The Ultimate Guide to Booking Appointments on Facebook - Final_single page

The Ultimate Guide

Leveraging Facebook to
Book More Appointments

www.AppointmentPlus.com

Why should you adopt
Facebook to build your brand?

Any organization, big or small, should consider embracing
Facebook as a social media channel. Why? It’s a versatile
forum where you can leverage your content, allow your
customers to discuss your products and services, and
facilitate positive client reviews and referrals.

Consider these Facebook stats:

• The site had 1.23 billion daily active users on average
during December of 2016, a year-over-year increase
of 18% (Facebook, February 2017).

• More than 50 million active business pages
are hosted on the social media channel
(Facebook, December 2015).

This means that by tapping into Facebook, you’re
opening up your brand to an enormous tide of
potential customers and prospects.

2 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Leveraging Facebook’s cab without leaving their comfy seat at the coffee shop. Online
appointment booking and appointment scheduling empowers consumers to book at their
client marketing features leisure, without stepping away to discuss their calendar with
someone on the phone.

You may have already heard that Facebook is equipped Here are the top 5 ways
with extremely effective tools for both prospect targeting and
insights. The channel offers a fantastic advertising platform you can use Facebook for online scheduling
where you can create ads targeted to specific geographic areas, and marketing your organization to existing
age, education levels, and even the types of devices used for and prospective clients:
browsing. Utilizing the Facebook Insights tool will help you track
user interaction to determine the best time of day to post, your 1. Add a Book Now button to your Facebook
target audience mix, and what content is the most popular. business page.

But did you know that the forum is also fully optimized for booking 2. Use AI technology to boost Messenger
customer appointments? That’s right! Facebook has several built-in chat capability.
features that promote online appointment scheduling.
3. Share positive reviews via your timeline.
Online scheduling is one of the simplest, and most popular, forms
of automation being used by forward-thinking organizations that 4. Add a booking calendar as a custom tag.
value customer self-service. Advances in technology have created
a world where someone can watch TV shows from a mobile 5. Use Facebook posts to share
evice, get one-hour shipping from Amazon Prime, and call a appointment availability.

3 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Adding a Book Now button to This call to action will inspire and allow your target audience
your Facebook business page (whether they are new or prospective clients) to immediately
interact with your organization.
It’s easy to allow your clients to schedule appointments
via the Facebook call-to-action feature. This call-to-action Here's how it works:
button appears directly under the cover photo to the right
of your Facebook business page. The customizable, • Go to your page’s cover photo and click “Add a Button.”
clickable space directly links to your business' calendar • Choose your call to action.
and is viewable by every visitor. • Enter the URL for your website (be sure to link to

Once you’ve created the call to action, or in the case of your calendar!)
appointment scheduling, the “Book Now” button, you can • Click “Create.”
track the number of people who clicked the button by checking
the Insights on your Facebook business page.

4 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Using AI technology to boost The great thing about chatbots is that they’re painless to use
Facebook Messenger capability and set up. No development experience required! Here is a
Complete Guide to the Messenger Platform.

AI, or Artificial Intelligence, is a subfield of computer science Best of all, leveraging this type of automation allows you to boost
focusing on the development of technology that carries out your marketing resources and reach more people. Which is good,
tasks normally done by people. Great examples of AI technology because on Facebook there are a lot of people to reach!
are self-driving cars, intelligent personal assistants (IPA) like Siri,
and Watson, the IBM computer that can answer questions in the Did you know?
style of the Jeopardy quiz show.
• 82% of 18 to 29-year-olds and 79% of 30
Over the last 20 years, the quality of Artificial Intelligence has to 49-year-olds with an online presence
improved exponentially. As a result, many new technologies have use Facebook (Pew Research Center,
been developed that can be used to your advantage. Messenger August 2015).
has launched chatbots — computer programs designed to
simulate human conversation – that use automation to identify • 1 billion people currently
customer needs and respond helpfully. Sephora, an early adopter use Facebook Messenger
of the technology, is using chatbots to facilitate customers booking (Facebook, 2017).
in-store appointments.

5 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Sharing positive reviews
on your Facebook timeline

Positive reviews are a major factor in a customer’s booking
and purchasing decisions. According to a recent study by
Business.com, 77% of people take the time to read reviews
before they make a purchase. Overexposure has made
“in-your-face marketing” less effective as buyers seek out
reviews from actual customers to make purchase decisions.
Adding customer reviews to your marketing strategy puts
you ahead of your competitors, because you are feeding
consumers’ need for user-generated content.

Facebook reviews are an important SEO strategy that can
help your brand’s discovery in search engines. When
Facebook launched reviews in 2013, customers and
clients could leave starred reviews for all of Facebook
to see; now those researching you on Google can
see them too.

