Broadcast channels on Facebook and Messenger: Come and meet them!
The developers of the different social media and instant messaging platforms They frequently experiment and adopt the characteristics or functionalities of their closest competitors. Both to maintain and protect its place in the field and to improve its capabilities and displace its rivals from their current positions.
For this reason, we constantly tend to see, for example, which platforms like Instagram and TikTok tend to be copied or imitated in some aspects. Which also happens very frequently between WhatsApp and Telegram. Or when Threads was created to compete with X (Twitter). Being a particularly recent case, the implementation of that WhatsApp channels the style of the Telegram channels. While, the last case known to us was, this month of October 2023, when the company Meta (Owner of WhatsApp, Instagram and Facebook) has presented “Facebook and Messenger Broadcast Channels” To the general public.
And this movement was a step expected by many. Since, after the implementation and success of dissemination channels on WhatsApp, it was logical and reasonable that said functionality be migrated to Facebook and Messenger.
Channels are new within WhatsApp and are basically a one-way communication system. Chats allow the recipient to receive the message and respond to it as they please. For their part, WhatsApp broadcast channels do not allow the recipient to respond within the same channel.
Broadcast channels on Facebook and Messenger for Facebook Pages
What are the Broadcast Channels available for Facebook and Messenger?
Broadcast channels created by Meta for Facebook and Messenger They are described, in a clear and simple way, by Meta (Facebook) in the following way:
Broadcast channels are a public, one-to-many messaging tool available on Facebook Pages. This is the latest addition to Facebook's robust set of tools that Pages administrators, as creators and public figures, can use to directly reach and engage with their communities.
However, and despite the fact that only a little more than a month has passed since the formal announcement of the official launch of said new feature, today we can mention the following important or highlighted points to take into account about it:
- This new feature will be implemented progressively over time on the entire platform, country by country until it reaches the entire world globally.
- It will only be available to the owners (creators and administrators) of existing Facebook pages. And as long as the managed pages have more than 10.000 followers. In addition, they will be subject to the community standards of Facebook and Messenger.
- These will include the use of typical and important functions such as being able to send text-only messages, or with photos, images and GIFs, audios and videos, or web links. But, it will also offer the use of tools such as surveys to receive instant feedback from your community.
- Any Facebook member who wants to be more and better informed about the most recent news published on their favorite pages can join them. Consequently, They will be able to read and react to published messages or vote in published polls, but they will not be able to send messages to the channel.
- Channels created on Facebook will be visible to join and visit from the profile of the Facebook page that created them. While, in the Messenger application we can see how those we have joined over time are automatically set to the top of the inbox.
About its operation
To better understand its scope and operation, as usual, the company Meta has already made available to users in its brilliant and very useful User Help Desk, a section entirely dedicated to knowledge and management from scratch of the diffusion channels.
However, it is worth briefly highlighting that for create a Broadcast Channel Currently you only need to perform the following few steps:
- We open the Facebook platform via web or mobile, and we go to the profile of the Facebook page that we own or that we manage.
- Then, we must click on the Channels button located right in the options menu below the profile photo of the page.
- Next, we must click on the Create channel button and enter a name for it, as well as add an image if we wish. However, if you choose not to add an image, the one used by default will be the same default image as your page's profile.
- Once all this is done, we only have to press the Create broadcast channel button to finish the creation process.
Important note
Once a broadcast channel has been created, Anyone can subscribe to it. But, to let the current followers of your page know of the existence of the new channel created, it will only be enough send a first message in it, so that everyone is informed that they can now join the channel.
In short, we are sure that the Meta company, with the launch of “Facebook and Messenger Broadcast Channels” For the owners and administrators of the pages on its platform, it has moved in the right direction and expected by many of its members. Above all, for those who are influencers, content creators, and brand and business owners.
However, we will continue to closely monitor the evolution and performance of said new characteristic to keep you informed in the near future about any news regarding it. Since, since it is very similar to the much appreciated and valuable Telegram Channels, it is very likely that a logical next step would be universalize all current Meta Channels (Facebook and WhatsApp) and maybe future ones (on Instagram and Threads). So that, by being subscribed to one, notifications can be received through any of the other platforms. Anyway, it will dawn and we will see what the near future holds for us in relation to the Meta Channels.