Over the years, communication has undergone a great transformation. While email is the consistent winner, messaging apps have been in the news for a while. Facebook Messenger is one of the most popular messaging apps that people use a lot. You can judge its popularity by its user base, which is much larger than other social networks.
The importance of Facebook Messenger can be easily seen in the messaging trends these days.
How to use Facebook Messenger
Before you can start using it to manage or promote your business or brand, you need to download Facebook Messenger and set it up to work alongside your Facebook Page. Follow the given steps for clear instructions on how to set up messenger for your Facebook business page.
Choose 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 just below the page name and in the left column of the Facebook page. It is also displayed in the URL of your Facebook page. It must be at least five characters long and can contain alphanumeric characters and periods. Make it easy for your customers to find you using your business name. To create a username, apply the following steps:
- First, go to your Facebook page and click ‘Create page @username’ which appears in the left column of the page. You will see a dialog where you can enter a username for your Facebook page and click ‘Create Username’.
Enable sending messages
Next, you need to enable messaging for your page. For this,
- Go to the settings section of your page.
- In the ‘General’ subsection, go to ‘Messages’ and click ‘Edit’.
- Then check the “Allow people to communicate with my Page privately by showing the Message button” box and click “Save Changes.”
set saved messages
Now you need to set up instant replies and the greeting text that will be sent as a reply when you send a new message. To turn on instant replies in Messenger, follow the instructions provided:
- Click ‘Messages’ in the left column of Facebook settings.
- Scroll down and click “Set” for the “Set up automatic responses” option.
- Now click Instant Reply, turn it on and set the message you want to send as a reply to the message you receive on messenger.
From then on, anyone who tries to start a conversation with you through the page will see the greeting text first. For your welcome text, you can use something that talks about the types of services you provide and how to access them.
To include a greeting text, follow these steps:
- Again, go to the ‘Settings’ option on your Facebook page and click ‘Messages’ in the left column.
- Scroll down and you will see the ‘Show Greeting’ option, turn it on.
- Click ‘Change’ if you want to edit the greeting text and click ‘Save’.
Manage response time
A shorter response time is always better if you want more and more viewers to interact with you through Facebook Messenger. Also, now you can check how long it takes you to reply to messages, whether it’s a few minutes, hours or more. There’s also a badge that says “Highly Responsive to Messages,” but to get it you need to have an average response rate of 90 percent and an average response time of 15 minutes over the past seven days.
Also, if you can only reply to messages during a certain period of time, you can mention that in your business hours so that if you receive any messages during that time, they don’t count towards your response rate.
To set your messaging status, you must do the following:
- Go to the ‘Settings’ area of your Facebook page.
- Click on ‘Messages’ in the left column.
- Scroll down and click “Set” for the “Set up automatic responses” option.
- Click the ‘Out of Office Message’ option from the list, then click ‘Edit’.
- You can view available options such as Platform (where to post messages), Time (set the time you will be away), and Message (Write a message about being away).
- Click ‘Save’ when you are done with all the settings for ‘Out of Office Message’.
These are some of the ways you can add value to your business using the Facebook Messenger app.
Tips for Using Facebook Messenger for Business
Once your messenger is ready, you can make it work for your business by applying some of the tips provided here.
Use Messenger codes
Use Messenger links
Use the button to send a message
Offer customer service
You can use messaging codes that will allow people to connect with your business. For that matter, you just need to scan a simple graph. With Messenger, you can see a profile picture of your business page where you’ll see a circle with dashes and dots. You can find your messenger code in the messages tab on your page. Go to the bottom of your inbox and click on the information icon.
You will then be able to see your messaging code. You can download it as a graphic file to add to your website, share on social sites, add to your business card, etc.
It is another tool that will allow others to start a conversation with you through your page. If the messenger code takes up a lot of space, you can use it on your website, in your email signature, or wherever you need it. Your Messenger link is displayed in the format – m.me/ [username].
You can use the Send Message button with a call to action to raise awareness for local fashion. This will encourage local customers to contact you and learn more about you. Local recognition ads are a form of Facebook ad that you can use to create and run at any time from your Facebook business page. That way, you can target people within your business area.
It plays an important role when you run a business. When your customers have inquiries, how will they come? You must have a customer service that helps you reach your followers and help them with their queries. Here are the different ways you can offer customer service through Facebook Messenger.
- Queries that require some type of personal information must be attended personally. Customers will post inquiries, comments, and questions on your page that you will answer, but you should consider which questions can be answered publicly and which ones should be answered in private Facebook messages. This way, people will know that you are not neglecting your customers.
- Providing customer service through messenger is a great way to handle customer inquiries. This way, you can ensure fast communication by authorizing someone to monitor and respond to all messages during business hours. This will set you apart from other companies that are really slow to respond to their customers.
- Another option to provide customer service is through a chatbot. This allows you to automate everything from customer service to providing product information. There are currently over 30,000 bots on Facebook Messenger.
share your location
This is to make it easier for those who want to have offline meetings with you, be they colleagues or clients. Instead of people asking you where you can meet them, you should share your location on messenger so they know where they can meet you.
To send a location via Messenger:
- Open the conversation and click on the icon with three dots.
- Click ‘Location’ and drag the pin to the desired location or enter the location name, press ‘Submit’.
Use the Dropbox integration
To make interacting with colleagues much easier, you can attach Dropbox files directly to conversations. You can attach videos and images as they will be easily displayed in chats making collaboration easier. People you collaborate with just need to tap “open” to open files within the Dropbox app. To attach a Dropbox file to a Messenger conversation, follow these steps:
- Install the Dropbox app and open any conversation.
- Tap on the three dots icon and select ‘Dropbox’.
- Select your file and you’re done.
Messenger is a great marketing tool for Facebook if used correctly. Also, there will be Facebook improvements in the future, so keep an eye out for that. Keep learning how to use Messenger and its settings to get the most out of your business and take it to the next level.
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Categories: How to
Source: HIS Education