Manish Mandhyan, CAMS: 5 B2B Benefits of Facebook Page Changes

Social Media B2B

Facebook has changed the look of their Business Pages, to make them more in line with the recent changes to personal profiles, but they have added functionality that will make Page admins for B2B companies cheer. These changes will officially take effect in March, but Page administrators can choose to upgrade now, or at least preview the changes.

1. Publicly Identify Page Admin
One of the strongest benefits of social media is that it can humanize a company. There is no better way to humanize a company than to let customers, prospects and brand advocates know who they are communicating with online. The community manager has grown across social platforms, but in most cases, their identity has not been revealed on Facebook. Cisco is one B2B company that listed their Facebook community manager on their Page. You can now choose to show the Admins, or Page Owners on the left side, with links to their Facebook profiles.

2. Post on Page as Person or Page
A second way to humanize your B2B company on Facebook is that you can now respond on your Page as yourself. Previously you could only reply as your company (the Page), but now you can participate in the conversation as yourself. Make sure you are clear that you represent the company and that you don’t try to start conversations as just another fan of the Page.

3. Interact on Facebook as Page
Previously, you could only participate in Facebook conversations, and Like other Pages, with your personal profile. Now you can select “Use Facebook as (Page Name)” and you can post on other Pages as your Page. This is another reason why it was important to set up your Page with your B2B company name, rather than a keyword-loaded descriptive name. You can also Like other Pages as the Page you administer. This will create a newsfeed of the Pages you Like. You will also get notifications when your Page is Liked.

4. Display Featured Favorite Pages
Once you have Liked Pages as your Business Page, you can also display your favorites. Not all favorites Pages need to be shown. Go to the Featured option and select the Pages you wish to show on your Page. Five will show at one time, and will rotate among the favorite Pages. Use this feature if you have a main corporate Page and sub-Pages for divisions, products or locations. You can also use this to highlight customers, clients or other top companies in your industry.

5. Get Notifications of Posts and Comments
This is the biggest functional change of all. Now when people leave comments or post updates on your B2B Page, you get a notification by email (see below to change this default setting). You also see the red indicator in the upper left, just like you do on your personal profile. This will let you keep up with discussions on the Pages you manage. Note that these are sent to your main Facebook email, which might be your personal email address.