Facebook Tools for Your Business

Facebook has made some updates that benefit small and medium sized businesses. These include improvements to the call-to-action button, new sections, and a soon to come new mobile layout. All of these improvements to Facebook can greatly improve your business if used correctly. They can cause more users to buy your products, download your games/apps, and general interest in your business which can bring more customers.

Call-To-Action Buttons

Facebook has made improvements to the call-to-action buttons. They  are much more prominent on your page and are displayed directly under the page cover photo. Some most popular options include ‘call now’, ‘send message’ and ‘contact us’. Here is a breakdown of more buttons:

• Book now – this can be helpful for any business that makes any sort of appointments such as hair stylists or hotels
• Use app – this is a unique one for those that have a mobile app and may increase the downloads of your app
• Play game – this is another unique one and is driven mostly for gaming businesses and can redirect the user to play a game demo or to the game online
• Shop now – this is for any business that sells any products and redirects the user to your ecommerce website (Also see ‘shop’ section below to improve this feature)
• Sign up – this can be used for any business that has an email subscription, or to sign up for the service such as Uber
• Watch video – this can be used for any company that has a video about their business or maybe their products. It’s a good way to get users more interested in your business
• Donate now – this is the most recent and is for non-profit organizations only

Send Message

Almost all the call-to-action buttons are pretty self-explanatory but the ‘send message’ button has to be used carefully. Once you have the ‘send message’ on your customers expect you to be responsive. Remember your goal is to have a high ‘Response Signal’ (more below). If you respond to 90 percent of messages within five minutes, you’ll earn a “Very Responsive to Messages” badge that tells page visitors that you can be reached effectively through messaging.

Once you know you are ready to be responsive to messages you get you need to know how to respond.

• Don’t be a robot – In your response write to the customer as if you were talking to them and not a robot using an automatic response. This makes a more personal connection with your customer.
• Short and informative not long and boring – There is not a limit of characters on Facebook messenger but you still should make it short and to the point. When using saved replies (more on this below) try to limit them to only frequently asked questions.
• Use Private responses when necessary – There are new options to respond privately when including sensitive information such as billing questions, order statuses, and sensitive customer complaints.

New Sections

New sections on the business page include ‘shop’ and ‘services’.  The new ‘Shop’ section lets the business put their products on their page while the new ‘Service’ section lets the business list out services offered at the business.

Mobile Layout

A new mobile layout will make customers more easily find what they are looking for with your business by using tabs instead of endless scrolling should be coming out soon.

More Features

More features include ‘Saved Replies’ and ‘Response Signals’.

The ‘Saved Replies’ lets a company save a response to a common question “like ‘What are your hours?’ or ‘Do you have a certain product in stock?’ so companies can pre-write those answers and respond more efficiently.” (CNBC)

The ‘Response Signals’ lets companies identify which pages are more responsive (live Mint).  This will show a response rate to the admin and show on the page if a high enough rate.