In the final months of 2015, Facebook made several enhancements that make it easier to do business on social networks
"The biggest challenge for small and medium-sized businesses is reaching consumers. Facebook pages are the mobile solution for millions of businesses around the world because they make it easy for business owners to reach new users and communicate with current users where it's most convenient for them - on their mobile devices." Cheryl Sandberg, COO of Facebook. We believe you have seen this statement for yourself, and Facebook continues to work on its platform and provide more opportunities for businesses.
So Facebook have made several changes in recent weeks that have really made communicating with customers easier, faster and more efficient. New year - new luck, as the old saying goes. And to be helpful to you, we thought we'd summarise what's been happening and highlight the benefits of what's new on the social web:
What concerns us remains, however, within the borders of Bulgaria. This is what has already been reflected in our country:
- Messages
A "Send Message" button below user comments allows us as a business to contact someone directly in a private conversation when a public comment is not appropriate or desired. Previously, Facebook did not offer a business page option to contact a person, and the initiative had to come from the user. This forced us to contact people through the personal profiles of administrators, which doesn't seem very professional.
In which cases the "Send Message" button helps us:
- When we set up a game where people participate with a comment, we can contact the winner directly with a private message instead of writing to them asking them to look us up;
- When someone asks in a comment for a price of a service or asks for terms we don't want to announce publicly. We can then reply with a comment that we have asked via private message so that it doesn't look to others that we haven't answered the question.
- When someone makes a negative comment that we want to respond to not publicly, although a better idea is actually to respond publicly. This is our way of stating responsibility and concern for the case.
- Improved messaging functionality
Another innovation that makes communication with users easier is the improved functionality of messages. The interface has been changed and resembles the view of an email account. On the left is the message type, in the middle is your communication itself, and on the right appears the contacts of the person you are communicating with, as well as the photos they have uploaded.
You also have the option to flag your messages (just like in your email) and remind yourself what is a priority for you.
On the right, you can also add notes to give you additional information about your communication.
- Rating badge
It encourages more active pages by showing how quickly the оби
tea page responds to messages. However, this is a bit stressful for the admins because it forces us to be online all the time - we still want to respond to everyone. Shortly after they introduced badges and as part of the improved messaging functionality,
- Facebook also added a button "Аway" ("Absent" in the Bulgarian menu)
It is located in the message section and is linked to the speed of reply rating. You can activate it for 12 hours, and during the set time Facebook will not report if someone has written to you and you have not replied. Sort of - you've set yourself a break and the social network knows about it.
- Improvement of the "Note" option
The other great new feature is the improved "Note". Facebook introduced the new Notes design first for users in September. We were convinced that it was about time this happened for business accounts as well, and Facebook didn't disappoint (as usual). The new notes are more stylish, give the option to add photos with the text (with options to position left, right, centre or across the line), with the ability to split the text with subheads and generally with a blog-like look. That's exactly the best use of this feature - to replace an external blog by offering users posts they don't have to leave Facebook for. Notes did a similar job before, but it seemed far more sketchy and unattractive.
- Change the name of the page despite the presence of more than 200 fans
Yes!This is very good news. You may have noticed that lately many pages you follow have been renamed even though they have more than 200 fans. It is thanks to this feature that we can make the change. It's more than convenient, but you should keep in mind that 7 days after you put a new name, Facebook won't allow you to make other changes like merging pages, giving admin rights, etc.
We will continue to keep you informed of the changes. As you have seen for yourself, they provide us with additional opportunities.
In the meantime, feel free to search for us: Facebook, LinkedIn, office@proper.media.
