Facebook took another step towards Twitter this week with the introduction of @ replies. Similar to its utilisation on Twitter, this allows users to directly reference other friends in their updates. This action also sends a notification to the person mentioned and the post appears on their wall.

Facebook has called the process ‘tagging’ but this will fool no-one!

This will potentially signal the start of a new way for brands to interact more closely with ‘followers’ on the social network. Facebook is still very much a ‘closed’ system as opposed to Twitter’s more open approach, but the move is still significant. Users can @reply or tag brands they are fans of and the mention will also appear on the brand’s wall.

Facebook isn’t standing still at the moment and it’ll be interesting to see the other features that are added in due course and what the effect will be for brands looking to build relationships with Facebook users.