Facebook redesigns Pages for small businesses: New layout will make it easier for users to book appointments and find out about upcoming events
- Facebook is redesigning the way small business Pages appear in its mobile app
- Now, services will be featured at the top of businesses Pages so that users can more easily book a hair appointment or make a restaurant reservation
- Businesses can also post Stories, or photos and videos, to the top of their page
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Facebook is revamping the way businesses appear on its mobile platform.
The social media giant said it’s redesigning the Pages for about 80 million small businesses on its smartphone app.
Now, utilities will be featured front and center on the page, enabling users to interact with businesses more easily, such as making a reservation at a restaurant or booking a hair appointment.
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Facebook is revamping the way businesses appear on its mobile platform. The firm said it’s redesigning the Pages for about 80 million small businesses on its smartphone app
Stories will also appear on a business’ page so that consumers can ‘get to know the people behind the business,’ Facebook explained.
It’ll also help consumers obtain more information about events and promotions the company is offering, as well as photos of the business.
As part of the change, Facebook is adding related Pages to point users in the direction of other local businesses.
‘Inside the Facebook app there’s no easy way to discover new businesses,’ Alex Himel, Facebook’s vice president of Local, told TechCrunch.
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‘The focus here is to make it easy to discover new businesses which we think any business will be excited about.’
The redesign will appear differently based on each category in the local business section.
Facebook is starting with Pages for restaurants, local services and TV shows, with other custom designs coming for other Pages in the future. It’s also revamping recommendations
Facebook is starting with Pages for restaurants, local services and TV shows, with other custom designs coming for other Pages in the future.
The firm is also streamlining the recommendations feature on Pages, by including crowdsourced reviews and improving reviews themselves by instituting a 25 character minimum.
Facebook is emphasizing its renewed focus on businesses by adding a ‘Local’ section to the Facebook app and the desktop website, where users can see which places are recommended the most, as well as what events their friends are attending.
The move comes as Facebook has also made some changes to its News Feed, so that it pushes friends’ content to the top of users’ feeds, in lieu of promotional content.
For some businesses, it has meant that their content is less likely to seen by users.
Facebook says it plans to address this problem in the near future.
‘We know that the core value that we bring to businesses on the platform is reach,’ Himel told TechCrunch.
‘Instead of time spent, we’re focusing on having meaningful interactions in your feed.
‘We know a lot of meaningful interactions are about local businesses or with local businesses. We’re planning to talk about this later this [year]…,’ he added.
HOW HAS FACEBOOK CHANGED THE WAY IT PRIORITIZES POSTS IN YOUR NEWS FEED?
Up until January, Facebook prioritized material that its algorithms thought people would engage with through comments, ‘likes’ or other ways of showing interest.
But 33-year-old founder Mark Zuckerberg said earlier this year that he wants to change the focus to help users have ‘more meaningful social interactions.’
The move follows his resolution in 2018 to ‘fix’ the site.
It is also in response to criticism that Facebook and its social media competitors reinforce users’ views on social and political issues.
Critics say sites like Facebook lead to addictive viewing habits.
Zuckerberg cited research that suggests reading ‘passively’ on social media was damaging for people’s mental health, while interacting proactively with friends was positive.
According to Adam Mosseri, Facebook’s New Feed boss, the changes means:
- Posts from friends and family now get more prominence that video, news, and other content from formal Facebook pages, such as companies and celebrities
- The number of comments on a post count more than the number of Likes
- Posts where people have spend the time to write lengthy comments are prioritized over those with only short comments
- While, news and video still appear in News Feed, the number of friends sharing it will matter more than its overall popularity
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