Instagram vs Facebook: which one is better for your business?

Social media platforms are playing a great role in business growth, brand awareness, and building sales funnels. They’re especially important during the COVID-19 pandemic when traditional means of marketing and advertising are limited.

An important question is which platform is better for each business.

Facebook is still the king in the realm of social networking sites, while other platforms like Instagram and TikTok are growing fast.

Although Facebook has bought the ownership of Instagram, posting on them will not bring the same result. 

Having one of them as the priority in your social media marketing strategy can be a wise course of action. This way, you’ll be more focused and have the time to optimize your performance day by day.

In this article, we’re going to compare these two platforms and help you to decide which one is better for your business.

Instagram vs. Facebook: Statistics

First, it’s good to take a look at the stats of the platforms to see how they’re performing.

Facebook stats

• 2.89 billion monthly active users
• 98.3% of Facebook users use smartphones to access the platform
• 63% of American people use Facebook 
• 200 million small businesses have Facebook Pages
• 65% of Facebook users are aged below 30
• Users spend an average of 19.5 hours each month on the platform
• The average engagement rate on Facebook is 0.09% for each post

Instagram stats

• Over 1 billion monthly active users
• Instagram Stories has more than 500 million daily active users worldwide
• 71% of 18 to 29-year-old Americans use Instagram
• 90% of users follow at least an Instagram business account
• Users usually spend around 53 minutes per day on the platform
• The average engagement rate on Facebook is 1.60% for each post

With a glimpse at these stats, we can realize that although Facebook has a larger community, Instagram is working impressively.

The reason might be clear. Instagram is a multi-media-based platform and is much more catchy than Facebook, especially to Gen Z. That’s why there have emerged marketplaces like Social Tradia for escrowing Instagram accounts. In fact, many young people like to have an Instagram account with lots of followers.  

Other differences between Instagram vs Facebook 

Now, it’s good to consider other features and compare Facebook and Instagram. 

Audience demographic

Demographic data is of great importance in social media marketing. In fact, you can’t throw some social media posts on every platform and expect great impressions.

Each platform has its own style and mission, and therefore, can absorb specific people with specific characteristics.

Regarding Facebook vs Instagram, the boldest difference is that Instagram has a younger user base.

This can determine many things for businesses of different types. For example, if you compare an investment company with a fashion one, Facebook is suitable for the first one, while Instagram is definitely better for the latter.

Type of business

This is also important to know which function each platform has. In other words, you need to know for what purpose users usually use each platform.

Facebook seems more informational while Instagram is more about daily stories and special moments.

Therefore, for introducing a large company and its products, Facebook works best. But for a more friendly engagement with customers and promoting campaigns, Instagram is unrivaled.

Also, Ads perform better on Facebook, while Live videos are more trendy on Instagram. So if you want to hold an event marketing, you’d better have Lives on Instagram and post Ads on Facebook.

Moreover, Instagram works really better in industries that are basically visual. For example, architects, fashion designers, and models on Instagram outperform Facebook’s competitors.

Influencer marketing

Influencers have a vital role in social media marketing strategies. The majority of marketers are increasing their influencer budgets for the next year.

It’s good to know that the global pandemic and lockdowns have increased the importance of influencers as more people are spending time on social platforms browsing entertaining posts from influencers.

As it was said, Instagram is a multi-media-based platform and this is great for influencers. Instagram is an exceptional platform for influencer marketing making influencer marketing much more profitable compared with Facebook.

Here are the most profitable influencer niches on Instagram:

• Traveling
• Beauty
• Fashion
• Health and Fitness
• Lifestyle
• Parenting
• Business
• Music

Which platform should you choose?

Now it’s time to choose a platform and prioritize your social media marketing strategies accordingly.

Here are some tips for that:

Think about the type of content

Instagram is all about photos and videos, and therefore, if you have a company related to these types of content, Instagram is better.

If you need to post educational videos in different lengths, Instagram is much more useful than Facebook.

