Facebook Makes Mobile Pages More Functional With OpenTable Reservations Rovi TV Guide Info

Facebook’s on a mission to make mobile Pages more functional. Following a Yelp-ish redesign in April, iOS, Android, and mobile site updates coming today will add integrations with OpenTable to let you book reservations from 20,000 North American restaurants’ Facebook Pages, and Rovi to show you local TV airtimes for shows and movies. Facebook is looking to grow traffic and make Pages more important to businesses.
If Facebook can make its mobile Pages truly useful, it could outcompete more focused local information and discovery sites like Yelp, Foursquare, and Google search results. Giving people one more reason to open their Facebook app increases the chances they’ll end up checking their notifications, sending messages, and browsing the news feed where it sees ads.
By equipping the Pages with information and interactivity that move the needle for businesses, Facebook could also encourage them to advertise for their Pages. Businesses currently spend a ton on Google Search, Yelp, and other ad platforms where they can reach people with purchase intent.

Most people don’t browse Facebook business Pages for fun. They’re there to get some crucial information. Facebook spokesperson Tim Rathschmidt tells me ”if you’re looking at a Page on a mobile device, it’s probably because you want to see if they’re open, or to call to make a reservation.” Facebook mobile Page browsers have the intent advertisers are looking for, so the social network is doing whatever it can to get more people visiting.

Useful, Not Just Social

“When we want to be where diners are”  Jocelyn Mangan, OpenTable’s VP of consumer products, tells me about the integration. Facebook is the latest of over 600 partner sites and services that funnel people looking for dining reservations to OpenTable. These referrals generate 5%-10% of OpenTable’s 12 million seats booked each month.
Similar to Yelp’s OpenTable integration, Facebook mobile Pages for restaurants don’t require you to visit OpenTable’s site or use its apps. Thanks to its API, the process of selecting your party size and preferred time to book a table happen entirely within Facebook.

To book, you just visit restaurant’s Page, and below its address and open hours you’ll see a panel alerting you “Reservations for two people available around 7:00pm”. Facebook automatically pre-fills the reservation form with your name, email, and phone number if you have one on file. Press the “Reserve” button and you get both on-screen and email confirmations, plus an option to cancel inside the Facebook Page.
If you’re looking for “Dinner and a show”, Facebook Pages can help you find some entertainment too. A new integration with digital entertainment information provider Rovi lets adds local networks, airtimes, and episode information to Facebook Pages for television shows and movies. That means you could go to the Breaking Bad and see it airs at 9pm PST Sundays on AMC, and the next episode is called Buried and deals with Walt covering his tracks as Jesse deals with guilt.
These kinds of integrations make Facebook Pages more than just a social hub or extra vanity presence on the web. They could actually make businesses money.
OpenTable charges restaurants $1 for each diner it delivers through its site or its partners, but those patrons spend an average of $43. If restaurants attribute that spending to Facebook, they might be more willing to buy Likes for their Page, Promoted Posts to boost their news feed presence, or other ads that drive people to Facebook Pages where they can make reservations. Meanwhile, if television shows see increased Facebook Page engagement correlating with ratings boosts, they might promote their Pages more during broadcasts.

Don’t expect these to be the last integrations Facebook does to boost the functionality of Pages. It doesn’t have an exclusive deal with OpenTable, so it could also work with services like UrbanSpoon’s RezBook to help out diners. Eventually, I’d expect Facebook Pages to provide options for just about anything that requires a reservation or appointment.