Facebook Testing Private Messaging For Facebook Pages

It's just been confirmed by communications agency WeAreSocial.sg that Facebook has started testing a feature that allows people to communicate privately with Facebook Pages. Which sounds a bit like what, well, a Twitter page does. Just a couple months ago, we reported that Facebook added a subscribe button, also a very Twitter-like addition to sites (akin to their follow button). Do we see a trend here, or is Twitter doing all the right things, and Facebook is just naturally gravitating towards optimal user interface elements?

This "Private Messages for Pages" feature would be a welcomed advantage for Facebook Pages who aren't particularly inclined to interact with customer service matters directly on their public Walls. However, sending a private message doesn't then trigger a News Feed update, so pages might miss out on the potentially positive effects that would come from a person's Facebook friends noticing the posting. From the screenshots from WeAreSocial.sg depicted here, we can see that Page owners can choose whether or not to accept private messages, and people can utilize the messages feature whether they've liked a Page, or if they haven't.

WeAreSocial.sg states that this new private messaging feature is currently only available in Asia, which may suggest that, like Facebook Timeline, this may be roll out to the West, soon enough. So those who may find this feature useful just have to sit and wait it out. Like Timeline, it may take awhile, we'll see.

[via ReadWriteWeb]