User Generated Algorithms

December 05, 2017 by Taylor Wiegert in Messaging

Algorithms have asserted themselves as a mainstay of social networks. The approach to serving up content based on individual users pioneered by Facebook has been adopted by Twitter, Instagram and even Snapchat to a certain extent. Networks are deciding which content gets seen and what doesn’t, and this has frustrated marketers as social has become a paid advertising effort with dollars necessary for brand messages to be seen.

The truth is even if platforms hadn’t rolled out algorithms selecting which content and people users are exposed to, they’d have done it themselves. We know this is true because that’s exactly what they’re doing. Today, there are more users using messaging apps than there are using social networks. The users of messaging apps control who they talk to and what they see, all with the confidence that what they’re doing is hidden from public view.

Bots are On Notice and It Matters

March 09, 2017 by Taylor Wiegert in Bots, Messaging, Facebook

Chatbots are in the midst of a reset. I’ve been bullish on their potential in the past, but Facebook Messenger bots are failing 70% of the time when it comes to following through on user requests. That’s not good, even though bots have seen a meteoric rise on the platform, hitting more than 30,000 bots available on Messenger alone in September of last year. But with bots not working and not delivering, why bother with them at all for both brands who have invested in creating them and users who have been frustrated in using them?

CRM’s New Frontier: Messenger

March 01, 2016 by Taylor Wiegert in Messaging, Facebook, Customer Relations Managment

Facebook Messenger is on the verge of hitting the 1 billion user mark, sitting at 800 million users today, and the social network is ready to make some money. It plans to start monetizing those users soon by allowing businesses to serve ads to users who previously contacted them through Messenger.

Facebook hasn’t been quiet about how much it believes brands should be leveraging Messenger, particularly for customer service. It recently started showing how fast businesses reply to fans who message them, and it’s made “Contact Us” and “Click to Message” calls-to-action on both Facebook Pages and ads. It’s doing everything it can to give brands the tools and incentives to turn to Messenger for day-to-day customer interactions, and it’s about to take a turn in that direction even harder.

Messenger: Too Big to Ignore

January 20, 2016 by Taylor Wiegert in Facebook, Messaging

Love it, hate it or find yourself somewhere in between, Facebook Messenger is not only here to stay. It’s just getting started.

Facebook kicked off the year with an announcement that it has reached 800 million users. This comes after an outcry from users when it separated Messenger from the core Facebook app. Users got over their frustrations quickly and adopted Messenger in droves. Now, Facebook’s ready to take the next step to becoming even more dominant.

Becoming a Culture Geek in the Name of Relevance

October 02, 2015 by Taylor Wiegert in Consumer Behavior, Engagement, Messaging, Optimization, Real-Time Marketing

In an era of tech proliferation, we have a lot, but one thing becoming increasingly scarce is attention to spare. For marketers, reach is one thing, but getting people to pay attention when they tell their stories is an entirely different ball game where relevance is everything.

Relevance is a loaded term. It conjures up eye rolls and is easy to dismiss, but when it comes down to it, it’s about what advertising has always been about, making a message relevant to a consumer’s life and current mindset. The challenge now is lifestyles are more diverse and mindsets shift on a minute-by-minute basis. But understanding what is on a large segment of the population’s mind is easier than ever if we pay attention.

Mobile Messaging and Bringing Social’s Promise Full Circle

June 03, 2015 by Taylor Wiegert in Messaging, Mobile

Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social platforms have experienced impressive user growth, some more than others. But growth across the board has slowed among what we think of as traditional social networks. Mobile messaging platforms are quickly gaining traction and building massive user bases.

Mary Meeker has predicted that “messaging apps will become the primary digital media channel for most consumers in many countries within the next two years, they will subsume social platforms in that social platforms will morph into messaging apps."

LINE, Snapchat, WeChat, WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, KakaoTalk and other messaging apps are quickly gaining share of consumers’ time and attention.