4 Amazing Facebook Features Every Marketer Should be Using in 2016

1) Lead Generation Ads

Marketers are increasingly beginning to realize the importance of generating leads organically for maximum success. If you get your audience to give you their contact information, you can run more successful and target marketing campaigns for individual segments of your audience.

Traditionally, generating leads meant running advertisements on Facebook that led to sign up pages on your website. Since last year, however, that is no longer your only option. Facebook now offers lead-generating ads, with on-network sign up forms that cut out a step and increase response rate. These forms even fill in information from your audience’s profiles dynamically, which means less friction and higher conversion rates for your business.

2) Response Badges

Facebook has always included the opportunity for your audience to get in touch with you using the network’s internal messaging feature. Recently, however, it began tracking the time it takes you to respond, and rewards you with for especially fast response rates.

These badges can be a significant marketing advantage for your business. Potential customers who receive a quick response to their inquiry are up to seven times more likely to convert. Being known for that quick reaction helps build credibility, and encourages others to engage with you as well. Once they do, you have a higher chance of converting them into paying customers.

3) Live Streaming Capabilities

Facebook Live is taking over the world, enabling anyone with a camera to broadcast a video about their thoughts or brand. Increasingly, businesses are beginning to realize the immense marketing potential of this new feature, and are using it to enhance engagement with their brand.

Just how you use Facebook Live for your business is up to you. You can host live Q& As, broadcast brand events, personalize your brand by showcasing your employees, react to industry trends and news, and more. The possibilities are (almost endless).

Given the immense and continuing success of video-based posts on the network, Facebook Live is almost guaranteed to succeed. Facebook users now watch 8 billion videos every single day, and an increasing portion of that consists of live broadcasts. In fact, live video views are on average 3 longer than the alternative.

4) 360 Degree Photo and Video

Like many other digital platforms, Facebook is also entering the virtual reality game. Users and brands can now share 360-degree photos and videos on the platform, creating a more immersive experience for their audience.

Given the importance of effective visuals anywhere in digital marketing, the success of these semi-VR videos is easy to predict. It allows you to use different perspectives and angles to showcase your product or service to your audience. Using little more than the panorama feature on a mobile device, you can create compelling visuals to market your brand.

Of course, these are just some of the many features that Facebook has recently made available to marketers, and which can lead to the maximum possible web traffic and engagement among your audience. Increasingly, marketers are beginning to take advantage of these features to increase the success of their Facebook marketing efforts.

Over to you: are you using any of the above features? If so, we’d love to hear your success rate. Share your experience below, or begin using either of the above to begin optimizing your traffic and engagement rate on the network.

If you like this post, feel free to check our other great Facebook marketing articles on our blog:

• How To Attract More Followers on Facebook in 5 Easy Steps
• 4 Ways to Drive Traffic to Your Website from Facebook
• 6 Useful Tips to Increase Online Sales Using Facebook