There are a number of free services available to push your blog traffic to Facebook, and an array of other social networks.  One of the more popular services that I have not only used, but recommended in the past was NetworkedBlogs.  NetworkedBlogs is an extremely popular app used by a number of professional and amateur bloggers to not only push their content to Facebook, but to connect with their other favorite blogs via Facebook. Overall it’s a great service, the problem lies in how the app delivers blog content to Facebook from your blog.

NetworkedBlogs uses iFrame’s to deliver blog content from the app in both user streams and within the app itself.  You may recall a while back that both DIgg and HootSuite took heat for similar practices because people felt the social media giants were stealing site traffic and keeping users within their own site.  Though this is a practice that has been frowned upon time and again, NetworkedBlogs seems to continue doing it without a blink of an eye.  Digg eventually did way with their culprit the “Diggbar” and HootSuite eventually gave their users the option of using a Ht.ly toolbar for links shortened in HootSuite, or the Ow.ly option which would redirect to the long URL.

Why Are iframes Bad?

The problem with iframes are that they place your content within the confines of another website. This creates issues when people link to or share your content. Oftentimes they will reference the URL in the address bar alone, and not think to link to the original content. This means that any links built to the content in the iframe will pass value to the site framing the content, and not the original content creator. And even scarier, if the site providing the iframe or shortened URL shuts down, so does that link to your web content.

What’s the Alternative?

There are a number of alternatives out there if you are looking for something to simply feed your content to Facebook once it goes live.  I recently started using dlvr.it to feed not only to Facebook, but also to Twitter.  Another popular alternative is RSSGraffiti, which I am seeing more websites use as an alternative.  There are a number of alternatives on the market both in the form of Facebook or web app as well as WordPress plugins. The key is to look for services that will redirect you to your website’s full URL and not rely on iframes to deliver your content.

Already using a service to send your blog updates to Facebook or another social network? Share your favorite service in the comments below!