Social Media Marketing for Small Business: New Facebook Features You Need to Know in 2017

Facebook just released their financial results for 2016 to their shareholders. The popular social media website closes their final quarter with 1.23 billion daily visitors; you read that write, that’s a daily count.

As Facebook continues to grow, all business owners must be mindful of the most recent and relevant updates. Here’s a compilation of the newest Facebook features a business needs to know in 2017.   

New Facebook Business Features: 

360 Photo and 360 Video

If you’ve come across 360° photos and 360° videos on Facebook, you can understand the expected growth of virtual reality (VR) content. As a business owner, you should know about the most current statistics on Facebook VR content: 

• • There are only 25 million 360° photos and 1 million 360° videos on Facebook.  

Sounds like a lot of content until you realize that there are 300 million photo uploads on Facebook each day. 360° photos and 360° videos are growing in popularity. Be one of the first businesses to take advantage of the virtual reality content while the competition is extremely low.  

• • In 2016, users watched more than 100 million hours of video on Facebook every day. 

Cameras to record 360° videos are becoming more and more affordable. Start shooting all your video marketing content on a 360° video camera to jump way ahead of your competition.

There is a high demand for more virtual reality content. Give your social media marketing campaign a boost by being an early VR content adopter and pioneer.

Facebook Live 

Facebook Live can be very scary for businesses, we know. But according to recent Facebook algorithm updates, Facebook Live can also be very lucrative for your business. 

Become familiar with the following statistics before you disregard the idea of posting Live videos on your business Facebook Page:

• • “Facebook Live videos are more likely to appear higher in News Feed when those videos are actually live, compared to after they are no longer live. People spend more than 3x more time watching a Facebook Live video on average compared to a video that’s no longer live.” March 1, 2016.

• • “If you post a Live video with graphics-only polls, it may not show up as high in people’s News Feeds.” December 6, 2016 

• • In the past, longer videos were penalized by Facebook’s algorithm that focused on the average watch time; comparing the watch time to videos that were dramatically shorter. Facebook has recently changed their algorithm to take into account longer video watch times when selecting what tops newsfeeds. As such, “longer videos that people spend time watching may see a slight increase in distribution on Facebook. As a side effect, some shorter videos may see a slight dip in News Feed distribution.” January 26, 2017

Updates to Prioritizing Newsfeeds

Understanding the general idea of how Facebook prioritizes their users’ newsfeeds is pretty standard. Facebook tracks what their users like and tries to put similar content at the top of their newsfeeds.

However, Facebook algorithms constantly evolve. When you take into consideration what those new updates are, you can better plan your social media marketing posting schedule. Before you post your business page’s next update, consider the following newsfeed updates Facebook has released:

• • Friends and Family Come First

“Posts you are likely to care about, we put those posts toward the top of your News Feed. We learn from you and adapt over time.” June 29, 2016

• • Authentic Content Ranks Higher

“When ranking News Feed we look at many signals personal to you, such as how close you are to the person or Page posting, as well as more universal signals like the overall engagement (likes, comments, shares) that a post has.” June 29, 2016

• • Real-Time Activity Matters

“With today’s update, we will now take into account how signals change in real time. So now if there is a lot of engagement from many people on Facebook about a topic, or if a post from a Page is getting a lot of engagement, we can understand in real-time that the topic or Page post might be temporarily more important to you, so we should show that content higher in your feed.” January 31, 2017

Facebook’s algorithms have become extremely smart and can detect what’s important to any given user. As a business, all of your posts need to inform, educate and/or entertain your target market audience in order to be seen at the top of newsfeeds.    

Live Assistance on Business Pages 

Living in the Digital Age, businesses are now expected to be more accessible to their customers. Consumers are sick and tired of waiting on hold for an answer to their quick question or to purchase a product. Your customers demand immediate, and if possible, real-time assistance.

One of the best Facebook features a business needs to know in 2017 is the ability for businesses to provide live assistance to Facebook users. Whether it be via chats or live calls, Facebook is opening the ability for businesses to provide real-time help for users.    

Toward that end, Facebook has recently developed and perfected their “Call Now” feature. So if you want to run a Facebook ad, you can now have a direct call to action that ends in a potential customer calling your business.

The “Call Now” feature promises easy ad setup to include your business telephone number and call forwarding to your business lines. When coupled with our virtual receptionist and customer helpline services, you can offer real-time assistance 24 hours a day, 7 days a week.

Start taking advantage of these new Facebook features!

Facebook and other social media sites continue to update their algorithms that dictate how your business content is shared with the world. These new Facebook features a business needs to know in 2017 should help you when planning your next social media marketing campaigns.   

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