Understanding Facebook Mentions

When you look at comments on your facebook posts, you may see a comment that only has someone’s name. These are called mentions. They are a good thing. Actually a very good thing. Here is what one looks like on an event:

The person making the comment here is Shashi. The person being mentioned is Sepalika.

What is a mention

A mention is like a share, but to a specific person. In the example above, Shashi saw the event, probably in her Facebook feed, and immediately thought of her friend Sepalika. So Shashi goes to the comment section and starts typing “@Sepa….” Immediately Facebook looks at her friends and a list of her friends whose names start with “Sepa” pop up. She picks Sepalika. She then hits enter to finish the comment.

Then what? Well, the next time Sepalika checks Facecbook, they will see a notification like this:

If Shashi had just shared the post, then there is only a small chance Sepalika would have seen. But with a mention, it is a guarantee.

Should you delete mentions?

NOOOOOOO! Absolutely not. If for some reason you don’t want anyone else to see the mention, you can hide the comment. This means that only you, Shashi (the orignial person who made the mention) and all of Shashi’s friends can see. But if you delete the comment, then, in this example, Sepalika will never get the notification.