Facebook’s updates to pages, which are rolling out globally, help business owners easily communicate with their customers. Markon Brand Design, a web design agency, raves, “These updates are completely on point with the behaviors that brands should be exhibiting in their social media communications.” Here are the five Facebook page updates that will roll out to you soon.
1. Average Response Time
To give page visitors a sense of your responsiveness, Facebook added a feature that shows them your average response time. Options for response time include “within minutes,” “within an hour,” “within hours,” and “within a day.” Although Facebook automatically calculates your average response time, you can change it to however you want it to be. For example, if Facebook calculated your average response time to be one hour, you can set your average response time to one day and adjust your visitors’ expectations accordingly.
Not only does your response time appear on your Facebook page, but it also appears in Messenger threads when a page visitor clicks on your page to send you a message.
2. “Away” Message Status
When you’re online but you’re currently away from your computer, you can change your “online” status to “away.” Doing so lets your visitors know that you won’t be able to respond to their messages in the meantime. Unlike an offline status, away status, which will both appear on Messenger and your page, still allows visitors to message you. The amount of time you take to respond to messages sent while you’re away won’t count in your average response time.
3. Away Messages and Instant Replies
If you’re away, you can create an away message that automatically responds to page visitors on your behalf. These messages can tell visitors when you’ll be back, when they’ll receive a response, and where they can go for more information about your business.
Instant replies, which work regardless of your availability (away or online), on the other hand, are automatically sent only to those who messaged you for the first time. You can use instant replies for various messages, whether you want to greet or thank the messenger for reaching out, to let them know when they’ll receive a response, or to tell them where they can look for more information about your business in the meantime.
4. Profile Previews, Tags, History, and Notes
With this update, page inboxes significantly look and function differently than your regular inbox. When you’re having a conversation with a page visitor, you can look at that person’s profile preview, which includes information the person publicly shares on his or her profile, such as birthday, employment, and location. Additionally, you can view the past interactions between you and the visitor. Finally, you can add tags to categorize certain conversations.
5. Comment Tracking
A comments tab is now available for all page owners. The tab, which you will find under “Activity,” contains all the comments your posts received. You can create a different tab for recently received comments, comments you need to reply to, and comments that no longer need your attention. Just like the message inbox, you can preview your commenters’ profiles.
These updates are rolling out globally, and they will be available to every page in the coming months.
Have these updates rolled out to you? Let us know on the comments section below.
