Your thoughts on having facebook comments on site?

Hey,

I'm about to launch a new website marketing a single product. I'm debating whether or not I should have a "Discussion" page where I will simply have a facebook comments section for customers / future customers to post their feedback, questions, etc.

I'm wondering if anyone has any experience doing this. Do you think it will improve peoples sense of security / trust? Or do you think it has a good chance of backfiring?

Any experiences or thoughts are appreciated.

 

I've never used it on my sites (although at times it was tempting to try it out). The reason I refuse to use those types of plugins is the proprietary value of your site will always be directly correlated to the software around which your site is built. In other words, if you ever decide to sell your site, its value will be higher if it has its own commenting system built-in as opposed to if it's just using the facebook plugin.

Of course, some may disagree with my stance on this.

And honestly, I never personally leave comments on any site that uses the facebook commenting plugin, because my trust / security level are at their lowest at that point. So, I do believe it may backfire.

If you would still prefer to use a commenting plugin, use the one that disqus has (http://disqus.com/websites/).

 

Qwikad brought out a good point about the value of having your own commenting system.

However, it depends on which direction you want to head towards. Facebook groups are a good place for discussions to take place as most of us are on it. There are plenty of Facebook support groups out there, with members posting their questions in the group and other members offering their views/solutions. You can create a community through that.

Convenience vs Value. For a higher interaction, Facebook is the way to go.

 

Yeh, sure you can do it, it will give a little boost to your product but keep in mind that you have to take care about all comments and check before publish it.

 

I love the plug, FB comments make site content more dynamic. Besides, it's handy -- if something's wrong, people curse you directly at your site and not at some forums that i don't keep my eye on. So, in case something goes on wrong way I know about it pretty fast and i can react quickly. That builds trust and good image. Besides, the discussions "hook" the client to your site emotionally. Sometimes people also share useful info in the comments. So, importing Social Network comments is at least beneficial for many sites and projects

 

I would say that the answer will depend strongly on how strong your Facebook community currently is. A good followers base, which are actively engaged on your Facebook page would find it no different and will take no extra value from that option. You are basically providing one and the same information in both places. In my mind each audience comes with their typical behavior - some predominantly use social networks, others are engaged in forums, some prefer blogs - this is why I always find a combination of all possible marketing communication methods to work the best.

I don't believe that the FB comments on your page will significantly ease you or your visitors - some will still write about you in various forums/blogs, so its still important to constantly check Google about new pages mentioning you and participate actively in those. And @qwikad.com got it spot on - you are marketing a product, you want to be unique, you want everything to reflect your business, and your website is the frontline of that reputation. So anything custom-made would always beat a generic plugin

 

watch out for negative comments, you could have a "testimonials" page, it would work out better

 

It all depends on how you define feedback. I would also find myself most secure when I have a prompt response to my feedback available with 24 hours.