On the other hand, if you need a platform for micro-blogging and posting curated content, Facebook is great.

Don’t forget company news

Facebook is definitely better for publishing your company news because Facebook is a text-based platform.

This way, your news will have a better chance of getting discovered and read by people.

Again, if you have an event, you can post it as a text on Facebook and then share the pictures, videos, and Lives from the event on Instagram.

Use the opportunity for ad campaigns

Paid social media campaigns are a bit different from organic social media marketing. Both platforms provide you with great features to promote your business.

Therefore, you won’t have any problem working with any of them. Also, you have the chance to cross-promote your content on both platforms.

Share your blog posts 

Again, as Facebook is a text-based platform, it’s much better than Instagram when it comes to posting text content.

So if you want to promote your blog posts published on your sites, Facebook is your first option. 

Of course, you have to enrich your blog posts with some visuals. So you can share those images or videos on Instagram and encourage your users to read the whole story on your blog.

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Facebook Strengths

Increased Brand Awareness

Are you interested in increasing your internet visibility?   Facebook and Instagram may assist you in increasing customer loyalty to your brand. With more than 2.7 billion users on this platform, the possibilities for reaching a larger audience are virtually limitless. As a consequence, increased brand recognition correlates into an increase in potential consumers.

Channel of Communication That Is Effective

Communication is critical in every relationship. Whether it’s with your loved one, family, friends, or colleagues, the possibilities are endless. Building a solid relationship with your consumer base is no different for a business. In an ideal world, you’d also like to learn what your clients want. You’ll be surprised at how this may benefit your business. 

Fortunately, Facebook is an effective way of communication. It’s a wonderful platform for communicating with your customers and engaging with them. Numerous companies such as Apple even use Facebook as an interactive customer care platform.

Optimal Targeting

A further personalised aspect of Facebook for business is the ability to target specific demographics. This is especially beneficial when creating targeted adverts or contemplating boosting your Facebook posts. Suppose you’re seeking to increase your audience and reach a more extensive consumer base. In that case, Facebook enables you to establish precise criteria and target users based on your location, gender, religion, leisure interaction, and many more.

Contributes to Website Traffic

Social media marketers that are knowledgeable will undoubtedly utilise Facebook to generate traffic.  This is just another advantage of using Facebook for business. It’s simple to embed links in posts since full-width thumbnails on Facebook are very likely to be clicked. As a consequence, you may effortlessly create links from your website to blog articles.

Market Research and Insights from Facebook

Additionally, Facebook is an excellent platform for doing market research. Are you curious about how you stack up among your rivals? You can simply monitor your rivals’ activities on Facebook and adjust your social media marketing approach accordingly to keep the competitiveness. Facebook Page Insights is also useful for performing market research, as it is an efficient method for gathering information about your page’s readers. This provides you with a complete picture of the audience you are targeting.

Facebook Weaknesses

Resources and Time

It takes time to create a Facebook business page. You cannot expect people to immediately like or follow your Facebook page in the early stages. Bear in mind that you receive out of anything that you pour into.  Having said that, maintaining your business’s Facebook profile takes time as well. It’s not as straightforward as you believe, and you must consider if the person administering your Facebook profile is skilled in the platform. You may want to consider employing experts to help you advance your brand awareness on Facebook.

Organic Reach Decrease

When Facebook initially launched, companies’ number one question was, “How can we increase our Facebook followers and likes?” When developing a marketing plan, the primary objective was to increase fan acquisition. The more followers or likes you had, the more individuals you could contact organically through your Facebook posts. 

Nevertheless, the Facebook algorithm has evolved significantly in recent years. Essentially, there was an action to take the News Feed more about interacting with individuals and less about isolating media consumption.

The net result was a major drop in organic reach for companies. To put this in context, companies with a solid content marketing strategy could anticipate an organic reach of roughly 5% for their material prior to the current algorithm update – meaning that if your company had 20,000 followers, approximately 1000 people would see your post. This organic reach has dropped to 1-2 percent as a result of the algorithm adjustment.

