Facebook Testing Private Messaging Between Pages & Fans

New messaging capabilities for Facebook pages have popped up recently and would be a big boost for brands/companies/organizations.  Currently all communication between pages and fans occurs publicly via posts or comments on the fan page.  This new functionality gives pages the ability to respond privately to those users who are commenting and posting on walls.

Here is a look at the new button that was initiated for admins of some pages:

When viewing a comment or post, the page admin also saw the following new “message” option:

Facebook also tested a single location for all private messages for a page.  Page admins will be able to monitor and view all messages in this area:

This new messaging feature would make a Facebook page even more powerful for brands as the ability to directly communicate with customers would exist. Instead of having all conversations view-able to the public, sensitive items and personal issues could be worked out behind the scenes.

While these screen shots were seen in the wild, no official timetable (or approval) for these features has been released. InsideFacebook confirmed that these features were being tested currently, and Facebook stated:

“We are currently testing a feature that allows people and Pages to communicate privately. We have no further details to share at this time.”

Thanks to We Are Social for the discovery and all screen shots are courtesy of wearesocial.sg.