When I first started diving into Facebook marketing for business I was happy to simply send out an error-free post.
No typos? No poorly-cropped images? No negative feedback? Sweet!
But with each new post came new learnings about Facebook marketing best-practices until it finally came to a point where I could explore all of the awesome features that Facebook has to offer.
For the more than 1.6 billion active monthly users on Facebook, scrolling through the feed and catching up with the latest news is easy enough. But for the social media managers and marketers managing successful Facebook pages, there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes – Making it tough to keep up with all of the new features they're rolling out on a daily basis.
That's why I think it's important (and fun) for us to share all of this useful Facebook marketing information so that we can create a better experience for our audiences. Because at the end of the day, it's all about the user.
In the spirit sharing, here are 11 hidden Facebook marketing features for social media managers and marketers to try today!
1. Pages to Watch
Though we've written about the Facebook Pages to Watch feature in the past, it still warrants a top mention here because of its awesome capabilities. Marketers can follow up to 100 different brand pages, allowing for a quick comparison of page activity (filtered by top posts over the previous 7 days), engagement and audience growth to your own.
To access the Pages to Watch feature, click “Insights”
Then find the Pages to Watch tab – directly under the “5 Most Recent Posts” section.
Add the pages you'd like to watch to your list. Once they're added, hover over the name, click, and watch the magic happen. Facebook provides a detailed view of every one of their posts from the current week. This allows you to quickly check the top posts from every page you follow in a matter of seconds.
2. Like a page as a brand
A great way to support and show some love towards other brands on Facebook is to like their page from your personal page. But did you know that you can also like other brands' pages as your business page? Yup!
This nifty little feature from Facebook allows marketers to support their favorite brands from their own business page.
To like another brand from your business page, search for the page you want to “Like” and go to their timeline. Then, click the small gear icon:
Next, click “Like As Your Page”
Then find your page in the dropdown menu and click “save.” Voilà!
3. Save an article for later
With Facebook's “Save for Later” feature, you can save and bookmark some of the things you see on Facebook to view later, like the links or videos your friends post, upcoming events, Pages or photos.
I love this feature because I'm often on-the-go when perusing Facebook and so it helps me to save things I may want to share later and tag important news about marketing or social media that I should read.
To utilize the save feature:
From your news feed, click the arrow in the right corner on an update you want to save:
From a page click the “gear icon” and then select “save”
From an event click the “ribbon icon” and then select “save”
To view saved posts or articles:
You can go directly to www.facebook.com/saved or access your saved articles from your news feed on the left hand side as shown below.
Happy saving!
4. Audience Insights
One of my favorite hidden Facebook marketing features, especially with the prevalence of paid advertising, is Audience Insights. Facebook's Audience Insights provides detailed information about your target audience so that you can create more relevant content. The more relevant content that you deliver, the further your Facebook advertising dollar will go.
It's also an amazing tool to create interesting and engaging statistical graphics about the global Facebook audience or your specific page's demographic information. SproutSocial dug into their demographic data to create a fun infographic for their blog and various social media channels – proving that the opportunities are endless.
5. Create custom app icons
I was so excited when I discovered this Facebook marketing feature because customizing your page's app icons really gives it a unique touch that many other brand pages don't have.
Here's how to take your Facebook apps from this:
To this!
First, add the apps that you would like to use on your page. At Buffer we currently have Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, and MailChimp set up.
Second, create your app icons using a program such as Photoshop, Sketch, or Canva. Facebook recommends that file size be 111 x 74 px and no larger than 1.2MB. Be sure to use recognizable brand colors and high-quality icons from websites such as Picons or dribble.
Once your app icons are created and your apps are installed, find the “Manage Tabs” option on your page under “More”
Then, click “Add or Remove Tabs”
There you'll see all of the Facebook apps that you've installed. Hover over the app and click “edit settings” and then “change” next to Custom Tab Image. Upload your image and you're all set!
6. Search previous posts for specific wording and insights
Many social media marketers are familiar with the standard post performance data under the insights tab. It's a powerful tool for measuring performance on pervious posts with stats on: reactions, link clicks, shares, likes on shares, page unlikes, hide posts, and much more.
