5 Facebook Page Updates to Help You Better Engage Your Followers
This year, Facebook introduced new options to its Page settings that allow organizations to drive interaction with their followers and reach new visitors. Below are five new features your organization can use to drive your digital brand.
1. GIF-ify Your Page
Bring your Facebook post alive with a GIF. A graphic interchange format (GIF) image is a short moving picture – typically between 3-7 seconds – that continually repeats. GIFs allow organizations to engage their followers by attracting attention to calls-to-action, events, and announcements with an emotionally appealing video. Whether humorous, an action sequence, or an event highlight, GIFs attract attention and will help convey your message better than words or a static image alone.
2. Improved Call-to-Action Button
At their core, organizations need their customers and stakeholders to take action. Now, they can accomplish this goal with the call-to-action button. Displayed directly under the Page cover photo, the new button allows visitors to make an appointment, communicate with a service representative, or make a donation directly from the page. There are currently seven calls to action available: Book Now, Contact Us, Use App, Play Game, Shop Now, Sign Up, and Watch Video. Page owners can set unique URL destinations for the button: a contact form on a website, a video on YouTube, etc.
3. Added Shop and Services Feature
Taking broad steps to meet the needs of their business customers, Facebook introduced Shop and Services sections that allow organizations to feature information core to their mission. In the Shop section, businesses can highlight specific products, putting them at the forefront of their Page and directly in front of visitors. The Services section allows organizations to showcase their service offerings and provide in-depth details on what they can accomplish for prospective customers.
4. Improved Comment Management
To help keep track of comments on Pages, Facebook built a new tool that offers organizations a single place to view and respond to comments on both desktop and mobile. Through the tool, Page managers can flag interactions for follow up, reply privately, or mark them as done. This new feature makes it easy to track and respond to comments, and reduces the risk of missing these important engagement opportunities.
5. Mobile Optimized Page Views
Today, more than 89% of Facebook’s 1.5 billion monthly users visit the site using a mobile device.[1] To make Page viewing easier for mobile users, Facebook has optimized organizations’ Page layouts so information is easy to find without lots of scrolling and clicking. Page sections now have tap-activated tabs that take mobile visitors to posts, photos and videos. In addition, important information and recent posts are displayed at the top of the Page, making them the first things mobile visitors will see.
In the past decade, Facebook has disrupted and changed the way organizations communicate and interact with their customers and stakeholders. Understanding what tools and features are available to you will not only attract people to your Page, but help you engage with them on a platform at the center of their social interactions. If you’re interested in learning more about how to leverage Facebook and integrating it better into your communications strategy, contact the social media marketing experts at Tripepi Smith.
Citations
[1] Facebook Reports Third Quarter 2015 Results