Love him or hate him, Thanos is quite the guy.
Not content with taking over the world like your run-of-the-mill villain, Thanos has grander ideas; he wants to take over the universe. Lofty goals, no?
In many ways, Facebook is like Thanos, although obviously not in the same demented and murderous way. Facebook has been on something of a spending spree over the past few years and has hoovered up a couple of notable businesses.
And much like the stones in Thanos’ ring, each acquisition has given our Mad Titan additional superpowers.
Of the 78 companies that Facebook has added to their cart, the ones we’re most interested in are Instagram and WhatsApp. Here’s why.
What is Facebook Business Suite?
Have you heard of Facebook Business Suite? If you run a business and make use of Facebook or Instagram, then you’ll want to know more.
Facebook Business Suite is the love child of Instagram, Instagram direct message, Facebook, Facebook Messenger, Facebook Business Manager, Facebook Ad Manager, and Insights. This decidedly incestuous relationship has brought forth a brilliant combination of these two platforms that has simplified communication between the two heavyweights.
It has also provided an idiot-proof business management system which, quite frankly, we’re a little in love with. This system looks very much like the perfect tool for small businesses and smart digital agencies, despite being limited to just Facebook and Instagram. (Watch this space – we anticipate WhatsApp will be integrated pretty soon too!)
As of the close of business today, Business Suite offers four main functions:
- Posting
- Messaging
- Insights
- Advertising
This sounds great, but we have questions.
What’s the Difference Between Facebook Business Suite and Business Manager?
If it aint broke… you know? Well, Facebook Business Manager is very good at what it does, it’s just that Business Suite is better.
The role of Business Manager is to provide a one-stop shop for all your assets (FB, Instagram, WhatsApp) including ad accounts, catalogues, apps, and properties. It allows you to add people and partners to assist with the workload while allowing users to manage performance, optimisation, pixels, and payments.
As you can see, the focus is on the management of your online assets.
Business Suite’s mission in life is to help you to engage with your audience in a simpler and more user-friendly format. It’s like the mother who teaches both her children to play nicely together, assuring them that they’re both special.
Business Suite allows you to see – at a glance – insights on your business pages on both platforms. You can quickly read and respond to messages, view your important notifications, and see what ads are running and how they’re doing.
While Business Suite doesn’t yet offer all the features of Business Manager, it’s really only a matter of time before BM is absorbed into this smart system. In the meantime, it does enough to make it a feasible choice, while still allowing you to flick over to Business Manager for the more granular tasks.
Is Facebook Business Suite Free?
It really is. Just ask Mark.
Benefits of Facebook Business Suite for Digital Marketers
When it comes to digital marketing, we are the first to admit that many of the best tools are more like a rabbit hole than a business process. Big data is great and all but there’s so much of it.
This is why Facebook Business Suite is our new bestie.
Intuitive communication
All your information and important updates are in one place, for both Instagram and Facebook. For those of us who spend a lot of time posting, sharing, boosting, and commenting, keeping up with the influx of information can become a nightmare of hamster-wheel proportions. So, having your messages, notifications, and comments all in a single place makes tracking and responding easy-peasy.
You are also able to quickly create autoresponders to ensure a speedy reply to your valuable audience. With Business Suite you can set greetings, away messages, answer FAQs, communicate appointment details, and respond to feedback or reviews.
Another brilliant feature is the ability to filter messages and mark them appropriately, so nothing falls through the cracks. Assign other users to respond, track, and manage the messages right from your dashboard.
Cross-platform posting
Creating and scheduling posts on both Insta and FB is done on the same dashboard without Instagram getting all precious about third-party access. Traditionally, to prevent their team from falling completely off the work-life balance wagon, many business owners and marketing agencies would make use of third-party apps to post and schedule on both social platforms.
No more.
And the true beauty of this particular factor is that Business Suite fully understands the peculiarities of each channel and will tell you politely when you’re getting it wrong. Once you’ve set up your post, you can preview it on both channels and make any needed changes.
Manage insights
Creating ads, boosting posts, and monitoring their progress is a lot simpler with Business Suite. More importantly, so is tracking their performance.
The most useful metrics are tracked in real-time including reach, engagement, and performance. Toggle easily between the two platforms with their dedicated tabs and make any needed changes right there and then.
Mobile plus desktop
Business Suite is great on a desktop, but it’s also available through Android and iOS as a mobile app. Who needs an office chair when you can manage your social platforms from the waterfront with a cocktail in one hand and your trusty smartphone in the other?
This means that whether you like it or not, you’re getting those instant notifications all day, and all of the night.
How Do You Get Facebook Business Suite?
It all sounds pretty darn awesome, don’t you think? So, how do you jump on this virtual bandwagon?
If you’re currently using the Pages Manager app on Facebook, then you may already have been offered the option to switch over to Business Suite. You might as well, as this is fixing to be the go-to tool allowing you to manage all the things.
If not, then you can follow the below processes.
- If it’s not already, connect your Instagram account with your Facebook business page.
- Also, you want to make sure that your Instagram is running on a business account.
- Go to your FB business page and scroll down to Settings on the left-hand side. Scroll down in this menu and click on Instagram and follow the prompts to complete the setup.
- Go to business.facebook.com and if you are eligible to access it then it will send you to your new home page.
Et voila.
What Do I Do Now?
Well, that’s very much up to you. If you’re a business owner and you’re thinking, “Hey, I want a piece of this” then do your homework and try it out.
There’s no doubt that adding the Instagram ‘stone’ to their already impressive product is a smart move for Facebook. The writing is on the wall for WhatsApp too, which is incredibly exciting for us geeky types.
We believe that Facebook Business Suite marks the beginning of a powerful collaboration of superpowers that will, ultimately, benefit us as the consumer. And, just like our powerful super-villain Thanos, each stone that they add to their portfolio makes them a more formidable presence in the online arena.
Our team here at Kaomi is eager to help you grow your business in the fastest and simplest way. Please feel free to chat with one of our own superheroes by requesting a call-back.