An interesting development for Facebook group as Techcrunch reports the coming introduction of being able to sort your friends into groups and send appropriate messages to them:

It shows the steady maturity of Facebook from a college network to a full on world network, where friendships, business contacts, family and other types of relationships need to be more fully described. And this is also as much about privacy as it is about organization - users will be able to limit the information that certain friend groups receive

I am trying my first foray into group messaging with Facebook today with the Truly Scrumptious Group. The owner Claire Killick (my wife) is already reporting that people are actually booking appointments by messaging her in Facebook. As the Facebook messaging becomes more comprehensive, there is every chance it could become the e-mail application of choice for many people.

Of course, it needs to fit the profile of customers. I can’t see it working for [say] a ball bearing manufacturer.

That said, with the right business model, and with the news of friends sorting, there is even more value in being able to target messages to specific groups of people, if you can sort them easily and quickly, ie. customers, prospects, suppliers, friends, etc. and, as a small business, the low cost of zero makes it a worthwhile marketing tool to explore. More to follow…