Video conferencing has been instrumental in keeping small biz owners and their teams connected while working from home during the COVID-19 pandemic, throughout. However, some business owners are still struggling to find a reliable and secure tool that’s also easy to use. 

As many business owners are still reluctant to use Zoom, I already gave my personal recommendation as an alternative, which is completely free to use with 100 persons in one call – Google Meet.

Today, I want to introduce a brand new video conferencing tool that has been rolling out globally with some really cool bells and whistles that Google cannot offer, especially if you run a lot of your business’s social media components on Facebook. 

Facebook’s Brand New Messenger Rooms

Yes, Facebook’s brand new Messenger Rooms have become an instantly popular choice for video conferencing among over 2.5 billion monthly active FB users for obvious reasons. However, it’s also quite a lucrative option for business owners who run a Facebook page or group and organize their events via Facebook events; to connect with their audience. (not necessarily their internal teams). 

Messenger Rooms is inherently a video chat room where you can converse with up to 50 people at once. Depending on your room settings, participants won’t need to download, log in to or connect on Messenger to join your video call.

You can create/use Messenger Rooms via Facebook Newsfeed, Facebook Messenger, Messaging feature on Facebook, Facebook Groups & Facebook Events. Here’s how Messenger Rooms work on each of these.

How To Use Messenger Rooms

From a business owner’s point of view, here are a few ways how you can use Messenger Rooms to create a deeper connection with your audience;

1. Easily convert your small-group Offline events into Online events, without a third party tool. For larger events, you can still use FB Live – this cannot be gated.
2. Run workshops, training and other small group classes pretty much like a real classroom but online.
3. Closed group product launches, surveys and other ways of feedback from small groups of customers. As it’s a small group, these are highly manageable and the discussion is two-way, as compared to FB Live which is a one-way communication.
4. Pre-event activities for smaller groups. Early-bird ticket holders etc to give your audience an added reason to join your paid events early..

Messenger Rooms via Different Platforms

Messenger And Messages on Facebook

When you create a room from Messenger or Messages on Facebook using one of these two settings:

• People with the link: Anyone with a link can join your room even if they don’t have Facebook or Messenger.
• Only people on Facebook: Only people who have a Facebook account can join your room.

Facebook Newsfeed

You can create a video chat room for your Facebook News Feed. When you create a room on Facebook, you control who sees your room in News Feed by choosing who to invite.

• Friends: All your friends can see and join your room on Facebook.
• Specific People: You choose who to invite and whether to allow invite link sharing. When you turn on invite link sharing you can invite more people, including people who aren’t your friends, or who don’t have Facebook or Messenger.

Facebook Group

You can create a video chat room in your Facebook group, which everyone in the group can find. You can also add link sharing to your room to invite more people.

Keep in mind, the person who created the room has to be present for the call to start. If you’ve enabled link sharing for your room, someone you didn’t invite may join your room even if they aren’t a member of the group or on your friend list.

Group admins can delete or not allow rooms in the group. Also remember, Pages that are members of a group can’t create or join rooms. Only FB profile users who are members of the group can (if allowed by group admins).

Facebook Events

You can create an online Facebook event with links to a Messenger Room, third-party apps and more.

If you’d like guests to be able to invite others to your online event, enabling link sharing next to Guests can invite friends. Enabling link sharing for your event means that guests can invite others to the online event, including people who are not Facebook or Messenger users.

You can also select ‘Link’ when you’re creating the event, to add a link to third-party apps such as Zoom or other type of online webinar/event link outside of Facebook. If not, select ‘Other’ and provide the specific details on how people can attend your event online. 

Privacy Settings 

Keep in mind, the following privacy settings apply for Messenger Rooms

• Once the call begins, Messenger Rooms can be locked or unlocked
• The room creator can add or remove participants anytime during the call
• Participants can join or leave the room any time during the call.
• If you have blocked someone on Facebook or Messenger they won’t be able to join a room you create and you won’t be able to join theirs if they are logged in to their Facebook or Messenger account.
• These video chats are not end-to-end encrypted.

How #SmallBiz owners can use Facebook’s brand new Video Conferencing as a social marketing tool 👇
https://www.facebook.com/help/819584731857901

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Check out this growing list of FREE tools, services, and resources offered in support of small businesses facing the COVID-19 global crisis. 👇
https://indunanayakkara.wordpress.com/2020/05/01/support-for-small-businesses-during-coronavirus-covid-19/

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Disclaimer: I don’t have any affiliation with the service provider at the time of publishing this post.