Facebook has changed the look and feel of their business pages so they are similar to the recent changes that took place on the personal profiles. All business pages will be upgraded automatically at the beginning of March but it is possible for page administrators to upgrade now or preview the new page changes now.
So, what has changed and what does this mean for you and your business?
1. ‘Move’ Around or Interact on Facebook as your Business Page.
Previously, you could only Like other pages and comment or post as your personal profile. Now you can choose ‘Use Facebook As Page’ under Account:
This enables you to now Like other business pages as your page. And post and comment on other pages as your page as long as that page’s allow users to post. A great way to raise visibility for your company or brand and extend your reach.
2. Display Featured Pages That You Like
Once you have Liked other business pages as your page, you can choose 5 of these pages to be displayed under Likes in the left hand column. Go to ‘Edit Info’ or ‘Edit Page’ and then click ‘Featured’ and ‘Edit Featured Likes’. This is likely to give pages more exposure. Before the changes, there was really no way to connect business pages other than listing it in your Favourites. Now your page will have increased exposure. This means that your page also has its own News Feed, which shows posts based on the pages you have liked (as your page) enabling you to keep up with your pages of choice.
3. Display Featured Page Owners
You can now publicly identify the page administrator(s) or owner(s). In the screenshot above, just click ‘Edit featured page owners’. This shows the page owners in the bottom of the left hand column with a link to their Facebook personal profile. This can be a good way to put a face to the company or brand, especially if you use your logo as your profile image.
4. Post On Your Page as Your Personal Profile or Your Page
Previously, you could only interact as your company on your page. Now you can participate in conversations as yourself using your personal profile. Be clear that you are representing the company. This is another way to enable you to put a face to your company or brand. As we all know, people buy people and it’s now possible to interact with your users as a person.
However, sometimes you still want to be able to comment and post on your page as your page even when moving around Facebook as your personal profile. Go to ‘Edit Info’ or ‘Edit Page’ and click ‘Your Settings’ and make sure the Posting Preference checkbox is checked.
5. Notifications of Posts and Comments
When people leave comments or post updates on your business page, you now get a notification by email and you also see the red indicator in the upper left, like you do on your personal profile. This enables administrators to keep up with page activity more easily driving engagement and ensuring ‘fans’ are not neglected. To turn off the email notifications, uncheck the ‘Email notifications’ box in the above screenshot.
6. The Page Category Can Now Be Changed
Go to ‘Edit Info’ or ‘Edit Page’ and then ‘Basic Information’. This is a very useful feature as before you needed to delete the page and start again to change the category.
7. Weighted Wall Postings on Business Pages
Facebook now decides the order of wall postings using a weighted system which displays posts made by you, your fans, and other pages, in popularity order. This means the most recent post isn’t always at the top of the wall. This feature has had mixed reviews as it can be confusing and unhelpful. For example, one business owner uses her Linen At Home page to highlight new consultants who have joined the team and ideally these need to be at the top of the page. I’ll be interested to see if Facebook keeps this feature.
You can view the page postings in chronological order, go to Admin View under Wall but only page admins can see this.
8. Photos
One of the key changes for the personal profile was the photo strip at the top of the wall containing the most recent photos. The business pages now have the same funcitionality. Page owners will now need to post more photos to keep them recent and interesting.
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What do you think of the new page changes? Leave a comment below.
