When you participate in a discussion on a Facebook page, you post comments. When you reply to the comment of another person, you mention that person in your comment so that he/she would get a notification and notice your reply.

However, now this is not needed as it will be possible to reply to a person directly. Now there will be a reply button on every comment that is there on a Facebook page. Clicking on the Reply button, you can reply to a particular comment directly.
Like Facebook Graph Search, this move will encourage Facebook users to spend more time on Facebook.

Reply Feature rolls out along with Threaded comments:

After months of testing since November 2012, the social networking giant aims to make navigating through conversation threads easier with the new Reply feature. When this feature was being tested, at that time, it was referred to as threaded discussions.
Now it is possible to respond to a friend‘s comment way after new ones have been added, you will be able to address each individual comment. Your responses will be posted under the original comment too.
facebook reply
Currently, Replies are for pages and profiles with more than 10,000 followers. The other page admins are able to opt-in for the new feature via the “manage permissions” section in the page admin panel. So far, this feature is available via desktop only. However, very soon it will be turned on for all pages by July 10. For now, people who view Facebook comments on mobile devices will not be able to reply, and comments will not be algorithmically sorted.

Top Comments easily viewable:

Facebook is also prioritizing comments on the basis of engagement. The most active and popular comments will surface to the top of your posts. This will be especially helpful for pages with thousands of followers.

[pullquote style=” left”] ” 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. Also, the most active and engaging conversations among your readers will be surfaced at the top of your posts ensuring that people who visit your Page will see the best conversations.” [/pullquote]

Replies as well as threaded comments, which let the most-commented-on or LIKED replies and those closest to your network, will gravitate to the top.
Comments marked as spam will sink to the bottom.

Advantages of the new Reply feature:

Thanks to the new feature, direct replies will serve a couple of purposes on the social network. The new Reply feature will give those Pages and Profile owners more ways to use their pages. For example, owners can use them to run Q&A sessions or informal polls about different topics or ideas. Potentially, the new feature will also encourage users to spend more time on these pages.

With Facebook users spending more time on Pages, benefits will be both for Facebook and the Page/Profile owners.
The new feature also gives Facebook a little more interactive functionality. Now conversations on Facebook pages can be more interactive. Such interactivity involving direct contact was earlier seen only on Twitter which is also comparable to the open forum feeling that the users of Reddit experience.

Facebook also ranks comments:

Facebook also ranks comments on the basis of LIKES and their relevance to the topics.
Lavrusik offered details about the ranking of comments.
Conversation threads will be reordered by relevance to viewers, and they may appear differently to each person on the basis of their connections, specifically:

1.Positive feedback: The amount of positive feedback based on the total number of likes and replies in a conversation thread. This includes likes or replies by the page owner as well.

2.Connections: Connections to participants in a thread may move the conversation higher. For example, conversations with comments left by friends may appear at the top.

3.Negative feedback: The total number of spam reports in a thread, as well as marks-as-spam made by the page owner. The comments made by frequent spammers maybe down-ranked.

The only negative thing about Facebook conversations becoming more engaging is that the admins and moderators would have to spend more time to moderate comments. But this problem can be solved by having more admins and moderators.
What is your opinion about the new reply feature? Are you enjoying the new style of conversation with your friends on Facebook pages? Post your comments.

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