Budget

The most important step in getting the most out of Facebook for your business and taking your social media campaign a success is to set aside a specific budget to be spent on Facebook adverts. Another crucial consideration is why social media advertisements should feature your overall marketing plan.

Negative Feedback

We cannot expect to be accepted by everyone.  You will have to cope with unwanted feedback on Facebook from time to time. Folks may disagree with you and criticise you. Keeping a good demeanour is critical in these cases.

Instagram Strengths

Visuals

Instagram is primarily a visual platform and is one of the features distinguishing it from other platforms. Instagram is entirely made up of photographs and videos, giving you plenty of opportunities to kickstart your marketing efforts. Video material, in particular, is growing extremely trendy right now, so much so that there has been a 90 percent rise in the amount of time spent streaming video content on Instagram. Lastly, this platform offers its members a very visual experience.

Brand Awareness Will Be Increased

Instagram, like Facebook, assists businesses in increasing brand exposure. Hashtags are incredibly popular and are one of the major factors for businesses seeking to be found by a larger audience. There’s no denying that Instagram has undergone several changes and introduced new features in past years. Instagram Stories and IGTV provide more chances for businesses to showcase their image, product, or service.

Engage Influencers in Collaboration

Instagram has evolved into a hotspot for influencers searching for possibilities to work with various brands and entrepreneurs. As the number of Instagram influencers grows, businesses should use the chance to improve brand visibility. 

Many businesses, including food, cosmetics, and gaming, have already jumped on board with this trend. Instagram is attempting to retain the next generation on their site for extended periods of time with long-form videos, which will strengthen the marketing potential of influencers.

Instagram Weaknesses

Algorithm on Instagram

Instagram’s ever-changing algorithm has elicited a wide range of reactions over the last few years. “Why aren’t my postings being seen in the feeds of certain followers?” Recall when your Instagram feed displayed posts in reverse chronological order? This is one of the most significant problems you may encounter if you use this social media platform for advertisement purposes. Each time the algorithm shifts, you’ll have to rethink and tweak your current Instagram approach.

It isn’t easy to get traffic to your website.

Utilising a social media network like Instagram to generate traffic to your website is a little more complicated than using Facebook. While you may simply direct connect to multiple websites with each Facebook post, Instagram has not yet permitted clickable links for its feed postings. People would have to copy and paste the URL into their internet browser when you include a link in your feed post content.

Yet, there is a bit more scope with Instagram Stories and IGTV when using the “swipe up” feature for Instagram stories and in the IGTV snippet boxes. Instead, you may find specific influencers and companies avoiding this in their feed by referring viewers to the single clickable link in your account bio, but this is an extra task for people and is less likely to be clicked.

It may be hard to target specific audiences.

Instagram is a social platform that is mainly used by those in their late teens and early twenties, known as millennials or Generation Z. Although there are older Instagram users, if your target demographic is substantially older, it may be worth thinking if Instagram is cost-effective for your business since it is possible that most of the older generation do not use Instagram.

Finally, one more piece of advice: When picking which channels to post content on, prioritise quality above quantity. It takes a significant amount of effort to operate an effective social media presence, so brands should avoid starting with baby steps. Instead, you should be aware of your goals and begin to strive with much further steps.

Bigger Questions: Costs of advertising on Facebook vs. Instagram

Influencing factors for Instagram ad expenses. 

Instagram ad costs determined by a variety of factors. 

1. Cost per click on Instagram (CPC)

Instagram’s CPC in 2021 will vary between $0.40 and $0.70. This covers not just link hits but also likes/reactions, comments, and shares.

Instagram’s CPC in 2021 for advertising with a destination URL is between $0.50 and $0.95.

2. Instagram engagement cost per engagement (CPE)

Instagram’s CPE in 2021 is estimated to be between $0.01 and $0.05.

