Facebook has released a new version of its Comments Box plugin, which allows users to remark on websites using their Facebook accounts. We’ll look at some of the obvious advantages and drawbacks of this new tool for businesses in this piece.
Facebook has revealed the following features:
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Relevance
The new plugin prioritizes comments on postings based on what Facebook refers to as “social signals.” Comments from people in your social graph, comments with a lot of likes, and active threads come to the top; spam comments fall to the bottom.
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Syndication and Aggregation of Comments
Commenters can push their remarks to Facebook, where they will be combined with comments made as a reply on the original site. The comments will then be synchronized between the two sites.
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Moderation
Facebook features a robust set of moderation options, including visibility settings (comments can be set to be visible to everyone or only those from friends in their social graph), term blacklisting, and user banning. Self-moderation allows people to hide comments they don’t wish to see.
What Does This Mean For Your Business?
There are a variety of potential benefits and drawbacks to consider:
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Enables You to Comment as a Page
The combination of this new functionality with the recent update to allow individuals to use Facebook “as a Page” – commenting around the site under the banner of a Page rather than a person – is central to the merits (and cons) of the new plugin from a brand viewpoint. This is reflected in the new plugin, which allows a company’s Facebook Page to participate in discussions on third-party sites.
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Broader Reach
It’s a bit of a mixed bag when it comes to commenting on third-party sites. On the one hand, participating in a discussion and providing their viewpoint can have a big impact on the tone and path of the conversation. On the other hand, it’s difficult to estimate how many people read comments on websites, especially when comment threads become lengthy.
By commenting as a Page and posting them back to their Facebook Page, the new comment plugin allows marketers to expand their audience for their comments. As a result, the company exposes its Facebook Page’s admirers to their comments – potentially considerably more individuals than are likely to read the other site.
What Are the Cons?
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Confusion
People can now share their remarks on Facebook using the new plugin. However, it is unclear to users whether their comments will be aggregated back on the original site once they have been moved there.
When individuals discover their remarks aren’t merely contained within the safe, search-resistant walls of Facebook, there’s a lot of room for confusion and debate. It’ll only be a matter of time until individuals start objecting when their comments appear on third-party websites or garner responses from firm supporters on a Facebook page.
Meanwhile, community managers must use caution when posting comment responses, knowing that they may be synced on another site.
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Comments Bound to One Platform
Other commenting systems, like Disqus, allow you to sync comments with your website’s database, however, Facebook’s comment plugin doesn’t. That implies that if Facebook changes things or if you change comment plugins, you’ll lose the comments people have posted on your site earlier.
