Get holiday season ready with new Facebook tools

If you’re planning your holiday season campaigns, you may want to take a quick look at the multiple new tools that Facebook has just released to give your sales a boost in the run up to Christmas.The social network has debuted a series of additional aids for business owners to help them get the resources they need to make Christmas 2019 a resounding success. According to a study Facebook commissioned and carried out by Ipsos, around half of shoppers begin to make purchases for their seasonal essentials by November or earlier.The new features include:

Customisable Templates If you want to ramp up your social media advertising but, don’t have the time, resources or know-how in house to design new creative, nor the budget to outsource, Facebook’s new customisable templates tool is for you. The customisable templates are vertical and full screen creatives which can be used across Facebook, Messenger, Stories and Instagram.This tool will make it easier for small businesses to use social media ads to increase awareness and sales during the shopping season by providing professional looking ads that can be easily customised to suit each business. New Messages Tools You may already have noticed that you can deal with all of your Facebook Messenger and Direct Instagram messages from your Facebook inbox. Now, to make things even more efficient and easy to manage during one of the busiest times of the year, you’ll be able to use new messaging tools such as folders, labels and search.Especially if you’re inundated with customer enquiries and requests on social media, these message tools will make it easier to stay organised and work efficiently. An instant reply function will also be rolled out in the coming weeks which will send an auto response. This can be set to offer useful information such as an acknowledgement of the message being received, advising customers of standard waiting times for a personalised response or providing alternate contact information. This same tool can also be used to send an ‘away’ message out of hours. Training sessions As well as its new holiday season tools, Facebook says it will also be welcoming small businesses to its offices around the world to provide training sessions for SMEs and non profit organisations ahead of the holiday season. The events will take place around the world in locations such as New York City, London, Mexico City and the Philippines.