Big things are happening for local businesses who use Facebook to connect with consumers. Earlier this week, Facebook rolled out a suite of new features for business pages on mobile devices. These updates were made to help businesses better promote themselves on Facebook by incorporating authentic recommendations, direct calls-to-action, and more prominently on each business’s page.

Recommendations

From deciding on where to go eat dinner to which doctor to go see, people often look for the opinions of friends and family. With Facebook bringing Recommendations to your page, people can post reviews about your business with not only text and photos but also related tags, such as “Open Late” or “Family-Friendly”. According to Facebook, these tags will make it easier for people to find out what your business is known for, and they also categorize your business with related searches.

Action Buttons

Having clear calls-to-action on any website is crucial to get users to interact with your business. Facebook is helping foster this interaction by adding specific action buttons to the top of business pages. These buttons include phrases such as “Book Appointment”, “Order Now”, “Write A Recommendation”, and more. When you choose the page template that best fits your business, you will be able to stir action from users and get them clicking with these action buttons.

Facebook Stories

Just like the popular Instagram stories, Facebook stories allow businesses to interact with consumers on a deeper level with video clips of new products, exclusive behind the scenes looks, Q&A’s, and more. To encourage businesses to create Facebook stories more often, Facebook made it so users can go to your page, click your profile picture, and instantly view your current story.

Business Information

Facebook now allows businesses to add customized information to their business page, including hours of operation, price range, menus and more. Businesses will also be able to feature their most up-to-date information, such as upcoming events or current deals and offers.

This new set of features on Facebook’s business pages allows more than 80 million small to medium businesses on Facebook to forge stronger relationships with consumers, offer additional information about their business, and more. As social media continues to grow, it is imperative that your business grows with it to keep up with your consumers and be a strong competitor in your area.