Facebook is testing private messages feature for Pages which was first spotted by WeAreSocial.sg I must say that it is a Twitter like move as you have DM in Twitter where a person can send Private Messages to his/her followers but this is not very popular on Twitter as not many people use Messages to converse on Twitter. They are often used as a welcome message when you follow a user. However, this could be really useful when it is introduced in Facebook.
Functioning on Private Messages for Pages
When a user sends a message to the Page, the Page owner receives a notification in the top right corner where you can also find other notifications for comments and likes.
To make it easier, you need not move over to the messages folder to check out the messages, a small preview is shown when you click on the arrow next to Messages notification and if you use Facebook as a page, you would get messages similar to the way you get them when you use Facebook as an individual.
A page can not send its fans a private message proactively and can only respond to messages it receives. However, a page can respond to comments on updates as a private message. That is an interesting way to respond to comments 😉
A visitor need not like a page to send a private message to the Page owner
How Would it Be Useful?
A few days back, we had been giving out invites to Google’s Schemer on our Facebook Page. A few invites are left, if you need one, kindly post your email address on our page or shoot me an email. Coming back to the topic, a user did not wish to reveal her email address on a Facebook page as it would be visible to all others who see that update. Hence, she had to use the contact form to pass on her email address to us.
This is really inconvenient as one has to check the mail and then go back to Facebook to reply. Private Messages for Facebook page would be of great use when such situations arise.
Helping Brands Communicate with Fans
Private Messages would also help Brands communicate with their fans in a better and private way. If a brand has quite a huge number of fans, there are possibilities that they might receive a hell lot of comments on their updates. But who actually cares to see those comments when they cross more than 100? And if it happens with every update, it’s just a pain in the ass to read and reply to all the comments. In such cases, private messages would be useful. Also this would help brands deal with individual complaints and suggestions more effectively. Though messages also might be many but you can easily search for messages or read messages from particular users easily.
Private Messages for Facebook Pages seems to be a good move from Facebook. What do you think about it?