Facebook isn't letting pages share directly to other pages anymore

Update: It looks like the easy share feature is back. Whether it was a feature they abandoned or a glitch is unknown at this time, but definitely take the information I include below about the limited value of pages (not individuals, pages) sharing to another page to heart. This is not a good strategy for getting your message out.

I woke up this morning to a number of people contacting me wanting to know why they couldn't share a post from one Facebook page to another anymore.

This was news to me, but when I got online, I checked, and found it was true for pages that had been converted to the new format -- which is supposed to be fully implemented on all pages by June 5.

What does this mean for animal organizations?

On one hand, it's a good thing, as reach (the number of people who see your posts) is almost zero for shared page posts. It's a bad practice to share from one page to another if you want your followers to see the content you're sharing.

On the other hand, reach is not the only reason one page might share something to another. Often, it's a way to let the other page know what's going on. For instance, this weekend I'm doing social media for Maddie's Pet Adoption Days, and the particiapting organizations have been sharing their posts to the MPAD Facebook page so we'll be aware of their promotions and available pets.

Nonetheless, sharing from one page you manage to another with the idea that people will see those shared posts in their newsfeeds was not a good strategy to get your message out, and the end of this feature is going to prompt you to create original content for your pages, and thus, get greater reach.

For those of us who used the share feature for other purposes, it will be missed.

For however long it lasts, there's a couple of workarounds. First, the easiest:

1. At the top of the page you manage, switch so you're operating as yourself, not the page.
2. Click "share" on the post.
3. Select "Share on a page you manage" from the menu that starts out with "Share on your timeline.
4. Select the page you want to share it to.

If that stops working or for whatever reason doesn't work for you, try this:

1. Add the Facebook share bookmarklet to your browser's toolbar. (You'll find it here.)
2. Go to the post you want to share. If this is a photo, just click on the photo. If it's not a photo, click on the date/timestamp and it will open as a new page.
3. Click on the share bookmarklet.
4. Select "Share on a page you manage" from the menu that starts out with "Share on your timeline."
5. Select the page you want to share it to.

However, given the reality of the changes Facebook is making these days, don't count on this workaround to last.

And more importantly, understand that no one is visiting your Facebook page and seeing what you posted, so if your a post won't show up in people's newsfeeds, you would be better off not posting it at all.