Facebook is committed to regain all its users’ trust – both private and business accounts. After a few rocky years, the largest social network is trying to become safer, more reliable, transparent, and more user friendly than ever. Thus, the latest update to their Messenger apps allows users to toggle between their personal and business accounts.
Why Is Facebook Account Toggling a Useful Feature?
You may wonder if you really need this new feature released by Facebook. And we are here to assure you it is very useful. As the current health crisis keeps people at home and social distancing, direct messaging services become more and more important.
You may have already noted that you spend more time chatting with your friends online instead of meeting with them face to face. At the same time, you may have noted an increase in the private messages in the inbox of your business Facebook page. Thus, the new update is meant to help you save time and stay on top of all your messages.
What Facebook Says about the New Update
The Facebook team has promptly released an explanation for the latest Messenger update. The message penned by Mike Weingert, Product Manager for Messenger states:
“According to our research, over 90% of Facebook business admins already use Messenger to chat with friends and family, and we hear from many that they don’t want to download and manage multiple apps.”
At the same time, the Facebook statement acknowledges the importance of timely replies to messages sent by users to business paces. Quoting a Hubspot survey, Weingert’s post explains that 90% of consumers rate an immediate response at important or very important.
How to Use the New Messenger Feature
Once you’ve received the Messenger update, when you open it you will see the following message: “Messages for [your business page] are now available in Messenger”.
All you have to do is tap and hold on your profile picture. You will see a pop-up message allowing you to select between your personal and your business profile. For now, this new feature is available for the iOS app, but Facebook promises to perform the update for Android “in the next few weeks”.
Future Integrations to Look Forward To
Integrating personal and business inbox in Messenger is just the first step in a list of future changes that will help users switch between various Facebook owned apps. Without having a clear timeline, the Facebook Team also plans to create messaging integration for all its platforms – Instagram, Messenger and WhatsApp. This means that business owners and marketers will have more facilities to manage pages and direct messages. It is a sign for business accounts to prepare and expand to all the Facebook owned networks, as running and monitoring them will be simpler and easier than ever.
What Should You Do at This Point?
First of all, you should wait for the Messenger update on your iOS device or, alternately, look out for the Android release. In the meantime, pay attention to all the messages sent to your business page, either through Page Manager or the Creator Studio app.
Once the integration is available for your accounts, you will certainly find it useful, as many business owners already do. One testimonial shared by the Facebook post announcing the Messenger update indicates a 250% increase in private messages to a page in the last 3 months.
Even if you do not see such an exponential growth, you will find monitoring these messages less time consuming. This means that from now on you will never have to leave messages from your customers unanswered for too long. Wherever you are and whatever you are doing, it takes a few taps in Messenger to access and reply to business page messages.