• The Next Web, Monday, December 19, 2011 11:51 AM

Facebook knows that serving as a conduit between brands and consumers is a potentially lucrative business. Doing what it can to strengthen that position, the network is introducing a new feature to let business pages receive private messages from consumer fans.

“The new communications option, which has appeared for Asia-based admins only so far -- although this could be down to time difference -- is a significant introduction that will allow businesses to interact more closely with customers on the service than ever before,” The Next Web explains. Consumer facing businesses could find the feature especially useful, TNW adds, because it encourages more personal communication with individual customers.

“The move is also likely to cut down on the pain of off-topic comments on company pages and reduce communication lost when Facebook fans fail to take their comments to customer service channels outside of the social network,” TNW adds. Still, businesses shouldn’t add Facebook’s new feature to their marketing plans, as it’s not a two-way mode of communication. Consumers can contact businesses, but not the other way around. 

Read the whole story at The Next Web »