In year 2011, Facebook further solidified its position as the world’s most widely used social network among business and enterprise users. Whether it’s the launch of Facebook for Business, the Facebook Pages for Business and Brands or business-friendly profile changes, the world’s leading social network did most things right to please the business fraternity.

Though Facebook Pages were well received in the business world, they suffered from one major flaw which has kind of become synonymous with Facebook – poor privacy management. One of the biggest limitations was the lack of a private messaging feature for Facebook Pages. Unfortunately, a number of Facebook users exploited this limitation to post negative feedback on specific Brand Facebook Pages.

The solution to this problem – introduce a private message mechanism to enable to direct communication between brands and customers, much like Twitter’s Direct Messages. The good thing – Facebook has already started rolling out this feature to select business users in Asia and it’s expected to be available globally later this month.

I strongly believe that private messaging can be highly effective for Facebook Pages as it solves a number of major issues

Unsolicited Messages

If you don’t enforce control, it’s likely to lead to a large number of unsolicited messages and spamming and that’s precisely what’s happened with Facebook pages till date.

Privacy

The other problem with public messages, of course, is that there is no privacy. Users visiting a Facebook Page can inadvertently view profiles of other fans.

How does it work?

Businesses can’t initiate private conversations with users; they can only respond to a direct message or to a user’s public post on their page. Though users can initiate conversations, businesses can respond as many times as they like after initial contact is made.

Here’s how your business can effectively leverage Facebook’s Private Messaging feature.

Customer Service

Direct communication is a key to effective customer service and Facebook’s new introduced private messaging service will help brands reach out to users while maintaining their confidentiality. It lends a much-needed personal touch as well.

Feedback

Private messaging offers the benefit of allowing brands to more discretely address customer feedback. The move facilitates more direct interaction between brands and users.

All in all, a much needed feature for Facebook Pages. What do you think of Facebook’s move to introduce private messages for Pages? Can it match Twitter’s Direct Messages in popularity? Please share your opinion by leaving a comment.