Facebook Supporting Businesses: New Features You Can Leverage

• Launching Shops both on Facebook and Instagram
• Introducing Businesses Nearby section
• Adding #SupportSmallBusiness stickers and hashtags

Facebook is showing strong dedication to helping small businesses and their customers stay aligned with the changes that are happening due to the pandemic situation. Now, with the features they recently announced, it’s even easier to share updates.

Launching Shops both on Facebook and Instagram

As soon as the pandemic caused ECommerce to explode, Facebook reacted with the launch of it’s “Shop” feature. As positioned by the company, it helps businesses adapt to the crisis while helping customers “experience the joy of shopping versus the chore of buying.”

Facebook Shop is easy-to-setup. You can add products one by one or export from a file, create collections, set prices, and include product descriptions. The best thing about Facebook Shop is that it’s customizable. Sellers can set a cover image for each product and highlight colors that meet their brand standards.

Shops are available both for Facebook and Instagram, and customers can get in touch with sellers via WhatsApp, Messenger, or Instagram Direct. It creates a feeling of transparency and improves the shopping experience.

By promoting Facebook and Instagram shops via Stories or ads you will encourage interested customers to view your products. All they need to do to make a purchase is click on a product, add it to their cart, and place an order. It will be charged to the credit card attached to their profile.

Introducing Businesses Nearby section

In order to help businesses become more visible to potential customers and grow virtual foot traffic, Facebook is developing a section dedicated to posts made by local businesses within a preset radius (from 1 mile to 500 miles). Users will be able to see actual hours of operation, delivery options, and quickly find the products and services they need.

Adding #SupportSmallBusiness stickers and hashtags

When times are tough, your customers can volunteer to help your business not only with positive reviews, but also by using the #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag on Facebook or the sticker on Instagram. Other users see in shared Stories all the posts from people they follow, so this feature will definitely help businesses spread the word about themselves.

This type of support obviously requires good relationships with customers. As soon as the concept “we’re all in this together” is in full swing, you can ask them directly to show their support and use these hashtags or stickers.

The features announced by Facebook provide opportunities for transparent communication and improved customer experience. To learn how to maintain trust and relationships with your clients by utilizing digital marketing, subscribe to our Emergency Marketing Center and get a weekly digest of the latest updates.