Now you can manage your Facebook business and fan Pages with a dedicated app that lets you view insights
Facebook for iPhone and iPad has a slew of problems, but now poor Pages management can be crossed off that list with the introduction of Facebook Pages Manager for iPhone. It's very similar to the normal Facebook app with the addition of being able to view Insights about your Page and manage admins.
Before Facebook Pages Manager, users would have to use the original Facebook app to view their Pages, but didn't have any access to admin controls. Now when you visit your Page with the Facebook for iPhone, you'll see an announcement at the top announcing the new app with a link to App Store.
As previously mentioned, Facebook Pages Manager is very similar to its older brother with the side-panel design and profile page view. Just like the main Facebook for iPhone app, Facebook Pages Manager also doesn't show the cover photo to your Page.
There is one thing you'll notice missing from Facebook Pages Manger, though -- messages. At the top of the screen you'll find the buttons to see who has recently liked your Page and notifications, but the messages button is absent. This is a shame, especially since Facebook's dedicated Messages app also doesn't support messages for Pages.
When viewing your Page's timeline, you can sort by everyone's posts, posts made by your Page, or hidden posts.
From the side-panel, you can select between the Pages you manage and look at the Insights for the selected Page and manage its Admins.
The Insights screen tells you how many likes you have, the number of people talking about your Page, weekly total reach, and a graph of your trends.
The good
- A dedicated app for Page management is great
- Facebook for iPhone users are already family with it
- View Insights, including graph of trends
- Manage admins
The bad
- No cover photos
- No access to page messages
- Can look up photo albums
- Can't upload photos to a specific photo album
- No iPad support
The bottom line
I'll admit that when I first heard that Facebook released a new app, I let out a little groan. But once I realized it was an app for managing Pages, I actually got a little excited since managing Pages on the main Facebook app is terrible. So far, I'm impressed with Facebook Pages Manager -- just rather surprised that they left out messages. But I guess I'd rather them leave it out then to introduce it with a bunch of bugs. Hopefully Facebook updates it soon.
Facebook Pages Manager is not yet available in the US App Store, but it should be soon.
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