Over the years, communication has undergone an enormous transformation. Although email has been a consistent winner, messaging apps are in the news for a while. Facebook messenger is one of the top messaging apps frequently used by people. You can estimate its popularity by its user base that is way more than other social networks.
The importance of Facebook messenger can be easily seen by the messaging trends these days.
How to Use Facebook Messenger
Before you start using it to manage or promote your business or brand, you need to download Facebook messenger and set it up to make it work on par with your Facebook page. Go through the given steps to get clear directions about how to set up messenger for your Facebook Business page.
Select a Username
If you have already created a username for your Facebook page, it will be the same for messenger. The username starts with @ and can be seen immediately below the page name and in the left column of the Facebook page. It also shows in the URL of your Facebook page. It must be at least five characters long and can include alphanumeric characters and periods. Make it easy to find for your clients by using your company name. To create a username, apply the given steps:
- Firstly, go to your Facebook page and click on ‘Create Page @username given in the left column of the page. You will see a dialog box where you can enter one username for your Facebook page and click on ‘Create Username’.
Enable Messaging
Next, you have to enable messaging for your page. For this,
- Go to the settings section of your page.
- In the sub-section ‘General’, go to ‘Messages’ and click on ‘Edit’.
- Then tick mark the box for ‘Allow people to contact my Page privately by showing the Message button’ and click on ‘Save Changes’.
Set Up Saved Messages
Now, you have to set up instant replies and greeting text that will be sent as a reply when you send a new message to you. To turn on instant replies in messenger, go with the given directions:
- Click on ‘Messaging’ from the left column of Facebook settings.
- Scroll Down and click on ‘Set Up’ for the option ‘Set up Automated Responses’.
- Now, click on Instant reply, turn it on and set the message you want to send as a response for the message you receive on messenger.
From that time onwards, whosoever will try to begin a conversation with you through the page will see the greeting text first. For greeting text, you can use something that tells the kinds of services you provide and how to access them.
To turn on greeting text, follow the given steps:
- Again go to the ‘Settings’ option on your Facebook page and click on the ‘Messaging’ from the left column.
- Scroll down and you will see the option as ‘Show a Greeting’, turn it on.
- Click on ‘Change’ if you want to edit the greeting text and click on ‘Save’.
Manage Response Time
Shorter response time is always better if you want more and more viewers to interact with you through Facebook messenger. Also, you can now check how much time you take to respond to messages, whether a few minutes, hours or more. There is a badge as well that says ‘Very responsive to messages’ but in order to get it, you must have an average response rate of 90 percent and an average response time of 15 minutes over the last seven days.
Also, if you can only respond to messages during a particular time period, you can mention this in your business hours so that if you will receive any message during that time it will not be counted towards your response rate.
To set your messaging status, here is what you need to do:
- Go to the ‘Settings’ area of your Facebook page.
- Click on ‘Messaging’ from the left column.
- Scroll Down and click on ‘Set Up’ for the option ‘Set up Automated Responses’.
- Click on the ‘Away Message’ option from the list and then click on ‘Edit’.
- You can see the options available that are Platform (where to set away messages), Timing (set the time for which you will be away) and Message (Write the away message).
- Click on ‘Save’ once you are done with all the settings for the ‘Away Message’.
These were some of the ways you can add value to your business by using the Facebook messenger app.
Tips to Use Facebook Messenger for Business
Once your messenger is ready, you can make it work for your business by applying some of the tips given here.
Use Messenger Codes
You can use the messenger codes that will let people connect with your business. For that matter, you just need to scan a simple graphic. Messenger code can be seen as the profile picture of your business page where you will see a circle with dashes and dots. You can find your messenger code from the messages tab of your page. Go to the bottom of your inbox and click on the information icon.
After this, you will be able to view your messenger code. You can download it as a graphic file to add it on your website, share it on social sites, add it to your business card, etc.
Use Messenger links
It is another tool that will let others start a conversation with you through your page. If the messenger code is taking a lot of space, you can use it on your website, in your email signature or wherever required. Your Messenger link is shown in the format- m.me/ [username].
Use send message button
You can use the Send message call-to-action button to a local awareness Fad. This will encourage local customers to contact you and know more about you. Local awareness ads are one of the forms of Facebook ads that you can use to create and launch anytime from your Facebook Business page. This way you can target people within the area of your business.
Offer Customer Care
It holds a major part when you are running a business. When your customers will have queries, how they will reach. You need to have a customer care service that will help you to reach out to your followers to help them with your queries. Here are the different ways using which you can offer customer service through Facebook messenger.
- The queries that require some sort of personal information must be answered personally. Customers will post queries, comments and questions on your page for you to answer, but you need to analyse which questions can be answered publicly and which has to be answered in private Facebook messages. This way people will know that you don’t ignore your customers.
- Providing customer service through messenger is a great way to deal with customer’s queries. This way you can ensure fast communication by authorizing someone to monitor and answer all the message during the business hours. This will make you stand apart from other business who are really slow in answering their customers.
- Another option to provide customer service is via chatbots. This lets you automate everything from customer service to providing product information. Right now there are more than 30,000 bots on Facebook Messenger.
Share your location
It is to make it easy for those who want to conduct offline meetings with you whether colleagues or clients. Instead of making people ask you where you can meet them, you must share your location through messenger so that they know where they can meet you.
To send location via messenger:
- Open a conversation and click on the three dots icon.
- Click on ‘Location’ and take the pin to your desired location or enter the location’s name, press ‘Send’.
Use the Dropbox integration
To make interacting with colleagues much easier, you can attach Dropbox files directly to the conversations. You can attach videos and images as this will display them easily in chats making it easier to collaborate. The people you are collaborating with just have to tap ‘open’ to open the files within the Dropbox app. To attach a Dropbox file to a messenger conversation, here are the steps:
- Install the Dropbox app and open any conversation.
- Touch the three-dot icon and choose ‘Dropbox’.
- Select your file and that’s all.
Messenger is an excellent Facebook marketing tool if used properly. Also, there will be improvements coming in the future from Facebook’s side so you need to look out for that. Keep learning how to use messenger and its settings to get the most out of your business and take it to a new level.
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