as our business.
Launching upgraded paid features has always been a part of the roadmap for TinyTorch. We have invested a considerable amount of time and resources supporting this free platform with nearly no limitations to our users. It’s been a pleasure, however, we would love to stay in business and keep our servers running :). We also want to avoid getting shut down by Facebook again.
We’ve been fortunate to create some good relationships with engineers at Facebook (although the circumstances were never ideal, haha). In discussions with several of them, we’ve been encouraged to help our users decrease the number of duplicate posts to the same Facebook accounts (especially within a short period of time). We’ve seen some users post over 200 times to a single event or group within a single day. While we recognize that this is not all of our users, it still has a negative impact on everyone. Unfortunately, when a few users abuse the system for long enough it can effect things for everyone.We have followed these guidelines to help ensure increased visibility and reduced errors.
We have followed these guidelines to help ensure increased visiblity and reduced errors.
We have followed these guidelines to help ensure increased visibility and reduced errors.A few of our competitors have spoken up saying that Facebook does not impose daily limits on posting, only general API usage limits. While this is technically true; they don’t limit the number of posts to a specific account (event, group, profile or page), they do rate limit abusive users and will reject posts if they are scheduled too often, with duplicate content (i.e. using sales “scripts”) or repeatedly to the same account. Some of you may have already experienced being put in “Facebook jail”, it’s not something you want for your online business.
A few of our competitors have spoken up saying that Facebook does not impose daily limits on posting, only general API usage limits. While this is technically true; they don’t limit the number of posts to a specific account (event, group, profile or page), they do rate limit abusive users and will reject posts if they are scheduled too often, with duplicate content (i.e. using sales “scripts”) or repeatedly to the same account. Some of you may have already experienced being put in “Facebook jail”, it’s not something you want for your online business.As a result of these experiences, we as a team made some hard decisions to limit the usage of our users. We also coupled this with the launch of our paid features to help those that needed higher limits and to reduce the growing costs of our free tier.
As a result of these experiences, we as a team made some hard decisions to limit the usage of our users. We also coupled this with the launch of our paid features to help those that needed higher limits and to reduce the growing costs of our free tier.The exact limits we set were not explicitly defined by Facebook or their engineers, they were merely guidelines recommended by those we’ve spoken to. We have followed these guidelines to help ensure increased visibility and reduced errors.
The exact limits we set were not explicitly defined by Facebook or their engineers, they were merely guidelines recommended by those we’ve spoken to. We have followed these guidelines to help ensure increased visibility and reduced errors.We have already seen an improvement in our Facebook API error rates and visibility since the changes have taken place. However, we’ve also heard from some of our users the impact this has had on their business. We made a mistake by rushing the launch of these limits and should have put a better plan in place to prepare everyone. For that, we apologize! We’ve had some time to review the results of the change along with the feedback and ideas of our users. As a result, we aim to update the limits we’ve set to more closely match the needs of the majority of users. We recognize that with any sort of limits or subscription plans there will be those that aren’t satisfied with the choices made. We encourage those users to continue to share their concerns with us, and we will do our best to provide solutions or changes where possible. We also hope our users will be understanding of these decisions and recognize that they have been made with considerable thought to the needs of all users and our business.
We have already seen an improvement in our Facebook API error rates and visibility since the changes have taken place. However, we’ve also heard from some of our users the impact this has had on their business. We made a mistake by rushing the launch of these limits and should have put a better plan in place to prepare everyone. For that, we apologize! We’ve had some time to review the results of the change along with the feedback and ideas of our users. As a result, we aim to update the limits we’ve set to more closely match the needs of the majority of users. We recognize that with any sort of limits or subscription plans there will be those that aren’t satisfied with the choices made. We encourage those users to continue to share their concerns with us, and we will do our best to provide solutions or changes where possible. We also hope our users will be understanding of these decisions and recognize that they have been made with considerable thought to the needs of all users and our business.Recent Changes to the Pro Account
Recent Changes to the Pro AccountCurrent daily limits:
Current daily limits:
Pro – 20 per social account per dayNew daily limits:
New daily limits:
Pro – 35 per social account per day* Reminder, check with your current organization to see if you qualify for an ongoing monthly discount
* Reminder, check with your current organization to see if you qualify for an ongoing monthly discount, these changes are already in effect. If you have a Pro account, you can start immediately scheduling up to 35 posts per day per social account (FB profile, event, group, page, Twitter profile, etc).
These changes are already in effect. If you have a Pro account, you can start immediately scheduling up to 35 posts per day per social account (FB profile, event, group, page, Twitter profile, etc).There are also discussions around launching a more robust plan for our “power users”. One that balances the need for higher plan limits without abusing our 3rd party social integrations (Facebook, Twitter).
There are also discussions around launching a more robust plan for our “power users”. One that balances the need for higher plan limits without abusing our 3rd party social integrations (Facebook, Twitter).We hope these changes will help our loyal user base continue to see success with TinyTorch. While the limits have been increased, we can’t stress enough that with social media: “less is more”. A few high-quality posts will always perform better than blasting out tens or even hundreds of overly “salesy” posts.
We hope these changes will help our loyal user base continue to see success with TinyTorch. While the limits have been increased, we can’t stress enough that with social media: “less is more”. A few high-quality posts will always perform better than blasting out tens or even hundreds of overly “salesy” posts.Be sure to send us your thoughts and feedback on the recent changes.
Be sure to send us your thoughts and feedback on the recent changes.