3. Cost per thousand impressions on Instagram (CPM)

Instagram’s CPM in 2021 will vary between $2.50 and $3.50 for the highest-performing campaigns and ad packs.

When it comes to CPMs, our statistics indicate that Facebook is roughly twice as expensive as Instagram, yet CPCs are nearly half as expensive on Facebook.

What will the cost of Facebook Ads be in 2021?

The cost of Facebook advertisements is broken down into three categories: cost per click (CPC), cost per thousand impressions (CPM), and cost per engagement (CPE). Take into consideration that these are industry-wide cost!

1. CPC on Facebook

In 2021, the average Facebook cost per click across sectors and advertising objectives is $0.97. When the average CPC is broken down by campaign goal, the average CPC ranges from $0.25 to $3.30.

2. Facebook’s average CPM impressions 

The average CPM on Facebook throughout all sectors is $11.54. When averages are broken down by campaign, CPMs range from $2.00 to $30.97.

3. CPE 2021 Facebook

In 2021, the average CPE for Facebook will be $0.11. When we break out the average CPE by campaign target, we discover that CPEs range from almost a cent to $0.70.

How To Reduce The Cost Of Facebook And Instagram Advertisements?

1. Develop a full-funnel marketing plan

To make the best use of your money, select funnel-appropriate marketing goals.  Awareness and Consideration campaigns are best suited for top-of-funnel conversions; Consideration and Conversion campaigns are ideally designed for mid-funnel conversions, and Conversion campaigns are ideally fit for bottom-of-funnel conversions.

In summary, start with upper-funnel efforts to attract a larger proportion of your core demographic at a cheaper cost, then work your way down the funnel to conversion campaigns that optimise for your purchase-driving conversion actions.

Notably, some businesses can execute a Conversion campaign targeting upper-funnel people with lower-priced items or anything that would make an excellent impulse purchase.

People can place orders after their early Facebook engagement with a brand; most will want several touchpoints from the product in order to earn their loyalty, demonstrate your advantages, and tempt them to buy.

2. Make Use Of The Automatic Placement Option.

While it may be enticing to customise the locations of your advertising throughout the Facebook and Instagram platform, the most cost-effective strategy is, to begin with, the default Automatic Placements setting. 

By displaying your advertising across various platforms, Facebook can have a better understanding of where to display them, hence minimising your expenses effectively. Additionally, you’ll speed the learning process, allowing you to implement data-driven cost-cutting innovations as quickly as feasible.

Because your targeting parameters will stay consistent independent of location, Facebook may display advertisements to users in a lower volume but cheaper cost placement, which can assist you to generate incremental money.

3. Conduct A/B Testing On Facebook

Additionally, you can minimise your spending for the ads by utilising the A/B testing. This will help you to have a better understanding of what works and what does not. Evaluate the text, title, graphics and videos, as well as the landing pages.

It is important to test and improve outcomes on a constant basis. Conducting testing at the ad level can assist you to increase your engagement rates and click-through rates while also stretching your budget further.

What is the process of creating an Instagram ad?

Ads on Instagram can include up to 18 call-to-action buttons, connect to your website, and direct people to download programmes or browse online stores, depending on your campaign aim.

To promote on Instagram, you don’t even need an account. All you need is a Facebook Business Page, as Facebook is its leading company. 

Nevertheless, having an Instagram account allows you to acquaint yourself with content that connects most with your core demographic and complement and boost your organic marketing efforts.

To create Instagram Ads, log into Facebook’s Ads Manager and create campaigns, ad sets in which you can specify your budget, target demographic, ad positioning, and optimisation settings. As with Facebook Advertisements, your ads will appear within the time range, budget constraints, audience choice, and optimisation goals you designate.

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No-Fail Instagram Marketing and Facebook Marketing Hacks for 2022

We have covered the differences, similarities, weaknesses, and strengths of Instagram and Facebook. When creating a social media marketing campaign, it’s imperative to consider all the mentioned factors to achieve the expected results. 

