In case you missed it, Facebook announced last month a series of updates and changes to the business pages designed to to “Make it Easier for businesses to Interact with Customers.” The company noted that these changes would be even more obvious for local businesses on mobile versions for Facebook. More than a billion people every month visit Facebook business pages so this is a huge audience impacted.
So what are the big changes? Facebook introduced new call-to-action buttons that businesses can use on their page. Facebook said that these enhancing call-to-action buttons on Facebook Business Pages will allow people to schedule, order, buy and do more seamlessly on local businesses pages – especially mobile pages.
Image courtesy of SearchEngineJournal
It explains further in its blog:
“For instance, if you’re a pizzeria, hungry customers will be able to review your menu, make their selection and complete their order with you, straight from your Page. If you’re a spa, potential customers will be able to review your services and book an appointment with you, straight from your Page.”
Those new CTA buttons are:
- Start Order: Lets your customers place orders via delivery.com or Slice.
- Book Now: Lets your customers book appointments with your business via HomeAdvisor, MyTime, or other services.
- Buy Tickets: Lets your customers buy tickets to your events via Eventbrite or Ticketmaster.
- See Showtimes: Lets customers see show schedules and buy tickets via Fandango.
Businesses that want to utilize these integrations will have to update CTA buttons and add a third-party service.
To take advantage of these new integrations, you’ll have to update your call-to-action button and go through the process of adding a third-party service.
Facebook has also added three new CTA buttons that are integrated with Messenger. Whenever someone clicks on one of these buttons, it will create a new Messenger thread.
Those new buttons are:
- Get Quote: Customers can request a quote for your service (This feature is limited globally).
- Request Time: Customers can request an appointment/booking (this is only available in the U.S. if you’ve added a Services section to your Page).
- Shop Now: You can showcase products for people to buy from the Shop section. This is globally available to all Pages.
If you’d like to implement these changes on your Facebook Business Pages, simply edit the existing call-to-action button on your Page—or create a new one—and Facebook will guide you through the process.
Finally, Facebook also announced a way to make it easier for people to recommend businesses to their friends.
How does this work? When people create posts asking for recommendations from friends, they will have the option to include relevant Pages in comments and post these recommendations on a map. You want to make sure your business can be discovered and properly tagged – so be sure to complete your business Page’s info section. This will allow it to be easily found when someone makes a recommendation.
To help your business be discovered, complete your Page’s info section so it’s easily found when someone makes a recommendation.
These changes were just rolled out to the US so businesses are still finding them and learning how best to use them. What do you think? Is Facebook making it better and easier for businesses to use its platform? Are you using Facebook to find new customers and promote your business? Contact Kaufer DMC for a free consultation and learn how you can use social media and online reputation tools to increase your business.
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