45 million SMEs across the globe have a Facebook presence and that’s up 5 million since April this year.
The director of global partnerships at Facebook, Benji Shomair, says in a display of mathematical brilliance: “A million new businesses are on Facebook every month.”
And in the first major update in SME provision by Facebook since 2012, Shomair promises features that will bring “tighter communication between consumers and businesses.” New ‘message me’, ‘contact us’ and ‘call me’ calls to action will soon be much more visible on a business page and there will also be an additional ‘shop’ and ‘services’ features too.
We’ll be particularly fascinated to see how they integrate and encourage the Shopping and Services aspects of the new functionality. And hope to see it in action soon. It does seem that Facebook is working towards greater ecommerce ambitions and that’s no bad thing.
But every carrot comes with a stick. And Facebook will be awarding prizes, as is typical among internet businesses. SMEs that respond to 90% of messages within five minutes will now get a shiny green badge. “Our goal is to provide consumers with a signal that a page is responsive,” according to Shomair.
Have you taken advantage of any of this new functionality yet?