The most successful brands have mastered the art of using both platforms to supercharge their digital marketing campaigns. Let’s dive in and look at no-fail Facebook and Instagram marketing hacks for 2022 that you should consider trying out. These hacks are not conventional tips but secrets that leading brands use to leverage the two platforms.

5 Instagram Marketing Secrets to Grow your Business

Instagram has one billion active monthly users and approximately 500 million active daily users. The chances are that a significant percentage of your target customers are on the platform. Here are the secrets you won’t see openly discussed online on how to get more leads from Instagram.

• Use IGTV to Share More Branded Content

Instagram Stories and Reels allow marketers communicate with the audience using videos.  However, the length is limited, so you may not get ample time to discuss all the juicy aspects of your business that set it apart from the rest.

Use the two but also consider leveraging IGTV. These three features will work in tandem to give your brand the power it requires to be more visible and compete effectively with similar businesses on the platform.

Unlike Stories and Reels, you can upload a video that is 1hr long on IGTV. Here are three reasons you should incorporate IGTV in your Instagram marketing campaign.

• IGTV videos receive more engagement than the general short videos as users prefer detailed videos to snappy content. For example, use Stories and Reels for bite-sized content and IGVT for sharing detailed information about your brand. 
• Use the power of storytelling to pique the audience interest to learn more about your brand. Use visuals to share advice and address customer concerns. Also, you can use IGTV to launch a new product or service. 
• There is only much you can achieve from a short Reel. If you are not careful, the viewers will be left hanging and unaware of the next step they should take. Avoid such scenarios by leveraging IGTV.

The videos need to be packed with valuable and accurate information. Don’t shy away from including several CTA to encourage the viewers to visit your website to learn more about your business. This can be achieved using a simple “Swipe Up” link or button.

• Engage With the Audience by Going Live

Your audience is desperate to learn more about your products and services before they purchase. One sure way of convincing them to go ahead and place an order is by addressing their concerns through the Instagram Live feature.

As the name suggests, Instagram Live is a feature that allows digital marketers to interact with the audience in real-time via video and audio. Inform them you will be going live at least three days before the big day to get as many attendees as possible. 

Research how the audience uses the platform and schedule the live session for when most of them are online. Below are a few tips for holding a successful Instagram live session.

• Plan a Q&A live session to answer frequently asked questions and learn more about your customers.
• Organise a workshop or tutorials based on the topics nipped. These topics will enhance your brand awareness and marketing efforts by diffusing any doubts they may have about your products or services. 
• Don’t always be the main character in the live session. Invite a guest speaker to make it livelier and more interactive. The speaker should be knowledgeable about your industry and preferably a thought leader. 
• Staff members can also be part of the live session to enable the audience to put a face to the names they see in emails and other forms of communication channels you use.

Go the extra mile to save the live broadcast and share snippets of it via Instagram Stories and Reels. You can also send an email with a link to all the customers in your email list to reach show the recording to those who probably were not online when you went live.

• Create A Robust Instagram Hashtag Strategy

Even though there are better ways of increasing the visibility of your Instagram posts, the good-old hashtags are still functional and effective in increasing visibility. 

Take time to create a robust Instagram hashtag strategy that resonates with your brand’s vision and goals. The hashtag you include in the posts should have the ability to increase your visibility in search results.

Use the following hacks to take full advantage of Instagram hashtags.

• Research to identify popular hashtags that have accrued thousands of clicks from the target audience. One sure way of doing this is by checking the hashtags used in your highly popular competitor’s posts. Use them in yours but make sure that your posts are better than the competitors.
• Make sure that the hashtags are relevant to your niche and target customers. Note that high CTR does not always translate into more sales/conversions. The clicks may be few, but the conversions are many because the hashtags resonate with the audience. So, desist from using generic hashtags.
• Mix brand hashtags with the popular hashtags identified to increase your brand’s exposure on Instagram. Use social media listening tools to identify terms that the audience uses to find posts related to your niche and use them to create hashtags. 
• If you service a specific area, use geo or location-based hashtags to market your brands to potential customers who use Instagram and reside in the locations.
• Don’t be afraid to go against the grid. Generic hashtags that have been around for years rarely go viral; use research findings and creativity to create new hashtags. If they go viral, competitors will start using them in their posts, increasing your posts reach.
• Do split tests to know if you get the most engagements when you include the hashtag in the first remark or the caption.

