Facebook Messenger Bots
What are they?
They are tools that can help businesses better serve customers who have specific needs or questions on Facebook.
While Facebook offers some features to help you reply automatically to people who contact your business via Facebook Messenger it’s limited in just how much it can do.
Thankfully, Facebook has made Messenger an open source platform. MOre specifically, people can now create tools and software that works on top of Messenger. This very similar to how third party apps (like the Facebook app) work on top of your smartphones Android or iOS software.
How can you use them?
Messenger bots, in their simplest form can be used in similar way that people use an email service like Mailchimp or Constant Contact.
You can communicate one-to-one with people, providing information or answers to commonly asked questions. In addition to that, you can also send out “broadcasts” to people who have subscribed to your bot in the same way you can send an email to everyone who’s subscribed to receive your email updates.
Why would you use them?
People are inundated with emails today. It’s also a tool that was really popular in the 1990’s and early 2000’s. Email was a communication tool when the desktop computer was the primary way to use the Internet.
Today, the smartphone is the primary way people do this. Messages, both text and inside a messenger app, are the primary way they communicate with people.
Messenger offers you the opportunity to communicate quickly and effectively with people in a way they’re communicating all the time.
Less and less people are using email as a way to send and receive information, especially information outside of the business world.
If your customers and fans are using Facebook (and you know they are) most likely they’re using Messenger in some form. A messenger bot meets these people where they’re at and offers a much higher probability that they’ll receive, read, and act on the information you send them.
What’s Facebook’ Plan With Messenger?
Facebook is making Messenger the primary feature for people to use when they want to interact with a business on Facebook. They’re doing this in three big ways;
-On a desktop, the Messenger chat box opens up whenever someone visits your Facebook page.
-On the Facebook app there is a dedicated Messenger button (in the lower right corner) whenever someone visits your Facebook page.
-Response Time is now listed on your Facebook page to inform visitors how quickly you’re likely to respond to them.
How Can I Get Started?
To get started, I encourage you to test out a Messenger bot. More specifcallly, take a look at the one I created, called Fun Brewery. It’s designed to help people find the best craft breweries in the Milwaukee area. You can tap the link here or visit www.funbrewery.com.
You also can see how my business uses Facebook Messenger by visiting Hello Bilello. You can visit it immediately here; http://m.me/hellobilello.
Once you’ve tested these out, you can see how it works for your own brewery by visiting ManyChat.com. This is by far is the easiest tool to use if you want to start using Messenger to communicate with your customers and fans.
It offers a free version with a load of great features and has even more options available on their paid plans (starting at $10/month for up to 500 subscribers).
