Yesterday Facebook announced a new solution called Facebook Business Suites that provides a number of features designed to make it easier for SMBs to post content across all of Facebook’s apps.
COO Cheryl Sanberg made the announcement yesterday on Facebook’s blog.
“It allows them to post to Facebook and Instagram at the same time, and manage and receive messages, notifications, and alerts in one place,” Sanberg writes. “They can also easily see what’s working and learn what’s resonating with customers with Facebook and Instagram insights.”
Notably, Facebook is launching the site for small businesses first. Perhaps as an acknowledgment that small businesses need more urgent help these days. Or perhaps it simply reflects that Facebook’s success is so intricately tied to small business success.
“We’re building Facebook Business Suite for small businesses first, but this is a long-term investment to make this the main interface for businesses of all sizes who use Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp,” Sandberg wrote. “It is available for small businesses globally starting today and will expand to larger businesses next year.”
Longstanding Ambition
Creating tighter integrations between its various apps has been on Facebook’s roadmap for some time. We alluded to this in July in the context of WhatsApp reaching the 50 million SMB milestone.
Last year, the New York Times reported on Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s ambition to integrate the companies messaging platforms — Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp.
Facebook posted this video to explains how the Facebook Business Suites interface works.
Research Links Online Sales to Survival
Facebook also released two new studies showing a link between eCommerce and business performance.
“Our latest Global State of Small Business Report produced monthly in partnership with the World Bank and OECD, found that small businesses making more than 25% of their sales online are more likely to report higher sales than this time last year and less likely to have reduced their number of employees,” Sandberg writes.
The other study, conducted with Deloitte, tracks the impact of COVID on consumer purchase patterns. One notable finding was that almost half of consumers report spending more money since the crisis hit.
The Deloitte study included some encouraing notes for local businesses. It found that two-thirds of those shopping at new businesses have included at least one small business.
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