With more than 2 billion monthly active users, Facebook reigns as the number one social media platform, especially if you want to increase the visibility of your brand. But because Facebook’s the most popular social media platform for online businesses, it also features a tremendous volume of content, making competition fierce. In vying for your prospects’ attention, it’s imperative that you do whatever you can to stand out.
There’s a heap of tricks and features on Facebook that could prove advantageous in boosting your strategy. In this post, we’ll look at some Facebook tricks that can help bolster your platform efforts.
1. Improve Your Facebook Profile
When prospects log onto your Facebook Page, the first things they see are your cover and profile photos.
The saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” definitely applies in this case – by nature, people are visual creatures. If you expect serious-minded customers to respond, you never want to add anything boring, blurry, or inappropriate.
Instead, your Facebook Page needs some personality and style.
To quickly get the attention of your target audience, you want to add interesting, enticing, and professional cover and profile photos. For designing excellent photos, you can use several online tools. But regardless of the photos that you choose, make sure they’re high quality, in the correct size for the platform, and relevant to your brand.
2. Enable High-Definition Photos and Videos to Enhance Your Content
Although content has always been vital to online success, it’s even moreso in today’s competitive market. One of the many objectives of having a Facebook Page for your business is to engage with your audience, however if you notice that added photos or videos of a recent team-building event or your employees mingling with customers show up as poor quality on your mobile device, you have to make the appropriate changes.
When promoting your brand on Facebook, you want to avoid uploading blurry or grainy photos.
Within your Facebook settings, you can make a few minor setting adjustments that enable HD uploads:
- On your mobile device, open the Facebook app.
- Select the main menu symbol in the lower corner.
- Choose “Settings.”
- In the pop-up menu, select “Account Settings.”
- Scroll down and choose “Videos and Photos.”
- Turn on the “Upload HD” feature.
3. Use Call-to-Action Buttons to Drive More Traffic, Leads, and Conversions
The great thing about using call-to-action buttons on Facebook is that you can direct your audience to another page on the site, or an entirely different destination. After uploading compelling photos and videos which provide viewers with insight into the product or service that you offer, you can use a call-to-action button to prompt them to take a particular action.
Ultimately, call-to-action buttons simplify tasks for things like:
- Call Now
- Contact Us
- Book Now
- Use App
- Shop Now
- Watch Video
- Play Game
- Sign Up
You can also customize your call-to-action buttons to better match to your organization – for example, if you have a not-for-profit, you can create a “Donate Now” button.
Regardless of which buttons you want to implement on your Facebook Page, follow these simple steps:
- On your page’s cover photo, click “Add a Button.”
- Choose the call to action that you want.
- Enter the URL for your website.
- Click “Create.”
When creating a lead or local business ad, there are additional call-to-action button options.
You can also add a call-to-action button to your Page for directing people to your app by doing the following:
- On your page’s cover photo, click “Create Call to Action.”
- Make the appropriate choice.
- Add a website URL.
- Click on “Set up a Link to an App?” in the toggle below.
- Below “iOS Setting,” leave “Website” in the drop-down menu. That way, people get directed to your business site. However, for people using an iPhone or iPad, you need to select “App Add an App Link” in the drop-down menu, which gives you another option for adding a Website or App Store Link.
- Below “Android Setting,” leave “Website” in the drop-down menu so that people get directed to your business site. However, directing them using an Android to your app, you need to choose “App Add an App Link” in the drop-down. You can also add a Package Name and a Website or Play Store Link.
- Click “Create.”
With those steps completed, tracking the number of people who clicked through using a call-to-action button becomes easier.
4. Using a Single Inbox to Manage Messages from Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger
You may not realize it, but by updating your inbox, you can more effectively manage your business communications in Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger.
Not only will this save you a lot of time, it also allows you to respond to every inquiry using just one app. With this, you can quickly scan for updates on all three channels, thereby avoiding problems associated with a slow response.
5. Respond to Common Customer Inquiries Using Auto Responses
Another excellent Facebook hack has to do with setting up auto responses, making it easier for you to cater to common customer inquiries.
If your business gets a tremendous volume of messages daily, or you have a team of professionals who focus solely on providing online customer experience, this option can provide incredible value.
With the Facebook Messenger app, you can customize automated experiences when communicating with a large number of customers. The other option is Facebook Marketing Partners, which makes it possible for you to handle incoming communication quickly and efficiently via live chats.
