As one of the longest-running, most popular social networks, it’s no surprise that Facebook is always thinking of new ways to keep people connected and to drive business.
Here are some of the new updates that have been in focus over the last few weeks.
Facebook and Instagram Shops
While this is not a new feature for many, Facebook shops have had a makeover over the last few weeks – including, making it accessible to more regions.
To get started with your shop, you need to qualify for setting up a Commerce Manager. This is where you can create your inventory and manage your sales processes. A few things that you need to know to set up a Commerce Manager:
- Your physical business address and an email address that people can contact you on.
- The category that best describes your business.
- Your bank account information so you can receive payment for your goods.
- Your shipping options, return policy and customer service email.
Once you have that all set-up, you can move along to loading your products. You can add to your inventory by creating a catalogue of your products. To simplify it, Facebook has created a helpful guide which is linked HERE.
Now, back to your Commerce Manager – this is where you will manage all of your sales processes, this is a vital step in creating a successfully managed shop. As you’ve already uploaded your inventory, you can start to customise.
To get started, click on the “Customise your shop button”. From there, the new Shop Builder set up provides you with a range of visual options. This gives you the chance to create Collections of products, update the layout and style of your items, and also see how your listings will look on both Facebook and Instagram form a viewers perspective.
As mentioned, Facebook and Instagram shops have been around for a while now. However, this new update allows businesses to put more emphasis on their Shops, and to better manage how their items are displayed to visitors.
At the moment, this update is only available to a few pages. Eventually, be made available to all pages, meaning more businesses will have more optionality to sell organically through Social Media. With this in mind, now might be the perfect time to get started – you can begin with Commerce Manager now, ahead of the full Shops rollout, which could make it easier to get your business established and ready to sell in both apps!
Image Presentation Updates
October last year, Facebook began testing a new set of image presentation options for posts. These options included a new way to upload multi-images, enabling more ways to showcase your visuals.
Since then, formatting has not been at the forefront of Facebook’s agenda. But, with this release, it is looking like Facebook are trying to focus more on the smaller things.
As you can see in the screenshot above, the new layout allows you to choose from 4 different image templates. Some users in certain regions cannot see these options as of yet, however, people are reporting progress.
That will provide new attention for your Facebook posts, which could help to make your businesses posts to stand out in more in your followers feeds. Although, many users have already pointed out that these new templates may seem new and different for a start, and then when everyone is using them, the novelty may wear off.
A few ideas on how to best use these new templates are:
- Showcase your products in a more creative way
- Advertise promotions on your page
- Push competitions
While this is not a huge change and may not interest a lot of people, as many people already use collage apps on their mobiles. This could save businesses time when it comes to creating stylish images layouts and making collages.
New Hosting System for Music Videos
Facebook is launching a new program which intends to provide more motivation for music publishers to post on the platform. This is a step up for Facebook as it is being seen a large competition for the giant that is YouTube. The main aim of Facebook is to drive more users to their Facebook watch section by luring them in with exclusive content from their favourite celebrities and artists.
The new process will inspire the official Facebook Pages of musicians to switch over to a new setting by August 1st.
Along with the above image, Facebook also made the following statement:
“No need to link or upload anything, your library will stay up to date with the latest videos licensed to Facebook. […] Whenever we get a new release from a music label, your Page will share it right to your timeline so it can reach your followers’ News Feeds.”
This new process means that Facebook will have more control over music on the platform and enables them to strike better distribution deals with the publishers.
That could provide a big boost for Facebook’s video efforts. Although, it may take some time for Facebook to be inline with Youtubes success. However, the more people publishing on Facebook, the bigger the draw towards Facebook Watch. Once Facebook has a large enough audience, they will start to monetise content and build up their video service.
Take Advantage of These Updates
If you are interested in learning more about social media marketing and how it can benefit your business please do get in touch with a member of our team.
There are several ways you can get in touch with a member of our team. You can call us on the number 0115 727 0038 or you can complete our form on our contact us page. All of our specialists are ready to help you you so feel free to get in touch whenever you are ready to start this project.
