More tweaks coming from Facebook and Google+, but this time we think we like it. Usually, when these social media sites start tweaking things they screw things that were fine before. But, these new additions could be quite beneficial. Then again, we never know until they are implemented.
Facebook has begun testing a new feature that will allow customers to privately message businesses and have a covert conversation with that company. The customer has to initiate the conversation, so that should prevent companies from privately spamming their followers.
There is a potential downside that is worth noting. Could it possibly limit growth because people’s interactions with that company won’t be so public anymore? How many times do we click on something on Facebook because we see someone else doing something with it? We don’t know that this will be the case, so we can’t say for sure right now.
This comes shortly after Google executives announced some tweaks to their Google+ brand pages (despite the fact that I still look at my Google+ page and see maybe two people posting in my news feed).
Vice president and product manager of Google+, Brad Horowitz, announced the launch of Google+ Pages. He says now “brands can take advantage of things like Circles, which allow them to segment their audience into gold, silver and bronze customers and communicate differently to those audiences.”
Horowitz also said that these pages could now use the Google+ Hangout function. I still think you need actual people on there to really “hang out” with them, but whatever.
