Did you know Facebook has launched many options to for users to customize their preferences? As a marketer, you need to know the update yourself as well as your team about these new features since Facebook has more customers than any other social media channels. In this post, I will give you a detailed summary of constantly added features in 2015:
1. Choose what to see in Newsfeed: I personally see this is a very useful feature when it comes to choosing what to see first. If your company has a great content, this could be seen as a competitive advantage. To get this feature, simply go to “Liked” button and choose “Posts in News feed” or go to the very far right, click on the down arrow and select “News Feed Preferences.
2. Money transfer: Good news if you are in ecommerce business. You can send money through the message (look for the dollar icon) It’s also available in the Messenger app. This is pretty convenient if you’re trading goods mainly on Facebook. However, it’s only available in the U.S. and only debit card is acceptable. This is super convenient for retailers since they don’t have to pay for third party to receive the money from the customers.
3. Facebook conversation: search for keywords in conversation: You can actually search keywords in your conversation in the inbox (Look for the left magnificent glass icon on the right hand side). You can also put “Flagged” to save the message as better follow-up. On the right hand side, you will find “Add notes” as an effective way to keep track with your customer regarding question or inquiry. I strongly believe Facebook is leveraging their efforts with better customer service
4. Featured videos: Video apparently helps your business page gain more organic reach. If you have several videos, pick the good one and it will be displayed on “About” box in the left sidebar. Facebook even leverage their video feature into a new level by adding live video through Facebook mentions. All you need is verifying your account with Facebook and you’re ready to stream video from your mobile app.
5. 360 degree video view: Facebook introduces the 360-degree video. When the video is playing on Facebook, you can view it in all angles. You can drag it by your mouse (on computer) or by finger (on smartphone). This is a great chance for business to increase the organic reach. This also means more people will upload the content directly instead of using Youtube links. This incredible feature is going along well with new technology, virtual reality (e.g. virtual reality glasses)
6. Add shop feature on Facebook page: One of the my favorite feature that Facebook added a new feature to boost up the ecommerce is “shop” tab which is displayed at a single place on top of the page. The visitors can discover, share and even purchase the products. I already tested this feature and my advice is setting the image at 1200x1200px, providing brief and precise product info along with its price
7. Animated profile photo: Facebook definitely impressed me when they announced they will let the users to upload animated GIFs as the profile image. This will help both the personal and business page to be more fun and engaging. Besides, Facebook also introduced the temporary profile photo which is can set a time limit for how long your image will be shown in the profile. This feature is exclusively applied on mobile app. It is pretty interesting and convenient when setting the temporary profile for one hour, one day, or one week and it will switch back to the previous one. There are many website to help you create free animated GIFs and you’d better get one and adapt to the change.
8. Messenger app on business page: It is a real battle among messaging apps when Facebook announced the new feature, a video call via its Messenger. Customers can have personal and detailed conversations with businesses such as order confirmation, shipping status. Customers also have a chance to make requests and receive quick
9. Hello: Isn’t it convenient when you can make a phone call from messenger app for free. Forget about other calling apps such as Viber, Skype, now you can call your Facebook friends or book reservations at local restaurants for free by using Hello app
Conclusion: If you want to get more reach, impressions, and engagement among your existing fans and followers or even attract the potential ones, you need to give your audience more content, especially the video ones. Your followers, your money! So it is important to stay updated within the Facebook world so you can keep track and implement more tactics for further social media success.
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