Tips and tricks for the Facebook Page manager app (now known as Facebook Business Suite app)

Most small and independent businesses have channels on both Facebook and Instagram. But managing both using separate dashboards was a hassle. That’s until Facebook rolled out its Facebook Business Suite app in September 2020, upgrading the Facebook Page Manager app.

If you’ve always wanted an easier and more effective way to manage both Facebook and Instagram, read on to find more about the Facebook Business Suite app.

Facebook Business Suite

Small businesses need all the marketing help they can get through digital platforms. The question is not who is better — for example, Google or Facebook — but how to use each platform for its unique advantages.

Facebook and Instagram are important channels to reach audiences, build awareness, and engage with customers. Until now, small businesses had to spend time managing these channels separately. While the old Facebook Page manager allowed users to cross-promote content, it was difficult and mostly required a third-party app.

What is Facebook Business Suite?

Facebook Business Suite is part of the platform’s strategy to make its experiences seamless across social media platforms. Its primary difference from the old version of Pages Manager is that, now, users can post their content on both Facebook and Instagram simultaneously. They can also get feedback from the platforms in one place, whether it’s alerts, notifications, or messages.

Facebook Business Suite now has many of the same features you’ll find in Creator Studio. Rather than switching back and forth between Instagram, Facebook and Facebook Messenger, Business Suite allows small business owners to:

• Engage with followers
• Schedule posts
• Respond easily to messages
• Manage advertising campaigns
• Stay up-to-date with engagement data all from one homepage

This revamped Facebook Page manager app can now be the digital headquarters of your Facebook and Instagram marketing activities. But it doesn’t stop there. Facebook has plans to make it the single control point for Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger in the future.

Advantages of Facebook Business Suite for small businesses

It saves you time

You don’t have to individually share content on Facebook and Instagram. This saves you time and makes scheduling exceptionally easy. This will also encourage you to create more content for both platforms as it reduces the managerial responsibilities.

Beyond the ease of scheduling, it also makes it effortless to manage your audiences from one station. For small businesses without digital marketing teams, this can be a time-saver.

You'll know what works (and what doesn't)

Facebook Business Suite will give you all notifications and alerts from both platforms in a single app. More than being effective, it makes it easier to know what content gets more engagement.

This’ll let you help create a more productive content strategy. For example, if posts featuring tips are getting more traction on Facebook, it tells you that your followers like hearing from you on that topic. With this, you could now make videos with tips for both channels.

Preset messages

This is a significant advantage that Business Suite has over the old version. Now you can create preset messages to reply to questions of a similar nature. The best part about it? You can do it from your smartphone.

This is significant because more and more customers are turning to a business's Facebook Page to seek answers instead of going to its website. If you are a salon owner and customers ask you about health protocols, you can create automated answers to those questions.

Better interface for analytics

Accountability is what sets digital marketing apart from traditional forms of advertising. With Insights, you get in-depth reports of how your channels are functioning. While it was user-friendly in the old Page manager, the analytics have become easier to understand in Business Suite.

The analytics are nicely laid out and also optimised for mobile phones. So, wherever you are, you can know the performance of your content or your campaigns in a matter of seconds.

The pros and cons of Facebook Business Suite explained

Pros of Facebook Business Suite

Convenience

It is certainly convenient to be able to schedule posts, manage ads and check notifications all in one location. A one-stop shop will save small business owners time, allowing them to focus on other tasks.

Clear analytics

If you are running Facebook ads, you need to know how they are performing. Business Suite’s analytics design is clear and offers a number of filters to allow you to drill down to the data that you are most interested in.

Automated messages

Automation is a good friend of the small business owner! With Facebook Business Suite, page owners can answer a common question with a preset message, or direct followers to a page with more answers – all in the one place. Customers are so familiar with social media now that they are more likely to visit a business's social platforms first with a question, rather than visit a company's website. So making full use of Facebook Business Suite's automated messaging function is well worth your time.

Cons of Facebook Business Suite

Cross-posting not advised

Facebook Business Suite allows for cross-posting of content – in fact, it encourages it. However, for small businesses, this might not be the best approach to content strategy. Publishing the same content, in exactly the same format, across both Facebook and Instagram doesn't give the best user experience.

Tips for small business owners using Facebook Business Suite

Take your time

The app is optional as of now. So, if you're hard-pressed for time, you don't have to migrate to it. Post, schedule, and get insights separately through the old version of the Facebook Page manager app and Instagram. Once you are comfortable or are about to release more content or a campaign, you can make the shift.

Smaller campaigns first

If you do plan to roll out a Facebook or Instagram campaign, it may help to start small. While it's easy to manage everything in one place, it may take some time for you to get used to the new - and easier - display of analytics.

Use the Instant Reply and Away Message function

Instant Reply will let you send a message to recipients automatically. Away Message allows users to send a message to your recipient when you are not managing your page. You cannot be expected to monitor your social platforms 24/7, so setting this away message gives you some boundaries and allows you to improve your work-life balance.

Say your business hours are 9am-5pm; if you receive any messages outside of those hours, your customers will receive an away message. To set it up, simply go to Settings > Messaging Settings. Toggle Enable Instant Reply and Enable Away Messages button and set the message that you want to send.

Manage push notifications more easily

The push notification feature can be helpful for allowing social media managers to monitor what is happening in real-time. However, if you are responsible for multiple pages on different platforms, these notifications can be extremely distracting. Therefore, if you want to manage your push notification preferences, go to Settings and click on Page Settings > Push Notifications.

In short

Facebook is positioning Business Suite as custom-made for small businesses. So, while it is optional right now, it makes sense to migrate to it considering its ease of use and combined advantages. Plus, whenever the integration of Facebook, Messenger, Instagram and WhatsApp is initiated, you'll be used to managing them in one place.