It is almost certain that you already have a page on Facebook for your business. But are you reaching enough customers? Or do you want to reach more customers? Facebook has launched its professional services recently. It is a directory which helps consumers find the best local businesses and services which fits their need best. This is a "How To" article where we will focus on how to use Facebook professional services which can help the business in boosting its visibility among the local customer. So, let's get started.
Table of Contents
“Facebook professional services” is simply a directory inside Facebook whose sole purpose is to find local business. Not just any business but very specifically the goal is to find the business with best reviews and ratings on Facebook.
It may not be as popular but with time as more businesses become savvy of their page activity and promotion through Facebook marketing, the service directory can become the first choice of the consumers for searching the best local businesses.
Consumers can use the search box to find the business using the keywords specific to the products and services they are seeking. Category based browsing of top local business is also available.
Customers can also see details and other basic description of the business in the search result or in category selection.
The nicest part about the Facebook Professional Services is that people can search for the local business worldwide and its services are not limited to the US only.
The search results are based on the following parameters:
The location of the local business
Keyword matching in the local business page’s name, description and category.
The average star rating for the social business.
Ratings received by the local business.
Latest reviews.
Number of check-ins for that particular local business.
Based on previous interactions between the local business and the customers.
Mobile users can also use the Facebook professional services from the device browser. The search works in the same manner but is limited by the number of category.
Inside the Facebook app, the best alternative is the nearby places and iPhone users can find this under the “More” menu where they can search for the business based on location and category which shows the results similar to the results shown by Facebook Professional Services on desktop.
In order to ensure that customers find your local business in directory listing it is important that you choose category and sub-category appropriately. You can test this by searching for the keywords which customers would use to search you and see what Facebook suggests.
All the fields available in “page” info under the “about” tab will appear in the search results on the Facebook. Hence, you want to make sure that short description, contact info and business hours fields are filled correctly.
Make sure and double check that the star ratings and check-ins are enabled. If they are not then you can enable them by clicking on edit address and then by checking the box beneath the map.
To make sure that local customers have great experience on your page make sure that they are able to contact you in multiple ways.
Using Bluetooth beacon is another great way to engage local customers as this device allows you to send custom messages to the customers at your business.
Facebook pages without any cover photo and recent updates looks like closed business. Make sure that you are not missing the cover photo and keep your page updated and fresh to give a great first impression to the customer.
Facebook Professional Services have great potential and can become a huge source of customers for local business which are really good at providing services and products.
