Over the last month several changes have taken place on Facebook, with a view to the site becoming more accessible and user friendly. Social networking is after all about connecting with new people.

The first thing users will have noticed is the introduction of hashtags to Facebook posts, which is a long overdue tool for site. More commonly associated with Twitter, the hashtag function allows you to mark your post for specific subject areas for example:

As you can see the hastagged words are blue and when clicked on open up a feed of all the posts with those hashtags in too. You can see everyone else who is talking about that subject and more importantly you can engage with them, spreading the word about what you do even further.

The hashtag feeds will also suggest other, similar hashtag threads for you to explore and see what people are talking about around your subject area as well.

Facebook have now also refined their search capabilities, which you may have noticed from the change in the top menu bar across your screen:

This is the all new Facebook Graph Search, which is a really great tools for finding the people you want to find. Graph search will allow you to search for people who have liked specific pages, live in certain areas and who their friends are as well.

In marketing terms this means you will be able to target any ads you place on Facebook much more effectively and use sponsored posts to gain the right people’s attention as well. Facebook has a huge amount of rich data on people that you can now use to find who might be interested in your business.

Exploring these new tools is a great way to work out what you can do with your business page on Facebook, but if you haven’t got the time or want to make use of expert abilities, it’s worth considering have a social media manager who will be able to get the best results for you.

By Harriet Thacker