Before you start
- A community or VIP workspace. Broadcasts is only available in those two — a marketing workspace does not have it, so if you cannot find it under Social OPS, check which workspace you are in before anything else.
- An activated topic in the organization. Both Broadcasts and Journeys need one before they can be used at all — find Topics under Audience in the sidebar and make sure one is switched on.
- A connected Facebook page. The broadcast goes out on a channel, so there has to be one to send from.
- Somebody to send to — people in the reply window, the opted-in topic, or a segment you have already built.
- A device where you can receive a test message. Sending yourself the test before the audience gets it is the whole safety net.
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Open Broadcasts
From the left sidebar, under Social OPS, click Broadcasts. The count next to the title is how many you have, and the page explains itself in one line: send a single message to your audience.
Each broadcast is a card you can expand. Search and the filter dropdown narrow the list, and Refresh pulls the latest send data. The counter in the corner, Users in reply window, is how many people you could message right now under the standard messaging window.
The Broadcasts page with one broadcast expanded. The signed-in email is blurred here. - 2
Start from a template, or from scratch
New Broadcast opens a template picker first. The presets cover the things communities send most often — a new app update, new levels, a gift, a shop refresh, a daily tip, a survey — and a few interactive ones like Find the correct shadow or Which chest holds the gold?
A template fills the message in for you; you still choose the channel, the audience and the timing. If none of them fit, Create your own at the bottom right opens the same dialog empty.
Tip: Templates are a starting point, not a format. Everything a template writes can be edited afterwards, so pick the closest one rather than the perfect one.
Eleven presets, or Create your own to start empty. - 3
Name it and pick the channel
The dialog is two panes: settings on the left, the message itself on the right.
Give the broadcast a name — this is what you will be scanning the list for later, so make it something you will recognise in three months. Then choose the Facebook Page it sends from under Selected channel.
The channel matters beyond delivery: it decides which topics you can target, because topics are scoped to the channel the broadcast goes out on. Segments are not — those are available whichever channel you pick.
Settings on the left, message content on the right. - 4
Choose who receives it
Target is the decision that matters most, and it offers four options. The question-mark icon next to Audience explains each one in place, and it is worth reading before you pick.
All reachable sends to everyone reachable from your topics plus everyone currently in the reply window. Reply Window Users Only narrows that to just the reply window. Topics sends only to people who opted in to a topic you choose, limited to topics on the selected channel. Segments sends to a segment you have built.
Tip: Reply Window Users Only is the safest first send. Those are people who messaged you recently, so a reply from you is expected rather than a surprise.
The four ways to target a broadcast. The help panel, describing what each target sends to. - 5
Exclude people who should not get it
Exclude audience takes up to two segments out of whatever you targeted. The list shows each segment with its user count, and there is a search box for finding one in a long list.
This is how you avoid sending an acquisition message to people who already converted, or a win-back to people who came back last week.
Up to two segments can be excluded, each showing its size. - 6
Write the message
Add Message opens the composer; Load from library pulls in something you saved earlier. Message Type comes first and changes everything below it — single notification, interactive notification, reply-enabling message, carousel, offers, coupon or gifts. Interactive and reply-enabling are Facebook only.
The greeting is optional but does something no other field does. It is sent as a separate message just before the main one, and it is the text the recipient sees in their notification. Skip it on a message that carries an image and the notification says only that you sent an attachment — far less reason to tap.
Then the main message: media via Upload Media or the Assets creator, a title, the body, and up to three buttons via Add Button or Load Button.
Tip: The question-mark icon in the composer header opens the anatomy of a DM, with the character limits for each part. Worth opening once — the limits change depending on whether you attach an image.
Message Type decides the shape of what lands in Messenger. The composer: greeting, media, title, body and buttons. The anatomy of a DM, with the limits for each part. - 7
Send now or schedule it
Schedule broadcast is off by default, which means the broadcast goes when you send it. Turn it on and you pick a date and time, plus the timezone it should be read in.
The timezone is explicit rather than inherited, so a broadcast aimed at one market does not drift because of where you happened to be sitting when you wrote it.
A date, a time, and the timezone it means. - 8
Test it, then send it
The expanded card carries its own warning: test the broadcast on Android, iOS and desktop before sending. Test Message sends it to you so you can see the real thing in Messenger — the notification text, how the image crops, whether the buttons fit.
When it looks right, Send Broadcast goes to the audience you chose. There is no undo, so the test is the last chance to catch a wrong link or a truncated title.
Tip: Check the greeting on a phone specifically. It is the notification text, and the notification is where most people decide whether to open anything at all.
Test Message first, then Send Broadcast. - 9
Read what it did
Last Send Insights on the card covers the most recent send: when it went out, how many were in the segment, how many were reachable, how many it actually sent to, and then open rate, clicks and total CTR. Buttons are broken out separately with clicks and CTR per button, which is where you learn which call to action actually worked.
Export CSV takes that data away. Insights on the card footer opens the fuller reporting.
Last Send Insights, with per-button clicks and CTR. - 10
Edit, duplicate or archive
Edit reopens the dialog, but a sent broadcast is not fully editable — the name, the channel and the audience show a padlock, because those describe something that has already happened. The message content and the schedule are still open.
Duplicate clones the whole setup, which is the quickest way to run the same message against a different audience. Archive takes it off the list.
Tip: Duplicate rather than edit when you want to try a variation. Editing a sent broadcast muddles the record of what went to whom.
After sending, the name, channel and audience are locked.
Your broadcast is on its way!
Last Send Insights fills in as the send completes, so come back to the card for open rate, clicks and per-button CTR rather than trying to catch it live. Export CSV takes the same data away with you, and Duplicate is the fastest way to run a variation on a different audience.
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