Facebook’s annual developer conference “F8” came and went last week, leaving a plethora of announcements in its wake. Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp have all received attention, with a range of initiatives.
Back in March, we discussed Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s vision for Facebook to become much more focused on individual interactions, rather than the wide-reaching public engagements we are currently used to, and the changes being introduced to Facebook really accelerate this vision. A brand new user interface places much more emphasis on friends and groups, rather than news and pages – including new tools for meeting new people.
Quite rightly, businesses were left wondering how this would affect their social media strategies as the March statement gave limited information about what businesses could expect.
The F8 2019 conference sheds some light on what tools are coming to support businesses, with Facebook launching a series of tools for Messenger to help businesses connect and work with customers. A new built-in appointments system, new marketing tools and new customer service tools have all been announced.
The new customer service tools will allow page admins the choice of responding as their page, or set a display name and picture for each admin in order to provide a more personal touch, and also to make it clearer exactly who the customer is speaking to.
In an era where customers are increasingly turning to social media for customer service, these new tools will help organisations to provide the best customer care directly, when customers use Facebook and Messenger to get in touch.
Erith McKean
Social Media Executive
Photo credit: Anthony Quintano
Image unchanged. Used under Creative Commons 2.0 Licence.
