Facebook adds new tools to Pages

The additional tools will empower marketers to connect better with their consumers.

Social media giant Facebook, has announced new additional tools that will empower marketers to connect better with their consumers.

Among the slew of new tools, Page owners can now set the average time it takes for them to reply to messages. For example, they can either choose from 'within minutes', 'within an hour', 'within hours', or 'within a day.'

Facebook has also re-designed the inbox which gives businesses more information about their customers in order to better serve them. It will now provide more information and context on the people.

When Page administrators message with people, they can see past interactions the person has had with the Page, as well as note the information the person shares publicly on their profile. Admins can also add notes about the person, like current orders, past customer service preferences, or any other relevant information. They can further add tags to categorise conversations and make them easier to find and respond to later.

There is also a new tool under the new Activity tab that helps admins monitor and respond to comments on their Page. This tool offers admins a single place to view and respond to customer comments on both desktop and mobile. Admins can flag interactions for follow up, reply privately, or mark them as done.

Speaking on the development, Sheryl Sandberg, COO, Facebook, says, "The number one challenge for small and medium businesses is reaching customers. Facebook Pages are the mobile solution for millions of businesses around the world because they make it easy for business owners to reach new customers and communicate with current ones where they are - on mobile."

Facebook claims to have over 50 million businesses using Facebook Pages. It also claims that people are also communicating with Pages, with 2.5 billion comments on Pages every month. In India, 57 per cent of people on Facebook are connected to an SMB. There are more than two million small business pages in India as of October 2015.