When you search for a company on Google, the
results page displays the business on the right-
hand side of the screen (which is the information

6 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

taken from your Google My Business profile). This box includes On Facebook, sharing positive reviews is an easy way to
address, contact information, opening hours, and links to social promote your business' reputation to fans and customers.
media profiles. It shows those who are visiting your page for the first time
how celebrated your brand is.
It now also shows reviews from the web, including Facebook. This
means that anyone who searches for your company on Google will Here’s how to showcase
see a rating out of five stars. They can then click on the rating and your great reviews:
it will take them to your Facebook page, where they can see the
reviews in more detail. Take a screenshot of a recent review.

Consider this: Post the image with a brief note on
your timeline.
• Nielsen reports that the most meaningful form of
advertising is recommendations from friends and
family. According to the study, 83% of consumers in
60 countries say they trust these recommendations
over any other form of advertising.

• ReachLocal conducted a consumer survey and reports
that 89% of buyers will make a purchase within one
week of reading reviews. 72% of those buyers will
take action only after reading a positive review.

7 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Adding a booking • Click the “Edit” button on the Welcome tab and
calendar as a custom tab click “Edit settings.”

You can even embed a booking calendar as a custom tab on your • To change the name of the tab, type your name in
Facebook business page, allowing for greater audience interaction. “Custom tab name” and click “Save.”
The set-up process is effortless: Before you know it, you’ll have a
fully functional scheduling system set up via social media! • To change the picture of the tab, click “Change”
in “Custom Tab Image” and upload your image.
Here's how it's done:
• Go to the Facebook Application page. • Go to your Facebook page and check the tab
• Click on “Add static HTML to a page.” you just created.
• Select your Facebook page.
• Click “Add static HTML.”
• Go back to your Facebook page.
• Click the tab “Welcome.”
• Paste the calendar’s HTML code
into the editor.
• Click “Save & Publish.”
• Change the name and the picture of the tab.

8 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Using Facebook posts to
share appointment availability

Sharing appointment availability with your followers is another cool
Facebook feature. Just mention in a post that you only have a
few spots open on a given day, then share the link to your online
scheduling page. Be sure to offer specials to get more interaction.
You’ll be filling out your calendar before you know it!

Here's what to do:
• Go to your Facebook business page.
• Mention in a post that you have a few select
spots open on particular days.
• Include a link to your online calendar.
• Communicate a sense of urgency. Advise
your audience to "act now!"
• Don't forget to boost your post with
special offers or promotions.

9 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Test your Facebook scheduling fitness

Below you’ll find a checklist to see how good you are at using Facebook to boost your online appointment scheduling-related tasks.
How’d you do?

Good Better Best

Book Now Button Do you have a CTA button on your Does your CTA direct customers to Are you using online scheduling software
business Page? an online scheduling page? to capture, serve, and automate
appointments from your CTA?

AI Technology to Are you providing active response Are you using AI keywords to Are you coupling AI technology with
Boost Messenger to your customers via Messenger? automatically provide a booking link online appointment scheduling to
from certain requests via Messenger? 100% automate bookings driven from
Messenger?

Sharing Your Have you solicited guest reviews Are you sharing guest reviews as Are you sharing positive guest reviews for
Great Reviews and published them? featured posts for specific services, a specific service with a CTA to book the
with a CTA to book the same service? same service, along with a link to an online
Add a Booking Calendar Have you launched an online appointment scheduling app?
as a Custom Tab scheduling software tool? Have you integrated your online
scheduling application into a calendar Have you highlighted your calendar tab
Book Now tab on your business page? as a regular Book Now CTA attached to
promos, specials, or VIP experiences with
limited availability?

Use Facebook Posts Are you posting when your Are you using a form to collect info on Are you using online scheduling software,
to Share Availability business has appointment interested parties when you post about so that interested parties can immediately
slots to fill? current openings in your schedule? book an appointment when they see you
have openings or are running a special?

10 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments

Ready to ditch your paper Schedule a demo
calendar or spreadsheet?

If you’re like most busy professionals, you need about 36 hours
a day. It’s time to give no-shows, endless follow-up calls, and
inefficient staffing the old heave-ho. Join The Online Scheduling
Revolution with AppointmentPlus.

• You’re invited to take part in a free, personalized demo
with one of our online scheduling experts, who will listen to
your business needs and show you how AppointmentPlus
can help.

• Build your business – with scalable, cloud-based
appointment technology that fits organizations of all
shapes and sizes.

• Increase organizational efficiency – automating
your scheduling process eliminates the need for
manualconfirmations and reminders, and reduces
no-shows and miscommunications.

• Delight your customers – by allowing them
to book appointments at a time and manner
that’s convenient for them.

11 | Leveraging Facebook to Book More Appointments