Facebook rolls out threaded replies and comments for Pages

After testing the feature out for months, Facebook is rolling out threaded replies and comments for Pages and Profiles with more than 10,000 followers. Threaded comments and replies will essentially allow users to reply to specific comments in a thread. The most liked and replied to comments on a post will push their way to the top, while comments that are not replied to or are marked as spam will remain at the bottom. The feature has been in test mode since November last year.

“You and your readers will have the ability to reply directly to comments left on your Page content and start conversation threads, which will make it easier for you to interact directly with individual readers and keep relevant conversations connected,” wrote Vadim Lavrusik, Journalism Program Manager for Facebook in a blog post announcing the launch of this feature.

Currently the feature is available for Pages and Profiles that have more than 10,000 followers. Starting July, these features will be a part of Pages and Profiles on Facebook by default. The social networking giant is currently testing this feature out with journalists and publication pages.

The new comment and reply feature is bound to give Page owners a great new way to connect with their audiences. There is a lot more they can now do as far as content is concerned. Reddit-style Q&A sessions will now be possible on Facebook too. Page owners can simply reply to comments instead of posting a whole new one. Earlier, for pages with a lot of fans and comments, users had to type the name of the person they were replying to.

Facebook said that conversation threads will be re-ordered by relevance to viewers, and may appear differently to each person based on their connections. The threads will appear differently according to positive feedback, if quite a few of your connections have posted on the thread, or if there is plenty of negative feedback.

This feature is currently available only on the desktop version of the website, so if you’re using a mobile device, you will not be able to reply and the comments will not be sorted algorithmically. Facebook says that it plans to make the reply and comment feature available to Graph Search API and mobile devices soon.

Facebook has been making major changes to its user interface and functionality since the beginning of the year. While Graph Search was launched early in January, Facebook released a new-look News Feed and a new Timeline design this month.

While the reply to comment feature is undoubtedly going to be a challenge for community managers to moderate, it is surely going to increase the time spent by a fan on the page.

[via tech2]