As many of you may have noticed when you log in to your Facebook business pages, they have changed the layout of the pages...again. As much as we love Facebook, even we have to acknowledge that their constant changes are hard to keep up with! Once we started poking around in the new page layout, however, we noticed that their ideas are actually fantastic. The new layout looks more modern and up-to-date, and the best part is that it allows you to separate your business and personal activity on Facebook even more. If your head is still spinning at the new layout, don’t panic...we’re going to give you a brief, guided tour of the new Facebook business page layout and explain how you can use it to your benefit. By the end of this post, you should understand the new layout a little bit more!
Just like on your personal profile, your tabs have moved to the side. At first, we were a little bit confused as to why Facebook would move your tabs to the side of the page. It was so much easier to navigate when they were above your wall, right? The more we’ve used these new tabs though, the more we like them. They’re easy to see, because they’re right below your profile picture. Since they’re not so obviously above the wall, they draw more attention to your page’s content and less to the tabs. We also think that moving the tabs to the side of the pages has made them look more personalized and less like just a marketing platform. Instead of having a “See My Listings” tab directly in front of your face, like it used to be, it is more subtly to the side of the page, making your business page seem more like a place to interact with your community, just like it’s supposed to be. Remember, you want to use Facebook for marketing purposes, but you don’t want to look like you’re just scouting for business on Facebook. You want to come across as someone who wants to interact with your community and educate them about real estate, and this new layout draws more attention to that aspect of your business!
You can log in as your page! This is possibly our favorite part about the new Facebook page layout. Before, you could post on your page using your business’s name, but if you went to another business and commented on their posts, your personal name would show up. That’s not ideal when you’re using Facebook for business reasons. When you’re showing support to a local restaurant or non-profit, it looks better when you can show support under your business page name. When people see that one local business supports another that they like, they are likely to click on that business and become a fan of it themselves! Having the ability to interact with other businesses on their page as your business will give your company that much more exposure on Facebook. We think that it’s just another tool that you can use to interact with your community and expose your name to even more people! In order to log in as your page, it’s quite simple: you log in to Facebook, go to the “Account” drop-down menu, select “Use Facebook as Page”, and when your business page comes up, you click “Switch.” It’s so easy to switch back and forth between business and personal pages, and the best part is that it answers the question “How do I separate my personal Facebook use from my business page?”
You can get notifications, just like on your personal page. The new Facebook layout does something that we wished the old one did...they show you notifications and new fans! Now, whenever you log in as your page, you will see immediately if someone has interacted with your business page in any way and how many new fans you get each day. Just like on your personal account, the icon that looks like a person shows the number of new fans you get each day. When you click on that icon, a list of each fan that has liked your page from the day before shows up. The icon that looks like a globe shows your notifications. Every time someone writes on your wall, “likes” or comments on one of your posts, or comments on a photo you can know, just by clicking on that icon. It makes it much easier to keep track of who is interacting with your page, and it insures that you don’t miss the chance to respond to any fan who is interacting with you!
Your business page now has its own newsfeed! Yes, this is another feature that we think is amazing! Now, when you log in as your page and click on the “Facebook” icon, you will be taken to a separate newsfeed for your business page. You can see all the status updates of the other business pages that you like and interact with directly on this brand new newsfeed! This just makes it that much easier to interact with other local businesses in your community. Now, every time you want to “like” someone’s status or comment on it, you don’t have to go right to their page. Instead, you can find it right on your newsfeed and do it from there. It makes it easier and more convenient for you to keep track of what the businesses in your community are up to, and in our opinion, anything that increases efficiency that is easier to use is okay by us!
You can create polls for your fans to answer! This is a very cool, brand new feature that Facebook just started implementing this week! Facebook Questions allows you to create polls and ask questions to your fans, and you can get an idea of what the people in your community like best and what interests them most. This is not only a cool and unique way to interact with your fans, but it’s also a good way to gage exactly what your community responds to most. It can help you get an idea of what other things to post about in the future. In other words, not only will you get interaction on your page, but based on which responses get the most votes, you’ll know what you should be discussing on your page. For example, if you ask what spring sports your fans like best and list lacrosse, tennis, and baseball as your three options, and most of your fans pick tennis, you’ll know if a local high school wins a tennis match that your fans will want to know about it, and you can use that for future posts! In order to create a poll, all you have to do is go to your business page and look at the toolbar right above where you type to post to your wall. Right next to “Status”, you’ll see “Questions” and if you click on that, you can type a question. Right underneath where you type your question, you’ll see “Add Poll Options.” From there, all you have to do is type in your possible answers, then click “share”.
So there you have it...our tour is done! The new Facebook pages offer unique new features that allow you not only to interact with your fans on a different level, but they also allow you to separate business from personal easily. It also allows you to interact with local businesses as your business and get your brand name out to a large audience on Facebook. When you break every aspect of the new pages down, piece by piece, it doesn’t seem so overwhelming to start using it, and if you ever have questions or want to set up your own Facebook business page, your Real Estate Virtual Assistants are always here to help!
Happy Facebooking!
Sarah Kay
Social Media Specialist
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