6. View the History of Business Interactions with Facebook Users
When people use Facebook Messenger to interact with your business, you can see their profiles to get better insight into who they are – thereby enabling you to provide a more appropriate and customized response.
The advantage to this is that you can identify local users, as well as determine if they regularly rely on your service, are new customers.
To view the history of a Facebook Messenger user, simply click on that person’s name within the interaction, which enables you to see both the profile and previous business interactions.
7. Encourage Better Engagement Using the Request Recommendation Features
Most people have no idea that Facebook offers several excellent business features designed to promote better user engagement. Although your type of business might not relate to the examples provided, these show the incredible value of this Facebook hack.
- Ordering Food – For restaurant owners, customers in certain regions can order food through a business Facebook Page. Using Slice or Delivery.com, a “Start Order” button facilitates the service. By posting photos of mouthwatering menu options, users may feel enticed to click on the button and place an order.
- Scheduling an Appointment – For service-related local businesses, customers can go to the Facebook Page of the company that provides the service to see everything offered. After scheduling an appointment, the customer will receive a confirmation via Facebook Messenger.
- Getting a Quote – For a car repair shop, insurance company, and other businesses that offer quotes, Facebook now has a “Get Quote” button located on the top of the page. With this, users can request a quote from the business, quickly and easily.
8. Promoting User Engagement with 360-Degree Photos and Videos
Have you considered using 360 photos and videos to boost engagement with your Facebook content?
A perfect example would be a real estate agent promoting a home for sale – instead of providing potential buyers with two-dimensional photos or standard videos which have limited reach and impact, they could use 360-degree photos and videos to create an in-person experience.
And thanks to a relatively new Facebook update, the process of sharing 360-degree photos is a breeze.
- Take a panoramic snapshot of whatever it is you want to promote, using your smartphone, or a 360-degree camera or 360-degree photo app.
- Follow the same conventional process for posting a two-dimensional photo.
- Facebook then converts your photo, making it a 360-degree experience for both prospects and existing customers.
9. Rely on Spatial Audio for Capturing Sound from Every Angle
Spatial audio is probably one of the most exciting Facebook features, producing three-dimensional sound associated with a 360-degree video.
The goal of spatial audio is to create the same sound that humans hear in real life, and because it produces sound as someone moves around in the 360-degree video, it provides viewers with a more realistic experience.
10. Special Features on Facebook Live
Facebook Live makes it possible for users to broadcast live videos using a smartphone.
Even better, Pages and profiles using the Facebook Mentions app or an Android or iOS smartphone can also stream. Streaming live broadcasts is also possible in Facebook events and groups.
Some examples of great live features to utilize are:
- Special Effects to Facebook Live Broadcasts – Thanks to innovative technology, you can now improve the level of professionalism on your Facebook Live video and make it multi-layered. You can take full advantage of this using the Facebook Application Program Interface (API). This technology allows you to build video streams that mix sources for both audio and video, while also introducing special effects.
- Enable Real-Time Reactions on Facebook Live – Data released by Facebook shows that compared to regular videos, Facebook Live videos generate 10x more comments. The good news is that you can use that feedback for customizing your business content to your targeted audience. Although Live Reactions appear in real-time and then disappear quickly, they still give other viewers and broadcasters insight into how users feel at various points in the video.
11. Payments in Facebook Messenger
While a lot of users rely on Facebook Messenger for sending and receiving personal messages, the app is also an excellent way for your business to build lasting relationships with your customers – especially when you consider that roughly five billion combined messages, comments, and visitor posts get posted each month.
One of the most useful new features being added to Messenger is the ability to make payments through the app – not every region has access to this functionality as yet, but it is coming soon.
With payments, users can more easily make purchases whenever they have time to browse.
12. Facebook Ad Tips
By using advertising on Facebook for your business, you can reach and entice customers regardless of their physical location – whether having dinner with friends, spending time at the office, relaxing at home, working out at the gym, and so on. One way to accomplish involves using claim ads.
An excellent, simple way to grab someone’s attention is by offering a promotion or discount. Because most people love a bargain, this encourages them to take action. Using claim ads for your brand, you can create and then share business incentives.
For instance, to offer in-store discounts, you would send people a QR code or barcode. After arriving at the physical store location, they pull up the ad on their mobile device and then present it to the cashier at the time of checkout.
There’s a heap of ways you can use Facebook for your business, and a heap of different tricks and tips to help maximize them. It’s important to stay on top of the latest news and updates to ensure you’re making the most of your Facebook marketging efforts.