Will “Messaging as a platform” make Facebook essential to your business?
When assessing the digital touch points you have with your customers and which investments you should make in your digital initiatives, it is impossible to ignore the Facebook behemoth that has (beyond all doubt) become the dominant social network in the West and, for many, the default way of experiencing the internet. It has enjoyed continuous growth, grabs the daily attention of users, and delivers impressive returns on investment to its advertisers.
Some Quick FB stats:
- Facebook has 1.39 billion active users each month. (ref.)
- The average user spends 40 minutes a day on Facebook. (ref.)
- More than 30 million businesses have Facebook pages. (ref.)
- Adweek says a typical return on investment from Facebook ads in ecommerce is 152%. (ref.)
- 800 million users are on Messenger each month. (ref.)
Think about how you can leverage Facebook. Some of your customers will never download your app.
When looking for the attention and engagement of your customers, your mobile applications offer the most contextual, immersive experiences – but success is often thwarted by the obstacles your customers face in finding, installing, and personalizing them.
Your customers are spending more time than ever on their smartphones, but predominantly within a limited number of their favorite apps. So Your digital strategy therefore needs to embrace experiences that integrate with the platforms that already have the attention of your customers. Facebook with its various properties and bountiful engagement “moments” with its users can provide your services in context, at their time of need, to more people than you can.
Engage in relevant, contextual and conversational ways
Facebook has heralded another turning point in how we engage on the internet, with Artificial Intelligence at its heart. The announcement in 2015 of Facebook M (ref.) – an ‘assistant’ akin to Siri – meant Facebook Messenger users are able to make purchases, restaurant reservations, and travel bookings within the app itself. They can order a ride with Uber by simply saying `I need a ride’ and shop for clothes with Everlane, customizing an order as they go by saying `can I have this in black’, with their Messenger integrations.
It is expected at the upcoming F8 conference that Facebook will announce a Bot Store and an ecosystem like the Apple app store, that allows access to conversational user interfaces for all businesses and creates a platform that changes how we interact with our customers around the world.
As we design our services to engage across all touch points, we dream of being able to easily transact, service and engage at the right time in a more human way. Facebook Messenger and others like it may well become the most important platforms to master.
What makes Facebook Messenger so powerful?
■ Scale. Messenger already has 800 million networked users who can supercharge your growth. [This is more than 100 times the number of iPhone owners when Apple launched the App Store] (ref.)
■ Data. Messenger knows where you are, what time it is and exactly what you want (because of what you say to it). This means your business can anticipate users’ needs and provide them the precise service they require at the time of need.
As you plot the journey of your customer in your digital strategy, it will be impossible to ignore “Messaging”. It has the capabilities, but which services should you be working on to capitalize on this platform?
First steps for integrating “Messaging-as-a-platform” into your digital strategy
- Explore your customers’ points of need with your service. What tasks do they need to complete with you?
- Map the needs of your users and the tasks they need to complete with the context of that need. Map the whole digital journey of the customer and acknowledge that you are now a small part of their experience, and you should integrate as best you can with the other parts of the journey.
- Get used to creating user stories that cover the experience the Facebook bot / algorithm creates for your customers.
- Prototype your ideas. Get in front of your customers as soon as possible to hear their feedback.
I will see you at F8.
