A Tale Of Two Business Suites: Your Brand On Facebook & TikTok
This week, we’ve got new features from two social media platforms. Facebook has bolstered its business suite with new content tools and ways to be discovered. Meanwhile, TikTok is just launching its Business Creative Hub, complete with a content guide and inspiration from trending TikToks.
Let Me Check My Schedule: Upgraded Post Management on Facebook
Have you visited Facebook’s Business Suite to manage your business account? It allows you to see and respond to messages, view your ad campaigns, and go through how people are reacting to your content, all in one helpful place. A year after making the business suite available to business owners, Facebook is adding features that will help them schedule and manage content across Instagram and Facebook.
Business Suite is a great place to schedule or post content since it lets you knock out two platforms in one. Now, you can also use this power to schedule stories for Instagram and Facebook! This time-saving feature will make it easier for you to keep your story fresh with new content throughout the week. You can also edit scheduled content within the Business Suite now, in case you have a change of plans or notice a typo.
Facebook has also announced two upcoming features for the Business Suite: photo album management and draft posts. In the same tab that you use to schedule posts and stories, you’ll be able to create photo albums to group your content together. Additionally, when creating a post you’ll have a new option to “save as draft”, in case you’re not quite ready to send it into the world.
What does this mean for Gainesville Businesses?
To take full advantage of the Business Suite, make sure your Instagram account and Facebook accounts are linked. Then, you’ll have access to all your content when you navigate to business.facebook.com while signed in to a Facebook account associated with your business page.
We love that Facebook Business Suite’s two-in-one scheduling has now been extended to stories. Stories are great for events, reminders, and keeping your audience involved in between posts. While you’re making social content for the month, throw in a few different stories that you can schedule ahead of time. These could be related to upcoming holidays or events, meant to drive engagement, or teasers for upcoming content. Have fun with it and get scheduling!
Getting Discovered: More Business Tools From Facebook
According to Facebook’s State of Small Business Report, more than half of small business owners were using digital tools to communicate with their consumers. Furthermore, those businesses that were able to offer digital sales during 2020 were able to maintain higher business volume than those that couldn’t. To continue making Facebook a great place for small businesses to promote themselves, the platform is giving small businesses more ways to use Facebook to gain and manage an audience.
The first new feature will allow businesses to be found by audiences that might be interested in them. Facebook is currently testing a feature that allows users to select topics that interest them while in the Newsfeed, which will then translate to more posts from related businesses in their feeds. This is a simple way for users to opt-in to learning about certain types of businesses. However, we haven’t forgotten about impending privacy restrictions that will restrict Facebook’s ability to collect data from iOS users. Is this a first step to bringing targeted ads to a privacy-first digital world? Either way, this move is looking good for small business discovery.
Another new feature gives small businesses new ways to interact with the audience. Gone are the days of responding to customer questions with your personal Facebook accounts; business page owners can now comment and engage as their business! You’ll also have a new business News Feed, separate from your personal one, to encourage engagement with your community. Finally, Facebook is upgrading its ads options with a “Call Now” engagement button, the option to optimize for leads that are most likely to convert, and Messenger templates for following up with leads.
What does this mean for Gainesville Businesses?
There’s a whole bunch of new features from Facebook that we have to explore! From new ways to advertise to organic discovery options, Facebook is continuing to brand itself as a digital hub for small businesses. When we combine these features with the Business Suite we just discussed, we can see that Facebook is going all out to keep small businesses on their platform.
Even when you’re not advertising on Facebook, keep your presence up with regular posting, engaging with your audience, and updating your business information as needed. Many users go to Facebook first to see reviews and learn information about a business in a format they’re familiar with, so seeing that you’re active and up-to-date is always a plus.
Not To Be Outdone, TikTok Creates Its Own Business Creative Hub
TikTok is the new kid on the block when it comes to social media. Popular, a little quirky, and not quite as popular with the parents. However, the platform has been making strides recently in terms of monetizing and creating a business-friendly atmosphere. TikTok has added advertising options, discussed tips for organic business content, and now is debuting the Business Creative Hub for inspiration and best practices.
The Business Creative Hub starts with the Business Content Guide, created by TikTok as a cheat sheet for the platform. This guide includes tips on everything you need to know, including the best time to post, how to shoot your video, and how to set up your profile. Aside from this guide, the Business Creative Hub includes videos to inspire your content. You’ll see the top content from business accounts in your country, ranked by likes and engagement, and the overall trending content on the platform. This content is meant to inspire your own creativity and help you create trending, engaging content for your brand.
What does this mean for Gainesville Businesses?
TikTok is becoming a big player on the social media scene. While this content can be more challenging to create (mostly because you have to be willing to get in front of a camera), it’s incredibly engaging and well-received by the audience. In fact, TikTok reports that ads on its platform are more inspiring, trendsetting, and enjoyable than ads on other platforms.
Before you start buying TikTok ads, create organic content to populate your page. Remember to focus on authenticity rather than pulling out all the stops like you would for other platforms. Businesses that succeed on TikTok do so because they’re relatable and funny, rather than polished and professional.
Ok, now what?
Now that you’re up to date with the latest industry news, it’s time to invest in a team that specializes in all things social media and digital marketing. We can help! Liquid Creative is a full-service marketing agency ready to help your business operate to its fullest potential without missing a beat.
