Mobile Messaging: The Next Wave of Social
At F8, Facebook Announces It’s Going“All In.”
2015 has been declared the year for mobile messaging apps, and, indeed, in just four short months, we’ve already seen several platform announcements from Snapchat, Kik and Line. Now with Facebook’s announcement of Facebook Messenger Platform during its F8 Conference in San Francisco last week, we have a solid indication that mobile messaging is gaining momentum in the West, catching up with other international markets, like China.
Image source: San Francisco Chronicle
To date, Facebook Messenger, with its 600 Million monthly active users, has been largely off-limits for brands, with the exception of a handful of branded sticker packs. So, in a time where marketers are pining over the good ‘ole days where organic reach was equivalent to your audience size, Messenger opening itself up to 3rd party apps is an exciting opportunity to reach and engage new audiences.
What does Messenger Platform mean for users and marketers/developers?
· Users: A richer conversation experience.
Facebook hand-selected their first 40 partner apps to help set the tone for what they’re hoping other 3rd party apps will create: experiences that help users express themselves. Facebook also focused on making app discovery and download as frictionless as possible to ensure a seamless user experience.
· Marketers and Developers: A virtuous cycle of sharing
This seamless discovery and download experience also benefits marketers and developers who are building apps for the platform. By baking in attribution and direct reply/install links into the experience, the earned reach and adoption that we have longed for—ever since the introduction of the dreaded Newsfeed algorithm—is once again a reality. For now.
With Facebook Messenger joining the fold of the likes of Kik, Line, Tango, and so on, how should marketers be evolving?
• Think beyond content and newsfeeds. Native apps will become as important as Native advertising for breaking through the clutter and reaching our audiences. Let’s think beyond the content which marketers can push to users and consider the 1:1 conversations that their audiences are having with one another.
• Longevity over in-the-moment and campaign-based activations. Messenger apps will give marketers the ability to be “part of the conversation,” quite literally, in a way that is much more scalable than the internal organizational infrastructure in-the-moment marketing requires, and the ebbs and flows that campaign-based marketing creates.
• Putting the user-first. Every time. Although this is a well-known mantra, often marketers still make compromises for business needs which trump user needs. To be successful in this space marketers need to ensure that what is built provides value (either in utility or enhancing conversations) for the end user.
What can this look like? Let’s take a look at L’Oreal’s Makeup Genius.
Image source: L’Oreal Paris USA.
Although not yet a partner on Facebook Messenger, the L’Oreal Makeup Genius app fits the bill perfectly by sitting firmly between utility (allowing users to test looks and learn tips) and expression (giving users the ability to photo and video results with their friends). The app helps L’Oreal be part of everyday conversations and gives users the power to choose what they want to share, when they want to share it, rather than being tied to a carefully crafted and time-based editorial calendar.
Building an app might not be for every brand, at least not immediately. But that shouldn’t mean that we can’t test these waters. Of the current roster, and the many apps that are sure to follow in the coming days/weeks/months, consider opportunities to sponsor in-app content.For more information on Getting Started with Messenger Platform, visit: https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger.