For occasional social media users, keeping up with new features can be tricky. Whether we are simply not able to keep up, or that the changes happened subtly, the endpoint here is the same – we are missing out!
Narrowing this down to Facebook, the gargantuan social media network has introduced a few key new features as of late that may have went under your radar. To help you catch up on key added features that you can truly capitalize on, here’s an overview of some new Facebook features that you may have missed out on.
- Like and Buy: Promoting your Facebook Shop
Social media has consistently played a prominent role in online shopping, be it for larger established stores or independent start-ups alike. Earlier this year, Facebook has taken another step towards supporting online shopping by setting up Facebook Shop, a feature in Like Pages that allows you to showcase products.
Learn more about Facebook Shop here: Intro to Facebook Shop
If you’re currently using Facebook Shop already, one key feature that you may have missed is the ability to tag products to posts. Tagging products work the same way as tagging people. Additionally, these tagged products are highlighted in both the description, as pop-ups when hovering over the tagged photos, and lastly, they appear directly below the post itself as direct links to your shop inventory.
What does this mean? For those of you that are running social enterprise ventures, Facebook Shop and the Tag Product function can truly be a big opportunity for you. As Facebook is generally where most of our audience is, we can now tap into that potential by turning likes into actual action – and even revenue at that.
- Facebook Canvas: New way of sharing interactive stories
Telling interactive stories can be difficult, most especially in social media. As of now, most of us would rely on posting photos or entire albums, but then we commit the grave mistake of cramming lengthy captions in each to create context and possibly tell a story.
Enter Facebook Canvas, a new tool in Facebook that can allow us to piece pictures, videos and text together to create an amazing interactive story that’s told through swiping. What’s even better, you can add call-to-actions in your canvas or link elements of your canvas to web pages, allowing you to link references or create the desired action as each user goes through your story. Want to get started? Learn more here: How do I create a Canvas?
Quick note, Facebook Canvas can only be created via your desktop and be viewed over your mobile device. That said, don’t be confused if you’re not able to find it as a function in your mobile app – or if you’re unable to preview your Canvas via your desktop.
What does this mean? Stories that yield action. One of the major criticisms of advocacies via social media is the questionable value behind likes, shares and views. These numbers are great and all, but it’s usually hard to create actual action from these. Through Facebook Canvas, you’re now provided with a tool that can help you become more interactive with your online followers while also sharing immersive stories.
- Lights, camera & stream: Going live in Facebook
Video content is one of the most valuable pieces of media that you can use, and earlier this year, Facebook introduced an entirely new way you can play around with videos – by live streaming to your followers. Facebook live stream’s concept is pretty much straightforward, it allows you to broadcast whatever it is your device is pointed to out to your followers. On the other side of the stream, your followers can react and comment in real time as well.
What does this mean? There’s a lot of creativity that can be applied to this tool, though a lot of it is directed towards telling a story too. One creative application I’ve seen earlier this year is how organizations can use this to broadcast talks in conferences. On the other hand, this can also be used to do a live Q&A – which is particularly useful if your org has a famous celebrity for a spokesperson. However, one key thing you can explore with this tool as well is doing live community stories, broadcasting your programs or interactions with the community that you’re helping as they happen.
So, what are you waiting for? Log back in to your Like Pages now and try these 3 new key features out! For more helpful articles about Facebook, check out what else we have in store here in TechSoup Asia-Pacific:
- Jed Dominic Adao's blog
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