Facebook introduces messaging on Pages: a new way for customers and businesses to connect

Facebook is introducing a a new feature for Pages that aims to improve the way businesses and customers interact.

The new feature has two main functions, which includes a way for customers to send private messages to businesses and tools for Page admins to easily manage and respond to messages.

Gone are the days when a brand and its customers were complete strangers.

The new send message button for local awareness ads allows customers to engage in private conversations with business Pages from News Feed ads. This way, Facebook says, customers have a personal channel to connect with businesses directly from ads.

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This feature is linked to the Messenger app. To send a message to a business page, customers need to click on the send message button in an ad.

“Incoming messages to Pages include an attachment that shows which ad prompted the person to reach out, and once someone initiates a message with the business, the business can reply and follow up as necessary,” Facebook writes.

This feature is not only aimed at customers as businesses can reply to customers’ messages too.

Furthermore, the benefits for businesses are that they can now reply to any query by private message. In the coming weeks, page admins will be able to reply to public comments with a private message. Page admins can also click the new Message option, and a private message thread with the commenter will pop up.

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This new tool also gives a way for businesses to show a good face. If a business replies privately to a public comment on its page, the comment will indicate as such. This shows all the other commenters and page visitors that the business handled the request. Businesses that ignore customer’s complaints can no longer hide.

Business profiles will even have a badge on their pages that shows how much they reply messages.

“Pages that respond to 90% of messages and have a median response time of less than five minutes will now have a ‘very responsive to messages’ badge on their profiles,” Facebook writes.

Customers can also manage this feature in case a business starts bombarding them with marketing material, instead of replying to your query by blocking private messages from businesses.