Before we proceed to the next Instagram marketing secret, it’s important to point out that the post and hashtag should be related. Otherwise, the popularity will go to waste if customers find the post’s contents do not match their interests. 

• Create Engaging Instagram Stories and Share Them

Instagram Stories provide quick bursts of information to customers. If well structured, they can generate organic traffic to your website as well as sales. Understand that the platform displays hundreds of Instagram stories to the users.

The only way to win the battle is by making your stories as engaging and informative as possible. One sure way of doing this is by connecting with them emotionally. The content in the Stories should not just be informative but also entertaining to make your brand more memorable and relatable to them.

If you are used to posting text-based Instagram Stories, add some flavour to the stories by including GIFs and humour. Add trending music, geotags, people tags, and some popular tags you identified in the previous post.

Research shouldn’t be the expensive venture that breaks your bank account. Use the Instagram Stories poll feature to engage with the audience. The poll responses will help you identify gaps in the market that you can leverage to scale up your business. 

Make sure that the questions in the polls are straightforward – you definitely don’t want to force the customers to spend hours looking for an answer on Google or any other search engine. If you do, you risk diverting their attention to other websites. 

Carousel posting has also been proven to be effective in increasing engagement. You can now post one carousel with a maximum of ten videos or photos. Carefully select the images to end up with a compelling carousel. 

Instagram Reels is also a goldmine for businesses that desire to close more sales using Instagram as a marketing platform. With it, you can create engaging short videos about your brand. Make the videos different, entertaining, and engaging by adding music, text, stickers and special effects. There are plenty of tools that you can use to make your videos different from the competitors. Use them and experiment to know which features augur well with the target customers.

• Use Humanised Chatbots

Having an in-house social media team that monitors your campaigns is a luxury only a few businesses can afford. Nonetheless, lack of financial capability is not an excuse for not promptly responding to customers’ messages. The different time zones also make it even more challenging to react swiftly to potential customers. 

Chatbots resolve these challenges by responding to messages and comments automatically. That way, you won’t keep the customers waiting for hours. If the response provided by the chatbot does not address their question, set the chatbot to display a form where they can fill in their name, email address, and phone number for a follow-up. 

Ensure that you respond to the messages first thing when you get to the office. Such convenience will portray a positive image of your brand and increase conversions. 

Another benefit of having a chatbot installed on your Instagram account is that it is always available even when you are offline. The customer responses are recorded and relayed to you when you get back online, fostering smooth communication. 

Choose a chatbot that sends personalised responses to the users. Unlike human customer care reps, chatbots are automated. They have no emotions, so they can maintain a high level of professionalism when responding to negative comments from the audience.

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3 Facebook Marketing Secrets to Grow Your Business in 2022

Facebook is the largest social networking platform globally and is estimated to have more than 2.91 billion monthly active users. Most of the users who have a Facebook account are also active on Instagram.

Here are five Facebook marketing secrets to grow your business in 2022.

• Add Third-Party Content

User-Generated Content

Third-party content refers to content created by people who are not part of your in-house team. This form of user-generated content has been proven to spur more engagement than conventional posts, as they are usually genuine and unfiltered. 

UGC will increase the performance of your social media marketing strategy by helping followers make the buying decision after reading authentic reviews and feedback from previous customers. 

Including it in your social media posting routine will enable you to establish strong relationships with customers and even lower your operating costs. Create a seamless workflow by creating approved and potential UGC labels in your Facebook inbox. 

