GETTING STARTED WITH FACEBOOK BOTS AUTOMATION AND MESSENGER – WEBINAR

Date: 15th Nov 2016 (26 min) by Kendal Beveridge – Product Marketing Communication – Facebook.

The preference for messaging as a communication medium continues to grow around the world. Learn how to get started with new features on the Messenger Platform to have meaningful conversations with your customers at scale. You will learn how to:

• Identify potential use cases for your business on Messenger
• Use features of the Messenger Platform to build meaningful experiences for your customers

GETTING STARTED WITH FACEBOOK BOTS AUTOMATION AND MESSENGER WEBINAR – KEY TAKEAWAYS

WHY MESSAGING

• 99% people online send sms or text messages.
• Insights from Survey Facebook and Nielsen (14 countries – 12k respondents use a mobile messaging app in the past 30 days)
• Messaging preference is cross-generational. All generations prefer using messaging compared to phone calls or email.
• It is instant: mobile phones allow communications to be on instant on the go without requiring or relaying someone to pick up a phone call.
• It is expressive: allows the sharing on messages beyond text, messaging apps offer: pictures, video, sound, emojis, stickers and an army of associated apps telling emotional stories.
• It is convergent: features like peer to peer payments, access to transportation. Instead of using distinct apps for different activities, people are moving to messaging apps to coordinate different activities.

WHY FB MESSENGER 

• Over 1 billion people are using Facebook Messenger to communicate with friends and business that they care about.
• Simple, secure, convenient and keeps everything in one place. it is used across devices.
• Voice calls, photos, stickers, emojis, video calling, group calling, group messaging.
• 1 billion messages between people and pages. If your business is not in Facebook you are missing a great opportunity to contacted by potential customers.
• 53% of people are more likely to shop with a business they can message.

WHAT’S A FACEBOOK BOT?

• A Facebook bot is an automated experience that is designed to help you create meaningful connections with your customers at scale.
• If you want to proactively communicate with your customers in a conversational medium, a Facebook bot can be a great solution.
• There are different types of experiences you can build with Facebook Messenger, ranging from human powered live chat to fully automated conversations and hybrid experiences in between.

WHY MESSENGER PLATFORM

• Before considering building a bot, you need to ensure you build experiences for your customers’ needs.
• Raise Awareness: creating experiences that through conversations help customers understand the value and benefits of your offer. Case Study: Activision – Call of Duty Launch allowing a game character to text die heart gamers and fans via messenger and invite them to discover a hidden code  that then will have to send via messenger to watch special video content.
• Acquire Customers: leveraging the trust that you developed and converting them into sales. Case Study: Meetic Dating  Lara Virtual Assistant. Helping customers via personalised conversations to complete registration details via messenger and send them weekly matches via messenger.
• Enable Transactions: extend features of your existing apps into the world of messaging. Case Study: KLM Airlines. Allowing users to get tickets via messenger.
• Provide Services: using automation and artificial intelligence to offer exceptional customer services and relationship building at scale. Case Study: Hyatt Hotels Allowing guests to have conversations within messenger extending customer care.

TOOLS FOR YOUR BUSINESS

Key features of Facebook Messenger platform

• Text: ability to have complete access to a customer’s conversation. All in one thread.
• Images: native images, gifs, native video.
• Structured messages: combinations of images, native gifs, video. It can include titles, subtitles and call to action buttons.
• Templates: allows to replicate common types of messages to your customers: auto confirmation, tracking, etc.
• Carousels: Multiple image bubbles into one single message.
• Lists: a new alternative to the existing carousel configuration, it is a vertical template gives you flexibility around formatting. Each row is typable and the Call to Action (CTA) can be added to the bottom of the template or to each individual row. Great for collection of items with no having to scrolls left or right.
• Account linking: Since September 2016, Facebook can now link your customers accounts with their Facebook Messenger accounts.
• Persistent Menu: a great way for brands to easily and quickly re-start the flow of conversation. Will support up to five custom actions.
• Quick Replays: guided experience for people. it includes up to 10 dynamic buttons.
• Payments: Ability to complete a payment within Messenger. There are two ways that a business can enable this: either natively within messenger or by pulling in mobile web version of your purchase flow from website. If a customer has already saved their payment credentials on Messenger, then messenger auto-populate their billing address and billing information details right into the purchase flow both native or on mobile web modes.

HOW TO HELP PEOPLE COMMUNICATE WITH YOUR BUSINESS VIA FACEBOOK MESSENGER

• Messenger Plugins: buttons “Send to messenger”, “Message Us” type of buttoms for your website.

• Messenger Codes: visual codes that are discoverable and scannable within the Messenger app. You can make it simple for people to open a conversation thread from both physical and digital assets such as: packages, billboards, business cards, When users scans a code a conversation thread is immediately open between your business and the Facebook user.
• Messenger Links: Same as codes but it is a unique url. Normally it is something like: www.m.me/brandname. Makes it simple for business to open a conversation thread from website pages, email campaing text links, etc. In Nov 2016, Facebook released referral parameters to these links so you can find easily how people find you.
• Search: Facebook users can now type in your business name on the Messenger search bar and your business will show up.
• Ads: From last quarter of 2016, yo can now create ads that show on people’s news feed and send them to a pre-curated message thread on Messenger. There is also a new ad typed launched this last quarter on 2016 called “Sponsor Messages” to help you re-engage Messenger conversations with people who have not open exisiting conversations.The idea is to get people to keep connected with your business. It can only be sent to people who have already an open conversation with your business. You will be charge on impressions.

HOW TO GET STARTED

• Determine your objective: Messenger best use is when it is aligned to a business goal or marketing objective. Start by asking what service need or challenge you are going to solve and then see how Messenger is going to help you achieve it.
• Determine your project scope: It is best to determine what you want your Messenger experience to feel like and what you want that functionality to do before you start development of any kind. Does it need the Messenger experience to be connected to other systems you might have, whether it needs to be connected with your CRM, payments software, customer service flows. Deciding wether you need to build automated decision trees or if you are going to need some sort of machine learning artificial intelligence.
• Think about resourcing: The project sope section is key it will help you decide what resourcing you will need to build it (what sort of developers you need).
• Drive awareness: You need to think how to promote the Messenger experience to drive engagement and adoption of your new Messenger experience. Options are: your own channels: website, email marketing, paid media: Facebook ads, etc.
• Learn and share: Continue to learn and share with the Developer and Facebook marketing community.

NEXT

• Need support on the your custom automated Facebook bot implementation? Get a quote from eDigital today.

GETTING STARTED WITH FACEBOOK BOTS AUTOMATION AND MESSENGER – WEBINAR