Have you ever used social media chatbots in your business marketing strategy? Where innovation has turned in-store shopping into online shopping, physical conversations have become automated. Nowadays, businesses prefer chatbots to communicate with customers and resolve their queries instead of complaint resolution officers. Introducing a conversational setup in business is not always straightforward, as the technology is still developing. You need to know some essential points before diving into this technology.
What is a Chatbot?
An automated program to communicate with human users or customers to resolve their queries or provide the required information. Chatbots are messaging apps that respond to user queries and don’t need any human assistance. Through artificial intelligence, social media chatbots stimulate conversation and can understand customer queries with language assistance.
As the technology is continuously evolving, other than messaging, chatbots can respond to customers in terms of videos, audio, and GIFs. Only Facebook Messenger contains around 30,000 active chatbots. Chatbots are becoming popular because they are more straightforward and beneficial for businesses. Chatbots can respond to users immediately, irrespective of day and time.
There are some examples of chatbots
- NewsBot – Updates you with current notifications through a single click.
- Poncho – Notifies you of your local weather forecast.
- X.ai – Assist you in scheduling meetings.
- Xiaoice – A Chinese chatbot introduced by Microsoft that stimulates friendly conversation with the user.
Why are Chatbots Necessary for a Business?
A business with automated processes and quick customer query resolution gets higher value in the market. Social media chatbots can automate conversion across different business areas and save time. Chatbots have gained popularity because of the following reasons.
- Respond to the customers’ queries quickly.
- Resolve complaints and issues.
- Provide a detailed response to a question.
- Serve human users as a customer service agent.
Therefore, social media chatbots satisfy your customers and improve your business’s social media marketing strategy. Although chatbots are not a business tool, they serve as a tool in your marketing strategy.
Benefits of Social Media Chatbots
Money and time-saving
When hiring a professional, automated conversations save businesses time, resources, and money. Companies can spend these resources and money on other areas. Moreover, the computerized process also enables professionals to spend time on other work instead of replying to thousands of messages.
Revenue generation
Social media chatbots collect data from chats and provide relevant support in identifying why you visit your page or website. The automated process enables the users to share their information and show results driven by the gathered data. Revenue increases your sales lead and revenue.
User guidance
Sometimes, customers don’t know where to gain information and which service or product they want. Chatbots ask questions from customers, which helps them identify the relevant source of earning information. These questions may differ per your business type, but their aim is the same: to guide the users.
24-hour support
One of the most significant advantages of social media chatbots is that they respond quickly in an emergency and offer 24/7 support. On the other hand, businesses with 24/7 support can’t resolve customer queries in off-timings.
User engagement
Chatbots are more user-engaging than customer support services, which usually prefer a standard email conversion method. Like messaging apps, chatbots offer a fun, interactive, and user-friendly conversation.
How to Get Started with Chatbots
You need to consider some points while getting started with social media chatbots.
Define your goals
You must remember what kind of customer service you want to offer. You may want to resolve customer queries, promote your product and service, generate leads, or clearly define your goals.
Choose platforms
Conversations differ depending on the pages and platforms you choose. If you want a chatbot for your website, it must be informative. Customers usually visit a website to learn about products and services. Similarly, someone visiting your Facebook page might have different queries. Therefore, you need to consider the requirements of each platform for chatbots.
Design a social media marketing strategy
Always consider a customer’s perspective and consider the questions they may ask. This will help customers be more explicit about their questions and the information they want to gain. Ensure that the FAQ section is visible to customers.
Create your chatbot’s voice and personality
To give your customers an outstanding experience, create a personality for your chatbot that aligns with your brand. You can also provide a name for your social media chatbot or create your chatbot’s voice. In this way, customers will be more engaged with your user-friendly chatbot.
Fast to build
Chatbots don’t take too much time in the building; they can be built with several tools, including,
- OnSequal – Build chatbots for Telegram, Messenger, Viber, and Kik without knowledge or expertise in coding. To use this tool, you only need to answer some questions. You will create your chatbot and access it for free.
- Chatfeul – This tool builds chatbots for Facebook Messenger. It usually takes a few minutes to create a chatbot. This tool is free, and you will only be charged when your active users reach up to 500,000.
- Notify – It’s a “Drag and Drop” kind of designer tool that doesn’t require developer skills. Notify offers you multiple payment plans to avail as per your business requirements.
In a nutshell, social media chatbots can show your brand’s creative side to your customers. It’s an essential element for businesses to interact with customers. I hope you understand chatbots and their importance in social media marketing.
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