Add the label to any reviews or mention with consumer content that portrays your business in good light.

However, seek the original creator consent to share the photo or video on the main page and profile. Once you get the go-ahead, change the label from potential to approved. Be sure to mention the creator’s name and username on the platform to give them full credit for the time and effort they took to create the content.

Leverage Influencer Partnership

Influencer partnerships have become popular on Facebook and other leading social media platforms like Instagram and TikTok. Facebook is keen on helping brands leverage influencer marketing, as evident from the newly launched in-built tool dubbed Brand Collabs Manager. It’s meant to help brands efficiently run influencer marketing campaigns specifically.

The tool has a handful of valuable features, such as an easy way to locate the right creator for a marketing campaign. With this tool, you won’t have to spend days scouring the platform for potential influencers.

Access Brand Collabs Manager in your official page monetisation tools located in the Creator Studio. You will see a list of potential influencers. Please don’t reach out to them yet, first confirm that their community of followers aligns with your brand’s target audience. You can easily share project notes and review reports in real-time on Creator Studio.

• Focus on Creating an On-Platform Community

Creating more exciting and engaging reels and stories can help reverse the trend of declining engagement rates and low organic reach on your Facebook page. Posting more content won’t cut it, though, as users are more interested in pages whose content relate to their needs directly. 

Of late, Facebook Groups have regained their past growth and brands are focussed on re-building their community base through these groups. Please note a glaring difference between a Facebook group and a Facebook page. The latter is meant to promote the brand, while a Facebook group is tailored to create a community of users interested in your brand.

If you have been doing social media marketing for a while, you probably have both. Make sure that you post the right content on each of them to get good results. The performance of a group relies heavily on the contributions made by the members. 

Brainstorm ideas on encouraging the members to join the discussions and comment on your posts. For example, you can decide to start hosting biweekly events for members only. Look for exciting trends and create a buzz in the group by posting them.

Concisely, while you have more control of the content on your page, the group has a life of its own. Adapt to the conversations that happen in there to scale up your business. Make it easy for people who visit the page to join the group by sharing its link. To do this, access your page in the Business Manager > Settings > Templates > Tabs > Turn on the Group tab icon.

Click on the new tab to link the page to the group. Here, you can also create a new one if necessary to reach out to an even larger audience. Check out the Elementor screenshot below to know what your page should look like if you followed the above guide to change the settings of your Facebook page. 

• Improve How to Interact with Customers via Messages

Brands continuously adopt WhatsApp, Chatbots, and Messenger to offer faster and improved customer service through Facebook marketing channels. Here are three options for revamping how you communicate with your customers.

Set Automated Responses for Facebook Messenger

Sure, you can start a conversation in the post comment section, but you need to respond to the messages faster and more intelligently to get ahead of the competition. Facebook introduced a new Messenger feature that allows users to create automated keyword-based responses.

You can use the frequently asked questions (FAQs) to create the responses. To do this, access your Facebook inbox section via Business Manager and click on the Automated Responses option. A window will be displayed to create the question and custom responses.

Set the specific keywords that should trigger a particular response. Add links and buttons in the message that the users can click to get more detailed information related to their questions. That way, you will save time that you would have spent responding to the same questions.

You can also save more time by having a dedicated FAQ page on your website. Share its link in some of the responses to enable customers to get answers to other questions they may be having about your brand.

Incorporate a Messenger Chatbot to your Official Website

Streamline your customer service by using the Facebook Messenger chatbot. The chatbot will send automated responses to the users based on the keywords identified in the question. More than 60% of B2B businesses are already leveraging chatbot to offer better customer service.

No special coding skills are required to add the Messenger chatbot to the site. Head over to your Facebook Inbox located in the Business Manager dashboard, find the Chat Plugin tab and click on it. 

Copy-paste your website URL and the custom greeting message you want to display to the visitors. 

