| 1 | A sign with Facebook's "Like" logo is posted at Facebook headquarters near the office for the company's User Operations Safety Team in Menlo Park, Calif. |
| 2 | If users post a comment on a business's Facebook page, then the business can now privately message that person. |
| 3 | Facebook Inc rolled out features Wednesday that enable businesses to privately communicate with customers through messages as part of the social networking company's push to make its Messenger app a stand-alone platform. |
| 4 | Businesses can now include a "send message" button in ads that appear in Newsfeed that allow Facebook users to click a button and send messages, which are private. |
| 5 | If users post a comment on a business' Facebook page, then the business can privately message that person. |
| 6 | The features are part of Facebook's efforts to convince more small and medium-sized businesses - especially those in emerging markets, such as India, Brazil and Indonesia - to advertise on its platform. |
| 7 | By giving them direct access to customers, the world's largest social network hopes to show that advertising on Facebook directly leads to increased sales. |
| 8 | To encourage quick responses, Facebook will award "very responsive to messages" badges on business pages that respond to 90 per cent of messages and respond on average within five minutes. |
| 9 | People will, however, still be able to block private messages from businesses. |
| 10 | The features will be especially valuable in southeast Asia, Facebook wrote in a blog post. |
| 11 | About twice as many Thai and Singaporean users use Facebook messages to communicate with businesses each month and most Southeast Asia users follow some company pages. |
| 12 | Facebook hosts more than 40 million active small and medium business pages, it said, with more than 1 billion page visits each month. |