Facebook's small business tools include a new Messenger inbox
Facebook and Instagram want users to support small businesses
Facebook is planning more features to help business owners stay connected with customers. The company will add a dedicated business inbox to its Messenger app, which will allow page owners to respond to messages sent to their Facebook pages with the Messenger app.
The social network announced the change as part of a larger update meant to make it easier for users to show support for local establishments.
On Instagram, the company is introducing a “Support Small Business” sticker that allows users to tag a business’ page in a post on Stories. As with previous stickers Instagram has highlighted during the COVID-19 crisis, the app will highlight some of these posts in a dedicated Story at the top of users' feeds to mark the rollout. And on Facebook, the app will promote a new #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag where users can also tag restaurants, retailers, and other local establishments.
The company will also add new in-app resources to Facebook and Instagram that link business owners to information about small business loans, Facebook grants and how to sell gift cards. These are all efforts the social network has been pushing for awhile but, much like Facebook information hub for users, it at least pulls everything into one place.
