According to Facebook, over a billion people visit Pages each month. A while back, Facebook announced a new communication feature attached to Pages. In the past, the only way to respond to comments on your Facebook Page was to “Reply” back in the comments. Now, Page admins will be able to respond to comments privately.
Facebook announced this feature way back in August of last year, but apparently, it took a while to launch. In February, they finally made the feature available to the masses. So what’s the hoopla all about?
You may have noticed on your Page after each comment, three choices now appear: Like, Reply and Message. As a Page admin, you can click the “Message” option to open a “Private” message thread with the commenter. 
The function automatically displays the original comment in the window and allows you to respond. In addition, when you respond privately, it’s noted on the public Page. So what’s the big deal? Well, as you all know, when you are posting regularly to any social media site, you’re going to run into some not-so-pleasant people. Now, you don’t have to air your dirty laundry in front of everyone. If someone is being a jerk, you can privately tell them to go take a hike, or send along your updated “Page Rules” or etiquette statement. The best part is, everyone will respect you for taking the conversation to the private side.
In another Facebook update, the News Feed is back in the forefront. We wrote about some changes quite a while ago here at Indies Unlimited, it seems that Facebook is “trying” to make things better. I won’t bore you with all the details, but it seems that Facebook is going to the people to ask how it can improve. They actually have this thing called a “Feed Quality Panel” where thousands of users participate in surveys, giving their opinion on the News Feed.
The changes combine two elements: the probability that you would want to see the story AND the probability that you will Like, Comment, or Share a story. It makes you wonder how much info Facebook collects from us. The odd thing is, I’ve actually seen Page views increase over the past month for many of my clients. This isn’t proof that it is working, just anecdotal observations. Having said that, when was the last time we actually saw increases across the board in Page views?
With these two updates, it appears that things are happening to make Facebook usage more relevant again. In the end, quality posts and a regular schedule of posting gives you the best chance of the masses finding your content. However, if Facebook is improving the process, I’m not going to complain. Let me know if you’ve seen an uptick in Page views on your Facebook Page.
Thanks, Jim.