How To Use The New Facebook Brand Pages

Lisa Barone looks at changes that have been made to Facebook brand pages - changes to how pages are identified, the increased importance of images, changes in wall filtering, etc. - and shows how small businesses can leverage them.

"If you’re a small business owner who uses Facebook brand pages as a way to market your business, you may have noticed a little prompt asking you to update your page recently. It’s all part of a major brand page overhaul that Facebook says is designed to help business owners better manage communications, express themselves and increase user engagement. Sounds good, right? So what’s new over at Facebook, what do you need to be aware and which features aren’t so vital?

Below you’ll find some of the highlights.

Pages get their own 'identity' Perhaps my favorite of the Facebook upgrades is the new toggle switch that allows business owners to interact with other pages, walls or users as either themselves OR the brand they represent. As a business owner, this is something I’ve wanted for a while because it means I can comment on my company’s brand page as Lisa Barone (not just a logo) or comment on other Facebook pages as Outspoken Media (instead of Lisa Barone). Essentially, this new functionality is going to go a long way in increasing brand engagement, partnerships, and present new ways for marketers to draw people back to their company profiles. Because brands are now people too, your brand page will also receive its own news feed and you’ll be able to set up email notifications to alert you any time a user comments, posts or likes something related to your brand. I imagine this could get overwhelming for a large brand, but for SMBs it’s the perfect way to stay engaged with people interacting on your page. I’m really, really excited about this feature because it means you can pick, per interaction, if you want to be yourself or your company. So much more flexibility."