If you run a website then you should also run a Facebook Page. This is your ‘social presence’ on the world’s largest social network and should be a place where you use Facebook comments to post links to your latest content and build a community of people around what you have to offer.

The trouble is, it’s hard to keep track of conversations on Facebook because there are no conversation ‘threads’ – posts on the Facebook timeline that are linked as a series of posts and replies. Presently, a user must scroll to the bottom of a list of Facebook comments to leave a reply and the thread of the conversation can often be lost – particularly if there are lots of comments.

“Write a reply” to Facebook Comments

It may seems like a small thing, but Facebook are testing a new comment reply system for  that could explode the use of Facebook as a discussion forums, particularly for communities built around Facebook Pages.

Since Facebook is all about user engagement, this feature has been a long time coming.

Samantha Murphy of Mashable writes:

The move would make it much easier for users to respond to individual comments left on wall posts… as well as a prompt to “write a reply.”

The last part of her statement is important.

If this feature is released from it’s current limited testing to the wider public, then replies to comments will at last become contextual and much easier to follow. Coupled with Facebook’s invitation to “Write a reply…”, it will encourage interaction between visitors, building a stronger, more socially engaged community.

Ranked Facebook Comments

Coupled with is addition is another feature under test: moving high ranking comments at the top of the page.
You’ll already have a sense of this feature in your own Facebook news feed, where posts can be sorted by “Top stories” or “Most recent”.

Placing Facebook comments at the top of the page, of course gives them more exposure, and popular comments are a magnet for engagement.

As Samantha Murphy writes in another post:

If the test sticks, it would allow Facebook to promote more interesting and engaging content, as well as enable more conversations about posted content across the site. The concept is similar to how users on Reddit rank posts by “upvoting” and “downvoting” content.

Facebook love comments. So should you.

Understanding which threads are the most popular on your Facebook Page will also give you some great marketing insight. Knowing what your visitors are passionate about is pure gold. You should be tailoring your website content around these high ranked conversations, since these are clearly motivating engagement in your visitors.

Facebook graphics

You should also use the subject of high ranked conversations on your page as a source of ideas for producing Facebook graphics – memes that will go viral through the passion of your audience.

This will help you build an even larger community for your Facebook Page and, ultimately, more traffic for your website.

Facebook comments from WordPress

If your website is based on the WordPress platform, you should absolutely enable Facebook comments for your website visitors.

There are a number of WordPress plugins that will enable Facebook users to leave comments on your website – comments that are also placed on their own Facebook timeline. This means their friends will also see these comments, who may be interested in visiting your website as well. This is viral social proof at its best.