But some marketers may be unfamiliar with another great Facebook marketing feature that I like to call the Published “Post Search” tool under your page's “Publishing Tools” tab.
I love this feature because I can easily search for posts around certain topics and see what wording, images, or a combination of both has worked previously.
It's also very useful for brands that post content more than once throughout the year (which we like to do here at Buffer) as it helps to avoid duplicating poor-performing content.
Before posting an older article, ask: Have I posted this content before?
- If no – What other sorts of posts have recently been successful and how can I replicate that success?
- If yes – How can I repurpose this content to ensure that it reaches a brand new set of eyes?
7. Facebook Pixel
For social media marketers looking to measure ROI on social media, utilizing the Facebook Pixel is an absolute must. Facebook provides detailed instructions on setting up your Facebook Pixel for the first time. And have no fear, you don't have to be a developer to easily set it up.
Here's how:
- Go to your Facebook Ads Manager
- Click Actions > View Pixel Code
- Highlight the code and then copy the code
- Paste it between the header tags of your website
- Note: If you're on WordPress you can use a plugin such as Google Tag Manager to easily host all of your website tracking codes such as Google Analytics and others.
The Facebook Pixel allows you to:
- Build Custom Audiences from your website for remarketing
- Optimize ads for conversions
- Track conversions and attribute them back to your ads
If you're spending money to advertise online, social media ads may very well earn you the biggest returns, but it's important to closely track your results.
8. Customize your ad preferences
There's a lot of detail that goes into determining what advertisements Facebook serves up to you on your timeline, all of which is important for social media managers to understand.
According to Facebook, your ad preferences are based on information you've shared with Facebook, Pages you like or engage with, ads you click on, apps and websites you use, and information from our data providers and advertisers.
Viewing your personal ad preferences is often a fun and eye-opening experience for social media managers and marketers alike. I, for example (according to Facebook), am interested in “protein-to-protein interaction,” “Bonobos,” and “ViperChill” – Interesting!
Spend some time reviewing your own ad preferences and use that information to determine what sort of ads Facebook may most likely serve to your potential customers.
9. Pin posts to the top of your Facebook page
Pinning posts to the top of your brand's page is a simple, yet extremely useful top-of-mind social media marketing strategy to point your audience to important company posts, announcements, and events.
On your timeline, find the post that you would like to pin, click the down arrow in the corner of the post, and click “Pin to Top.” It's as easy as that!
One important thing to remember about pinning posts to the top of your page is to keep them fresh by rotating pinned posts often, especially if they are time-sensitive.
Mixing it up also allows you to showcase a much larger variety of posts. I recommend changing the pinned post once every two weeks or so.
10. View people and pages that like your page
Another useful Facebook marketing feature for social media managers is the People and Other Pages tab in your page's settings. This feature allows you to view all of the people and other brand pages that like your page.
To access this feature:
- Go to page settings
- Click on People and Other Pages on the left had side
- Use the dropdown menu to select between the various view options
A great article from Post Planner points out that using this feature can be useful for tracking follower growth during contests or page like campaigns – Allowing social media marketers to weed out the fake accounts from real ones.
You can also use this list to identify other brand pages that like your page – Opening up new content partnership opportunities, Facebook marketing campaigns, or even something as simple as a “thank you” to help build a relationship.
11. Facebook Page Tips
Facebook has made a push over the last few months to provide marketers with in-app tools and resources for getting the most out of their Facebook business pages. One fantastic result of that effort is the Page Tips section on the left side of your brands' timeline.
The Page Tips section provides marketers with quick tips and best-practices on tactics such as managing your Facebook page from anywhere, successfully verifying your page, creating engaging images, and much more.
Studying the Facebook Page Tips along with the vast library of resources in their Facebook for Business library, social media managers have everything they need to create a killer Facebook page at their disposal.
Over to you!
Did we miss any hidden Facebook marketing features above?
We'd love to know which features you use as social media managers and marketers to help make your page stand out from the crowd!
The post 11 Little-Known Facebook Marketing Features You Can Try Today appeared first on Social.
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