Your Guide to Using Facebook Messenger for Your Business
March 29, 2022
Are you harnessing the power of Facebook Messenger for your business?
When most people think of Facebook marketing, they think of how to create posts that lead to more engagement or how to build their following. Most of what we think of as Facebook marketing happens very publicly, but there’s a private side of Facebook that every business should start using to their advantage – Facebook Messenger.
A few reasons to take advantage of Facebook Messenger:
- Provide immediate customer support – Messenger is powerful because it gives you the ability to meet your customers’ needs in real time. Whether they’re having an issue making a purchase, they have a question or you’re providing them with a purchase confirmation, Messenger allows you to do so immediately.
- Inform customers about your products or services – Sometimes, people need more details about your products or services before they’re willing to make a purchase. Messenger allows them to contact you directly to get the answers they need.
- Build trust – Trust is huge for small businesses everywhere, and Messenger is a powerful tool for building that trust. In fact, one Facebook poll found that almost 70 percent of users in the United States say that they feel more confident in a brand that they are able to message directly.
- Handle feedback less publicly – If someone leaves you a not-so-great review or comment on Facebook, it’s always a good idea to invite them to talk with you personally about the matter. Messenger makes it easy to handle feedback without getting into a public back and forth on Facebook.
Connecting with customers on Facebook Messenger is certainly beneficial, but many businesses are unfamiliar with it as a part of their social media management strategy. That’s why I’ve put this quick guide together.
Your guide to getting started with Facebook Messenger
Step #1. Enable Messenger
In order to use Facebook Messenger, you first need to enable it on your business page. To do this, go to the General Settings page. Under Messages, click “Allow people to contact my page privately by showing the Message button.”
If you get overwhelmed with Facebook messages and you don’t have the resources to respond to them all, you can always choose to turn this feature off temporarily in the future.
Step #2. Adjust Messenger settings
Make Messenger work well for your own specific needs by adjusting the settings to reflect them. The two settings you can adjust are Response Times and Instant Replies.
Response Times
Facebook Messenger will display your page’s average response time to messages on the About section of your profile. This is important information because it tells people how long they might have to wait to hear a response from you.
Whether you typically respond within a few minutes, a day or a week, you can update your average response time under Settings and then Messaging. There’s also an option that will automatically display your average response time.
You can also set your messaging status to “Away” when you won’t be available to answer messages, which prevents it from negatively affecting your response time. This feature can be enabled on the upper left-hand side of your messages screen.
Instant Replies
Acknowledge new messages right away by enabling Instant Replies, which are sent the first time someone messages you. This feature allows you to write a 250-character message letting people know that you’ve received their message and will respond to it shortly.
Update Instant Replies under the Response Time settings, and keep in mind that they will not be sent when your status is Away.
Step #3. Make notes and add keywords
Facebook Messenger makes it easy to keep track of your conversations by adding your own keywords and notes to your messages.
With keywords, you can organize your conversations by type, importance or next steps, which makes it easy for you to see which messages require your attention or need to be followed up on. You can also use the keywords to search your messages for the specific messages you’re looking for.
You can also create notes for your messages, which make it easy to keep track of key parts of your conversation. This feature is especially useful if there are multiple administrators managing your messages and when you’re troubleshooting an issue that you need to track the progress of.
Step #4. See who’s messaging you
Facebook Messenger makes it quick and easy to personalize your messages by giving you details about who is messaging you. Facebook will link to the person’s profile, but it will also tell you whether or not they’ve liked your page, when they liked your page, where they live, what they do for work, where they went to school and about any other previous communication you’ve had with them in the past. All of this information can be found underneath your notes in Messenger.
You can use this information to your advantage by making additional connections with them. Maybe you both graduated from the same high school or university, or maybe they’re friends with someone who works for your organization. It’s these kinds of personal connections that set you apart the most and create customers for life.
Step #5. Build out saved replies
If you get a lot of the same questions or feedback, you may find yourself drafting the same response over and over and over again. Luckily, Facebook Messenger makes it easy to write replies ahead of time and save them for later use, saving you time and allowing your customers to get the information they need faster.
Facebook gives you a couple of default replies to choose from, which include, “How can I help you?” and “I can’t chat right now,” but you can also create your own. Additionally, you can edit the default replies to make them more personal to your business, even adding your logo into the template.
It’s also a good idea to personalize your saved replies so that the recipient’s name will appear in the message. This will make your saved responses look less cookie-cutter.
Step #6. Add the Messenger plugin to your website
The best part of Facebook Messenger is that you can harness its power on and off of Facebook. By adding the Messenger plugin to your website, you can showcase your Facebook timeline, keep visitors up to date on upcoming events and make it easy for visitors to privately message your Facebook page.
Let our social media managers help you make the most of Facebook Messenger
More and more, Facebook Messenger has become a bigger, more important aspect of social media management for businesses of all sizes and in all industries. If you’re looking for a social media manager who can help you get it right, look no further than Marketing 360®. Learn more!
Originally published on 5/19/20
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