Welcome to the second part of your Facebook Integration tutorial. This is a continuation of part 1 in which the connection was first established.
In this tutorial, we're going to show you how to connect your newly-created Facebook inventory catalog, which My Little Salesman is populating, to your Facebook dealer page—step-by-step and with annotated screenshots (see them below the instructions for each step).
Without further ado, let's begin!
Step 1. Contact Your Account Representative
After you have established the proper connection (again, which you can learn about in Part 1 ), reach out to your account representative so they can activate this integration. You will be charged an additional monthly fee for utilizing this integration.
Step 2. Make Sure Your Facebook Page is a "Dealership" Page
Being able to display your inventory on your Facebook business page requires that it be categorized as a type of "Dealership" page. Your Facebook page may or may not already already be categorized as a type of dealership.
There are two ways to check.
Firstly, if you see a "Vehicles" option in the top tab of your Facebook Page's navigation menu, that means your page is already categorized as a type of dealership.
Step 3. In addition to seeing the "Vehicles" listing across the top of your page, the second way you can check to see if your Facebook page is a "Dealership" page is to see if listing a "Vehicles" page is possible. You can do this by selecting the "More" option alongside your menu listing options to see if "Vehicles" exists either in the drop-down menu or by selecting the "Edit tabs" option.
In the example below, "Vehicles" already exists in the listing menu options. If it didn't, but the page was still technically a Dealership page, it would be one option you could choose.
(Side note: We realize that you may not refer to your listings as "vehicles." Unfortunately, at the time of this tutorial, Facebook only allows this catalog function to be labeled as "Vehicles" — as the system is more geared toward the automotive industry. We will let you know if this ever changed.)
Step 4. Don't see "Vehicles" as a tab option anywhere? Well, that means your page is not a Dealership page — but no worries, this can be fixed. First, scroll down to the left side panel on your Facebook page menu and select "Edit Page info" from the options.
Step 5. On the "Edit Page info" page that appears, scroll down a bit until you see a "Categories" panel. You can enter 3 different category classifications. These not only tell Facebook to list your page for users but also what features to include for your page — such as the ability to list "Vehicles." To be able to list "Vehicles," you must select at least one "Dealership" classification.
To add this, simply begin typing "dealership" into the categories box in place of one of your three options. Several options will drop down. Select the "dealership" option that most closely matches your particular dealership. This option should scroll a bit if you don't see your particular dealership category. Even if it doesn't fit precisely, select the closest "Dealership" category available.
Though this should automatically save your changes, it is not a bad idea to refresh the page to see that your changes have been saved. Facebook can be a little bit finicky and some changes can go unsaved.
Step 6. After you've properly categorized your page as a "Dealership" (and Facebook cooperates in saving said setting), select the "Templates and Tabs" option on the left side admin panel. From here, you should see a "Vehicles" listing — which may be more toward the bottom and toggled in the "off" option (not blue). Make sure this option is toggled on to allow Facebook to turn on your "Vehicles" listing option.
Step 7. The order of the tabs from top to bottom will denote how they appear on your Facebook Page. You can reorder them by clicking and dragging the 6-dot icons to the left of any of these options. To make sure your "Vehicles" listing appears in the main menu of your Facebook page, click and drag it toward the top—typically somewhere in the first 3-4 spots to ensure it is prominently displayed.
Step 8. Next, you will grant yourself permissions to the Facebook inventory catalog My Little Salesman has created and updates on a daily basis. To do this, you need to make sure you are logged into a Facebook account with Admin permissions to your dealership's business settings (you probably were if you were just making the above changes) and navigate here: https://business.facebook.com/settings/people
Step 9. If you have multiple Facebook businesses, you will need to select the business that you connected to your My Little Salesman account. If you only have Admin roles with one Business account, you will likely be taken to the next screen step.
Step 10. After you either select the link or the proper account, you will be taken to this "Business settings" page. Make sure you are on the proper business take that you would like to connect your My Little Salesman catalog to. Once that is confirmed, select the "Data Sources" drop-down option from the left-side menu.
Step 11. Under the Data Sources drop-down tab, select "Catalogs" from the menu options.
Step 12. Under the Catalog section that appears, select the catalog menu item on the left panel that is labeled "Your Company Full Inventory," where "Your Company" is the actual name of your business.
Tip: You likely won't see many or any names under the "People" section. Even if you see your own name listed under "People," we still recommend that you go through the steps of adding yourself, beginning with step 13.
Step 13. With your dealership's "Full Inventory" option selected, select the "Add People" button to the right.
Step 14. On the screen that appears, (A.) select your own name from the list of Admins (if you have multiple administrators). Next (B.) toggle the "Create ads" option, the (C.) "Manage catalog" option, and then select (D.) "Assign" to complete.
Step 15. After you've clicked "Assign," your name should then be listed as someone with full access to the catalog.
Step 16. To continue connecting your catalog, select "Open in Commerce Manager."
Step 17. On the Commerce Manager, first select (A.) "Settings" from the left-side menu followed by (B.) "Catalog" from the Settings selections.
Step 18. On the Catalog panel of the Settings menu, locate the "Vehicles tab" panel and select the "Edit" button.
Step 19. On the "Vehicles tab" panel, first select "Select Page." There, you will be provided with both a search bar and a drop-down menu containing all of the Facebook pages of which you are an Administer.
Using either, select the Facebook page where you would like your My Little Salesman inventory catalog to appear.
Step 20. With the proper page selected, make sure the dot to the left of "Display vehicles" is selected, and then select the "Save" button.
Step 21. Next, you're ready to test to see if the connection worked. Open a new tab and navigate to the Admin view of your dealership's Facebook page. Select the "Vehicles" tab. Look to then see if your My Little Salesman inventory has started to populate the Vehicle fields.
Step 22. Don't see your inventory? Sometimes, Facebook can be a little finicky—but there's a way to reset this connection—similar to soft reset for a device.
If items from your My Little Salesman inventory are NOT shown or you are given some form of a statement from Facebook ("Nothing can be found." etc.), return to the Vehicles tab from Step 20. On here, select "Do not display vehicles" and select "Save."
Step 23. Next, we're going to do the opposite of Step 22. On the same Vehicles tab panel, now make sure the proper of your Pages are selected, select the button to the left of "Display vehicles," and then select the "Save" button.
Step 24. Wait just a few minutes and then return to your Facebook Page, reload the page, and select the Vehicles tab once again (see Step 21 for a visual representation).
It may take 2-3 times to get the connection between Facebook and your My Little Salesman inventory.
Tip: If your inventory is still not showing up in your Vehicles tab on your Facebook Page, run through these steps once again (likely beginning from Step 6) and make sure all of your credentials are correct.
We're here to help!
If after a few tries, your items are still not showing up on your Facebook Page's "Vehicle" section, contact your account representative or email support@mlsinc.com for assistance.