The past week has seen Facebook roll out a number of new features.  Aimed specifically at marketers and brand promotions, Facebook's ‘The New Marketing Tools’ includes admin permissions, scheduling and unpublished posts. The features were released as a package of three separate developments, aimed at marketers and brand promoters.

The new marketing tools

The first feature, Scheduled Posting, has previously been available through third parties such as Hootsuite, however this is the first time Facebook has made it available as a platform based feature. The only limitation lies within the three minute cancellation deadline- if the desire to cancel within the final three minutes is likely, it is best to stick with using a third party.

The second development is Unpublished Posts. Unpublished Posts are posts that will not show up on the pages timeline, nor will they feature in the newsfeed. Through the use of Sponsored Posts the posts will be shown to the relevant demographic through the separate advertising column featured on the right hand side of all Facebook pages. They appear like advertising rather than a traditional Facebook post. Unpublished Posts can also incorporate targeting possible new fans with content not relevant to existing fans.

The third development featured within this package is Page Admin Permissions. This feature is designed with advertisers in mind. It allows brands that use third party tools or businesses for their advertising to grant permission to the advertisers to post and manage comments, create ads, send private messages and view page analytics. 

The age of change 

Facebook as a platform is continuously developing and so for marketers and brands this remains a positive change. The new marketing tools can allow for more simplicity and freedom with less reliance on third party tools. The instigation of Unpublished Posts can allow brands with large and varied demographics to tailor their posts to a specific audience and avoid spamming others.