Two seasons stand out most every year, both from a perspective of enjoyment and marketing. Summer and Christmas are momentous occasions that somehow always manage to see increases in general consumption and spending, while at the same time showcasing the rise of several new trends. This year’s Christmas season, in particular, stands to be a very big and anticipated one given the many disruptions due to COVID the past two years.
While all businesses technically felt the economic impacts brought about by the pandemic, small and medium businesses (SMBs), to be precise, might have faced twice the amount of challenges. With people being able to save up due to reductions in general spending, this coming holiday season also presents itself as a good opportunity for businesses to ‘bounce back’ or at least get enough marketing traction to boost their start in 2022. Got your marketing plan set? If not, no worries, as Facebook had just announced that they will be releasing new tools for SMBs, including audio and video calls direct from Facebook inbox along with some new appointment-setting functionality meant to improve connection.
On To The Options
To start, the calling options are not anything new, these have been core communication tools from the start. The new audio and video calling options instead enable businesses to make these calls via their Business Inbox in Messenger; again, not mind-blowing, but terribly convenient and more streamlined – being able to make calls direct from chat streams does provide more immediate connection, which is sometimes all that’s needed to seal a deal.
Furthermore, Facebook also look to expand it’s live audio rooms for select (qualifying) SMBs. In case you didn’t already know, Facebook has already announced expansion of it’s general Live Audio Rooms sometime earlier in October.
Facebook explains:
“With Live Audio Rooms on Facebook, small businesses can host live conversations on topics relevant to their customers, and people can discover them across Facebook. Small businesses can invite friends, followers, creators or any listeners in the room to be a speaker.”
This provides a good opportunity to boost branding and build brand awareness and is also aligned with Facebook’s current efforts towards achieving a broader scope for audio social. For SMBs, this gives them the chance to maximize exposure to relevant audiences by highlighting select audio streams within the feeds of their followers and/or prospects. Direct audio and video calls also build deeper customer-relations, removing much of the noise, clutter, and impersonal vibe usually present in open-group broadcasts and calls.
Appointment tools will now also be made available to all small businesses. Facebook’s Appointment Booking Tools, which have been under constant development for the past several months, allow businesses to effortlessly set up appointments directly from the company’s Facebook Page. For added streamline and convenience, the process is said to also be synced with Google Calendar and other popular booking tools.
Lastly, Facebook also looks towards more inn-app support for SMBs with new prompts upon engaging with an SMB’s ad. For example, when users ‘react’ to an SMB ad, a popup message will appear explaining how simple ad engagement can help SMBs grow their presence.
Of course, such a move is partly in line with its broader push to highlight the importance of personalized ads, which majority of Facebook marketers and advertisers rely on, for brand building. In turn, this also looks to stop users from switching off Facebook tracking via Apple’s new ATT Framework.
Facebook explains:
“72% of US small businesses who use personalized ads say it’s important to their success, so we’ll continue to test more ways to highlight how personalized ads are an important way people discover small businesses on Facebook and Instagram and help small businesses grow from an idea into a livelihood.”
The Wrap
Along with all these upcoming additions to SMB tools within the platform, Facebook is also looking to add a new business tool to WhatsApp in the form of ‘Catalog Collections’; this enables SMBs to organize or sort their products by category, making it easier and more convenient for users to find relevant offers. Topping of the list are new ad creation options within the Business Suite, including the ability to create Instagram-exclusive ads on desktop, along with new insights to gauge effectiveness.
All-in-all, Facebook is looking to make it easier for SMBs to get back on track and have an easier time adjusting to the ongoing shifts to eCommerce practice, partly due to pandemic-related reasons and to drastic changes in Apple’s data-privacy policies. Nevertheless, SMBs are an essential part of any economic system and the majority of them rely on social media channels in order to operate. Facebook happens to be one of the biggest, if not the biggest, host of online SMBs and this announcement is one that truly fits the joyous atmosphere of the upcoming holidays.
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