Add as many FAQs as possible to kickstart conversations. The questions can be the same ones you previously added to Facebook Messenger, or you can create a brand-new list – the choice is yours. Once you complete adding the questions, click the “Publish” and complete the remaining process on your website.

Adding WhatsApp Messaging to Facebook Page

WhatsApp is a popular messaging mobile application with more than 2 billion active monthly users. Facebook Messenger only has 1.3 billion active users per month. Therefore, integrating WhatsApp Messager with your Facebook page will enable you to connect with an even larger audience.

The first step to link the two is by opening your Business Manager Dashboard, clicking on Page Settings > WhatsApp tab, and entering the phone number you used to create the business account. 

Also, if you would like to get the messages from organic content, access the Business Manager dashboard and click on the “Get WhatsApp Messages” button. By doing so, the WhatsApp CTA button will be displayed below every post you publish. Users can click on the button to chat with you via WhatsApp.

As your business grows and starts to profit from these improvements, consider running a paid messages campaign in the dedicated Facebook Ads Manager. Choose WhatsApp as the preferred messaging application and launch an ad campaign to interact with customers who are genuinely interested in your brand and almost ready to convert.

• Generate More Revenue from Facebook

Facebook recently added two features that are tailored to help brands generate more revenue from the platform. It’s now more than just an advertising platform. 

Use Facebook Live to Host Paid Online Event

The unique and authentic appeal associated with live video is one of the factors that makes Facebook Live the preferred way of communicating with customers in real-time. 

Generate more revenue by hosting a paid online event. Only people who pay the set registration fee or purchase the ticket access the live feed. Set up one via your Facebook Business Manager. Click on Paid Online Events option under the Events tab. However, before you run the first even, you need to send a request to the Facebook team for monetisation and set up the primary payout account. 

Once you get the green light, head over to Creator Studio and click on the “Create Paid Online Event Button” to create the event. Set the event’s name, description, date, and ticket price. Here you can also discount people who purchase the ticket before a particular date to incentivise the target audience to register. In addition, the event does not necessarily have to be held on Facebook Live; it can also be done through an external link.

Set Up a Facebook Shop

The Facebook shop is a brilliant innovation that allows brands that sell products online to sell them directly to Facebook users. The beauty of this feature is that even if you don’t have a dedicated eCommerce store, you can create a Facebook shop and start selling your merchandise via your Facebook page. 

Currently, the feature is available for free until July 2022. Create your custom shop by clicking on Facebook Commerce Manager and selecting your preferred checkout method. Another benefit is that you can complete the checkout process via WhatsApp, Messenger, and accredited third-party websites with both Instagram and Facebook shops. 

Link your product catalogue and website to the shop to enable customers to shop seamlessly and without having to exit Facebook unless they want to learn more about your brand. Ensure that you also provide shipping details and the return policy.

Post a link to the shop on your Facebook page for more exposure. Tag products when posting new content on the pages to direct customers to the shop. It predicts that Facebook will soon launch other features that allow brands to sell via a live stream. But for now, use the shop to generate more revenue. 

Below is a screenshot of Frank’s RedHot Facebook post highlighting the brand’s Facebook shop. The interactive icon directs customers to the brand’s shop to complete the purchase or visit the website to learn more about the products. 

Closely monitor the shop’s performance and consult a renowned social media marketing agency for more insights on how to optimise the shop. Alight it with your other social media marketing campaigns to get even better results. 

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Final thoughts

Overall, we can’t definitely say which platform is better than the other. That’s why many companies have accounts on both networks sharing their content on them. You can also create business accounts on both of them and cross-promote your posts. Of course, you’d better also think of some other growing networks like TikTok as they’re reaching Facebook and Instagram in terms of popularity.

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Bio:

Tom is a content creator with more than 6 years of experience in digital marketing. He has collaborated with some well-known brands in order to generate traffic, create sales funnels, and increase online sales. He has also written a considerable number of articles about social media marketing, brand marketing, blogging, search visibility, etc.

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