If anyone is wondering whether the (relatively) older and familiar Facebook Business Suite has proven to be yet another sacrifice to the gods of obsolete tech, they need worry no longer. Facebook Business Suite has worn different masks over the years, and its latest iteration is the Meta Business Suite. The novice to the Facebook – now Meta marketing game just has to know that the Business Suite is basically a free tool that allows users to manage everything business-related across Facebook, Messenger, and Instagram. But what are its practical benefits?
For one, the tool allows users to set up and manage pages across these platforms, as it allows for the convenience of checking notifications and creating posts and stories across platforms in the same place – you can even schedule these to be published as preferred. The merged inbox allows for faster interaction with potential customers, as it allows you to read and respond to DMs, and get updated on who is liking and interacting with your content. Every business’ favourite feature, the automatic responses to FAQs also make for increased time and cost savings, which can then be directed to publish and monitor ad campaigns for the business. The free analytics data that the tool provides and the ability it provides for business managers to grant access and manage permissions for employees who manage the business’s social media presence ultimately make for faster and more efficient business operations. The Meta Business Manager that preceded the Meta Business Suite was only accessible via desktop – the Meta Business Suite is now available on both desktops as well as a mobile app.
If anything, however, the Meta Business Suite’s key attraction is that it’s completely free. For the services it provides in centralizing many business functions related to marketing and social media management in general, the free-ninety-nine price tag is an extremely attractive deal for most. This is especially true of smaller businesses and startups who may not have much resources, in terms of manpower or otherwise, to invest in the virtual jungle of social media marketing. The only catch, if there is one, is that it is necessary to have a personal Facebook account to use it. This is a non-negotiable requirement on the app and is meant to be a part of the rigorous system the company has in place to authenticate legitimate businesses on its platform.
The new and improved Meta Business Suite offers many additional functions that long-time users might find familiar and new. For one, its A/B testing function allows creators to test out two different versions of the same post to find out which performs better in the public eye. This has the additional benefit of opening your eyes to the differences in the two versions that managed to garner more traffic or more eyeballs, information which can be put to good use in later campaigns. In addition to optimizing content today, you can make informed decisions about the content you publish tomorrow. The ‘commerce manager’ allows businesses to set up a Facebook shop or catalogue to make shopping more convenient for online customers. The tool is a convenient way to showcase what you have to offer, especially if you don’t have the resources to build a dedicated website to do so. Integrating the feature across platforms will make it easier for potential customers to discover your brand.
Perhaps the most important feature that businesses will be interested in is the analytics feature that Meta Business Suite has to offer. Called ‘Insights’, these allow businesses to set social media goals and track progress against them. The results can be analysed to make data-driven decisions for better results. Another tool within the Insights section is the Benchmarking feature that allows one to see how the business is performing against comparable businesses. This allows for a broader scope of decision-making for the business in relation to strategy formulation. It’s important however that your business has a clear understanding of exactly what it wants to achieve with the social media pages that it manages, whether it’s reaching new audiences, increasing the engagement of the audience, or translating audience engagement into sales. This will help ensure that you focus only on the data relevant to you, without getting bogged down in irrelevant metrics. Identifying your goals will help you select what metrics are relevant, which will in turn help you pinpoint the weaknesses that are holding you back.
Meta’s increasing investment in improving its business suite is a common approach in today’s digital transformation strategies, which try to establish a single suite that provides a diverse range of solutions for its clients. It would be interesting to see how the traffic towards Meta overall translates into the Metaverse, if at all. It is quite possible that the Metaverse will see its first big boom in catering to the business servicing industry, instead of as a social media application. Unlike other Meta ventures to come out in the past two years, the Meta Business Suite is one that is almost guaranteed success, not least because it comes with an established user base. This user base is not likely to dissipate any time soon either – Facebook still remains the largest social networking site in the world. According to Statista, over 3 billion people use it monthly: just over one-third of the world’s population. Over 200 million businesses use Facebook as a social media platform. It is also the most popular among the millennial generation, whose first experience with social media tended to be Facebook and other obsolete websites such as Myspace and Google+. With Meta’s acquisition of most of the other popular social media platforms, it doesn’t look like the hype will die down for Facebook as a platform for businesses. Whether the increased traffic coming Meta’s way translates into the Metaverse as well is something that still remains to be seen.
(Theruni Liyanage)