Facebook has quietly changed Business Page Admin functionality to remove the ability to tag Facebook users in posts. Though no formal announcement was made, this move was probably made to reduce unwanted friend invites.

Tagging other users was as easy as adding an ‘@’ symbol in front of the user’s Page name (i.e. @DanOHalloran) in a post. Facebook would automatically turn that tag into a link to that user’s Page. Now it leaves it as plain text with no embedded link.

Unfortunately, this move has other implications as well. A Facebook Page admin could be calling out a helpful employee at their company or a star Facebook fan to spread the word about community engagement. Those things can still be done, but now it will be without an embedded link to that user’s personal Page.

The one exception is sharing a post. If a Page Admin shares a post from a friend on their company’s Page, then a link back to the user’s Page is allowable.

[Source: Inside Facebook, Image credit: west.m]