The social media geeks are excited. As of yesterday, Facebook is looking just a little bit more like Twitter, offering up the ability to Facebook users to tag their friends in their status updates and posts.
Facebook explains:
Now, when you are writing a status update and want to add a friend’s name to something you are posting, just include the “@” symbol beforehand. As you type the name of what you would like to reference, a drop-down menu will appear that allows you to choose from your list of friends and other connections, including groups, events, applications and Pages. Soon, you’ll be able to tag friends from applications as well.
Activated, it will look something like this:
Once tagged, users will be notified via both email alert and the tag will also appear on their wall. Interestingly, once tagged, the @ symbol disappears and the tag is simply hyperlinked. Users will have the ability to delete the tag, if desired.
Okay, so who cares?
Well, if you’re currently running a Facebook Fan page or Group, you should!
One of the best things about Twitter has always been its ability to track and monitor conversations. By entering your business name into Twitter Search, you could instantly see who was talking about you and whether the conversation was positive or something you needed to act on. With this new addition from Facebook, you get essentially the same feature.
This new addition from Facebook means that businesses get an easy way to track the conversations happening about them. Each time you’re tagged (ie someone starts a conversation), that tag will appear on your wall. It gives you one centralized place to watch for new brand mentions. If you see one of your Fans or Group members talking about you, you can get in there and go participate. You can calm concerns, answer questions or give out high fives to people who are just excited about you. It makes you part of the conversation.
The new feature makes it a whole lot easier for small business owners to manage their Facebook interaction. It also makes it easier for Fans to follow all the different conversations happening about you and to connect with the other brand enthusiasts talking about you on the site. Two things any small business owners can appreciate. Combine this with the news that Facebook is letting you filter friends by city and I’d say Facebook is giving small business owners the very best features from Twitter.
Anita Campbell
Interesting development, Lisa. We just overhauled our Group and Fan pages, so this is very timely. Still trying to figure out how to leverage Facebook to the same extent as Twitter.
That’s an improvement. I’m not a huge fan of Facebook but maybe some tweaks like this would draw me back over.
Lisa,
Thank you! I had no idea that it could be used to monitor stuff about one’s name.
@TheFranchiseKing Fan Page
I think this is a great way for businesses to monitor their interaction with their consumers, it may not be great for the average facebook user but for business owners looking to maximize and track their presence on social media sites this is great!
Stealing from Chris Brogan, this sounds like a great feature to allow businesses to grow bigger ears. You’ll know who’s talking about you, whether it’s positive or negative, and even be able to reach out to the brand advocates you didn’t know you had.
Jim Thomas
I’m not seeing the @ tag is showing up on the wall of the person or page tagged. Is there a setting the tagged person/page that needs to be tripped?
RedHotFranchises
Great addition! It’s about time Facebook stepped up to the porch and offered some of those advantages as well. It’s definitely time to take advantage.
Martin Lindeskog
It will be interesting to follow the new features coming along at Facebook. I wonder that they are “cooking” together with the R&D folks from FriendFeed…
Josh Townsend
It needs lots of festures.