Facebook Questions

Emily MacNair - March 31, 2011

When you update your status on Facebook, what do you normally post?  A thought of the day? What you are up to?  Ask for a restaurant recommendation, or something else along those lines?

Many people (as you may realize if you are a Facebooker) use their status to ask questions to their fans to get thoughts, feedback, and opinions. As a result, Facebook has introduced a new feature called Questions.  Facebook Questions are intended to make asking and receiving responses to questions a much easier process.

When you log into your Facebook account, you will now see this addition next to where you update your status, post photos, share links, and so on.  Below is how it will appear when viewing a Facebook page you admin.

What’s unique about Facebook Questions is how much greater your reach can become.  For example, if you post a question to your Page or Profile using a regular status update, your question will be visible to your friends via their News Feed.  They can then reply to your question with a comment, or Like what you asked.  When asking a question using the new Question feature, your friends can respond, but also your friends’ friends will have the opportunity to participate and answer the question as well.  While other non-fans / non-friends can respond, your friends’ responses are going to be shown first, as those are likely to be more relevant or meaningful to you.

So how can this apply to businesses?  Not only are Questions available for Profiles, but they are also available for Company Pages.  Do you want to start a new product or service, or modify one you currently have? Reaching out to those who are already fans of your company to ask for their input could be tremendously valuable (and cost effective!).  When people start responding to your question, they can agree with an existing answer or add a different response.

The next time you are thinking about surveying your customers, try the new Questions feature in Facebook. You may find that the responses are all that you need to move forward with a decision.