How to use Meta Business Suite for Instagram and Facebook

What is Meta Business Suite?

Meta Business Suite is a mobile and desktop portal where businesses can access tools to manage their presence on Facebook, Instagram, and Messenger in a single hub. Currently, Business Suite has the following capabilities:

• Creation of posts and stories (reels aren’t yet supported) to IG and Facebook
• Previewing posts in both feed and grid formats
• Post planning and scheduling
• Notifications of post likes, comments and messaging
• Insights into demographics, audience, content, reach, profile visits etc
• Advertising including the insights from previously run ad campaign’s
• Events manager to view insights from pixel tracking over websites, apps

 

How do I setup Business suite?

Now, if you want to take advantage if the Meta business suite all associated accounts will need to be business accounts. If you need to create or convert a page or account please see the below help pages:

 – Create Facebook business page

 – Convert Instagram account to business account

 

Who should use Facebook Business Suite?

Anyone who manages a business on Facebook (including Pages or Instagram accounts) should at least strongly consider using the Business Suite. If you have multiple accounts to manage, you definitely should.

Facebook Business Suite costs nothing to use, but it offers a number of distinct advantages and features, and the fact that they’re all condensed and streamlined is invaluable. It also facilitates teamwork, making the process easier whether you’re a single person tackling it all or part of a larger team.

There are several social media tools out there which offer similar features, for a long time our team here have been using Tailwind which is also a free tool, however a lot of the advanced features are subscription based which is great if you have more than one of each Instagram or Facebook account to manage but if you’re managing your own brand this is likely not required. Tailwind does however have the added benefit of being able to also post to Pinterest which can be handy if this is your thing.

 

Creating and scheduling posts

Creating and scheduling posts and Stories is one of the most common uses of the Business Suite. To do this, go to Posts & stories in the menu on the left side of the dashboard.

 

There, you will find an intuitive post creator, complete with a preview.

In the post composer, you can type out your copy, add a photo or video, and set up a location for your post. You can then add a link, and even include a call to action. Finally, you can select the account you’d like the post to be published to. Then, you can publish it immediately or schedule it for later.

 

Accessing Insights

So, Meta Business Suite features a robust set of Insights tools that you can use to see how your content is performing. From your left-hand navigation menu, click Insights.

You’ll be able to view an overview of your business’s performance. This includes a summary of your reach, audience stats, recent post performance, and Instagram insights (if your Instagram account is connected).

If you click on Results, you’ll get an overview of your reach for connected Facebook Pages and your Instagram profiles.

When you click on Content, you’ll see a list of recent posts with performance data. Facebook will show you your post reach, likes and reactions, comments, shares, results, cost per result (if sponsored), and link clicks.

Want to know more about your Page’s audience? Click on Audience to get a breakdown of your current audience demographics, as well as a snapshot of your potential audience.

 

Creating Stories 

Facebook and Instagram Stories are amongst the most engaging formats you can post. Let’s take a look at how to create Stories in Facebook Business Suite.

From your dashboard, click Create Story then click Add Media to upload an image or video to your Story.

 

You’ll see a preview of your Story, and you can choose if you want to post it to Facebook, Instagram, or both.

If you want to add text or stickers, or even crop your Story image, now is the time. You can also add text to your Story to add context. You can see all of these in the example below.

Decorate your Story however you want, then click Share Story. Alternatively, you can schedule your Story to post on a certain date and time.  This gives you the flexibility to create content long in advance so you’re not worried about creating and uploading it last minute.

 

How to manage your content calendar 

Facebook Business Suite allows you to view your social media content calendar, where you can see what you had scheduled and (if needed) adjust or reschedule the posts accordingly. The calendar view includes both Facebook and Instagram posts and Stories.

To view and manage your content calendar, select Planner from the navigational menu.

 

How to list your services on a Facebook Page 

If you need to list, add, or remove services from your Page, it’s easy to do so via Facebook Business Suite.

First, click All Tools. Then, click Services (under Sell Products and Services).

Click Add a Service.

Now, you can enter specific information about your service. This includes adding a photo, in addition to a name, description, price, and the duration of the service (and whether it’s flexible or fixed). Be as detailed as you need to be in order to help customers make informed buying choices.

Occasionally, revisit your Services to ensure your range of offers is still in line with your brand and that all the pricing is accurate. You can always add or take away services as needed in addition to editing them, and Facebook makes it easy to do that.

 

Final thoughts 

Facebook Business Suite is a useful free tool for marketers, advertisers, and business owners. It integrates with Facebook, Instagram and Messenger, and you can use it with a number of other third-party platforms too.

As the platforms continue to expand and evolve, Business Suite will likely change too, offering new features to help keep up. It’s a good idea for brands to get used to the interface so they know how to use it when needed, even if they prefer more manual and singular Page management.

And keep in mind that if you ever want to look for an all-in-one publishing and analytics tool that will allow you to streamline management for every major social media site (and not just those under the Meta umbrella), tools like Hoosuite or tailwind can help.

What do you think? Are you using Facebook’s Business Suite? What features are the most useful to your brand? Share your thoughts and questions in the comments below!  See more social media productivity tools here