How to use Facebook’s new 360 photos for your business
For years businesses have been using Google Map’s 360 views to let prospective customers have a look inside their locations. It’s known to drive foot traffic and engage with customers in a unique way. What can we learn from Google Maps and how do we implement Facebook photos for our business?
The biggest difference between Facebook 360 images and Google’s Business view is that the Facebook images don’t allow you to navigate from one to the other. This isn’t a major disadvantage though. Instead of having to capture the whole premises just take a few highlight photos of some of your best looking areas. It’s important to have a mix of aesthetic and practical examples. Some customers may use the photos for very practical purposes like checking wheel chair accessibility.
You want to look your best too! You could take your own photos with good results but you may experience stitching problems and dynamic range issues. Dynamic range problems show up as either very bright or dark areas in an image. The view out your window may look terrific but the inside of your restaurant may look dark. Using a professional service like we offer at Real Lux will give the best impression.
Facebook 360 photos also allow for more creativity. The upload guidelines are more relaxed compared to Google’s so maybe play around with the photos. Have staff pose or hide items in the images and encourage people to find them. It’s important to remember about security though. The 360 camera can see from all angles so watch out for having sensitive things like staff rotas or alarm systems out of shot.
Many 360 cameras will work with Facebook 360 and automatically show up in the 360 view. Not all images will though. This may require some advanced meta information editing in Photoshop. I have yet to experiment with all cameras but Facebook provides a list of compatible cameras on their website.
