This New Facebook and Instagram Feature Allows You Find and Support Businesses in Your Neighbourhood

Social media giants, Facebook have introduced a new feature called Businesses Nearby which allows you to find and support businesses in your neighbourhood.

According to the company, the new section will allow users to see the latest post from businesses within 1 to 500 miles of their location. The section will also show the current working hours, pickup/delivery options and booking options of those businesses.

Tough times for small businesses

The economic fallout of the COVID-19 pandemic has been tough on businesses. Many small enterprises have seen business slow down considerably with added difficulty in getting goods or resources due to restrictions to movements.

Facebook with its new feature allows users to show their support for their favourite businesses during these tough times. It also provides strong visibility for businesses to ready customers and allows users to quickly get access to essential products and services. This will be especially welcome news to the ever-expanding list of social media businesses.

These new features comes after Facebook introduced a $100 million grant program for small businesses in March.

How to show support for businesses

To show support for a business you like, you can use the #SupportSmallBusiness hashtag on Facebook. Any post you add the hashtag to will show that you are in support of the business.

For Instagram, you can use the new Support Small Business sticker to show support for a small business. The sticker will be added to a shared Instagram story highlighting a similar post from all the accounts you follow.

Sending messages to businesses

Apart from the business nearby feature, Facebook has also added a dedicated business inbox in the messenger app to make it easier for businesses to communicate with customers.

The new inbox allows you to message any business for inquires or complaints and also allows the business to reply questions sent to their Facebook page through the messenger app.

In addition to the features, Facebook has revealed that it will provide COVID-19-related information, tools and tips for small businesses in both the Facebook and Instagram apps and also allow them to tag COVID-19-related posts from the Page composer.

With this latest addition, businesses leveraging social media will benefit from the free coverage and advertisement Facebook will provide to its millions of users across the world. Also, the fact that the new feature shows potential customer around business location makes it easier for them to convert people into paying customers.