One of the nice aspects of being a Facebook Page manager is the fact that Facebook maintains a dedicated app, Pages*, that offers a greater degree of capability than the basic Facebook app. And with the latest version, 4.0, Facebook has brought all kinds of improvements to the app.
Facebook Pages* Has a New Look
First, the app has a new, streamlined look that’s actually really gorgeous. From the app’s icon to the display of individual Pages, everything has changed.
Whether you control one or multiple Pages, the first screen shows your default Page and it’s an attractive display of your page and cover photo, though the cover graphic is cropped and centered. Below that is your current follower count, along with an easy button to invite friends (connections to your personal account) to Like your Page.
To access other Pages, tap the three bar menu icon in the upper right corner and a slide out menu will display all of your connected Pages, along with a blue numeric indicator of any activities or notifications for any individual Pages. Scrolling down, you can create a new Page from the app, access App settings, and check out Facebook’s Help Center and Policies. This is also where you go to log out if you needed to log in using a different Facebook account.
Along the bottom is now displayed a series of Page menu items. The left-most is to get you back to viewing your Page, followed by Notifications, Insights, and a More menu that reveals Photos, Events and Settings. The Settings are specific to that Page, and is a convenient place to turn off or on Push Notifications for specific Pages. From here you can also update your Page info, assign new managers, and view activate logs.
In the middle of the bottom menu is a Create Update button. Tap it and reveal options for Text, Photo, Video and Event.
Easier Access to Activity & Insights
Rather than tapping a couple times, Insights are now located right from the bottom menu, via the chart icon. Tapping will reveal a basic set of Facebook Insights designed to give Page Managers a snapshot of how the Page has performed over the past week.
- Total Page Likes
- New Page Likes
- Total Reach
- Post Reach
- People Engaged
Tapping any of these metrics will reveal the data charted over the given period.
Similarly, tap the lightning bolt icon to access all of your Page Acitivity.
- Notifications
- Messages
- New Likes
Below them is displayed a quick graph of your Page’s likes this week and post reach, and the ever-present invitation to Promote Page (incidentally, I don’t recommend ever using the Promote Page or Boost Post buttons – instead, use the Ads Manager to create the ads you want for better reach and cost efficiency).
Notifications in particular now load a lot faster, and are easier to clear. If you’re anything like me and hate all those red notifications, and just have to obsessively clear them out, tap on Notifications and just swipe down to mark them all as read.
View Post Author
For a while now, on desktop, Page owners and managers would be able to see, when logged in, which other Page Manager shared a particular post. Now, if you’re the only manager of your Page, you obviously won’t be using this, but many businesses employ a team of people who have access. Or, perhaps like many of my clients, you might delegate some of the responsibility for creating status updates to an outside consultant. With this update, any Page Manager can look at any post and see the name of the person who created it.
Normal Page followers will never see this detail.
Edit Posts
Another feature that’s previously only been available on desktop is the ability to edit Page posts. Scroll to any post and tap the upside-down carrot in the upper right corner of the post to reveal the post menu. You can edit the post, pint it to the top, grab the permalink for that post, or just delete it.
Reply To Comments in Thread
Finally, Brand Pages can now reply to comments and have their responses appear threaded under each comment. Strangely, not only has this been available on desktop for a while, but also through the standard Facebook app, so this is a much-needed change for the sake of consistency, if nothing else.
If you’ve been using Pages* for a while, be sure to grab this update. And if you haven’t yet tried this app, I think you’ll find it far more convenient for managing your Page(s). I’ve mentioned before that this is one area where Google+ continues to lag behind Facebook and should strongly consider emulating them. And the rumor is that the new Google My Business portal within Google will soon have a dedicated app, so perhaps my wish will be granted soon.
UPDATE: Google+ has indeed released a dedicated app for Page Management. Read all the details here.
[iTunes link] [Google Play link]
