If you are (or ever were) an admin of a Facebook page, you must be aware of the pain an admin goes through in managing the page through his/her mobile. The world is relying more and more on mobile devices. which means more than half of the Facebook users access it via mobile. Which also means many of the Facebook Page managers also access it via mobile.
As an admin to several Facebook pages, I always felt a need for a more controlled approach to the Facebook pages on mobile. When I first heard that Facebook is releasing its own Facebook Page Manager Android app solely for managing Facebook Pages, I was ecstatic. After some time fiddling with it, I came up with this review. Lets fond out what the Facebook Page Manager can do and how it fared on the expectation.
The Interface:
The interface and the interactivity of the Facebook Page Manager is similar to the new look of official Facebook Android app. Once you have logged in to the app, you can see all of your pages for which you are an admin by clicking on the menu on top left. This is nothing new as one can do the same in the simple Facebook app.
Once you choose your page, you can see all the new likes, messages and the user activities in the top notification area, very similar to how you use the Facebook app for your personal profile. You can update status and share photos from here.
On the top right corner, there is a filter that gives you access to choose between posts by page and posts by fans. In the simple Facebook page, this option was available via links.
Comment viewing section is same as what we have seen in the new Facebook app. When you click on comments, it opens a new ‘window’ on the top of existing one:
You can delete a post just by swiping your fingers across the screen. Once we have seen the interface and the look of the Facebook Page Manager, it is time to see the highs and lows of this app.
What’s Hot?
Page Insights:
The best thing about Facebook Page Manager is that it provides the insights about the posts and statuses akin to the web version. The “reach” started showing under a posts since the time Facebook started forcing page owners to pay to reach more fans (among the existing only, not new). You can see how many people your post reached in this new app.
Apart from showing the “reach”, it also shows the detailed insights. The “View Insights” gives the critical details about the post. Very helpful for targeted campaigns. If you promote your post, those insights will also be accessible.
Notifications:
Based on your Facebook page settings, it also notifies you of new user likes and comments on the page. May not be a good option for pages with tens of thousands fans with hundreds of active users.
Whats Not?
If you think that with Facebook Page Manager on your Android phone, you don’t need to log in to the web version, you are wrong. Facebook Page Manager is missing lots of crucial features important to a page admin.
No option to delete a comment and ban a user:
Every now and then we, page admins, came across unruly, rude and misbehaving fans. Surprisingly, while you can delete a Facebook comment from your page on mobile with the simple Facebook app, the Page Manager does not have this option (at present). No prizes for guessing that you cannot ban/un-ban a user.
No tagging in comment section:
When you use the web version, you can tag a user (who have commented on the post earlier) in the comment section. Unfortunately, there is no such service available in the Facebook Page Manager.
Obviously if you are looking for a way to share or download images from Facebook on mobile for your page, you will be disappointed again.
Verdict:
Facebook Page Manager is helpful for people who are more in to the statistics of their campaigns but as far as a normal Facebook Page admin is concerned, it does not offer much. Most of the features such as posts by fans, update status, photos and commenting is already available on normal Facebook apps. The new Facebook App Manager is missing some important features. No doubt that this app has been designed by an intern and it seems like the intern went back to defend his thesis 😛 I hope to see the missing crucial features in later versions. Till then it is up to you to use it or avoid it.