Messenger now requires Facebook account, US military bans TikTok, YouTube adds new copyright feature, Facebook and Twitter announce latest account removals
Welcome to our first news roundup of 2020! Unsurprisingly, things were fairly quiet over the festive and New Year period, but there are still a few interesting updates we believe its worth knowing about.
To start with, Facebook has now removed the ability to sign up for a Messenger account without an associated Facebook account.
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The end of December saw the US military follow in the US navy's footsteps and ban personnel from adding TikTok to government-issued devices due to data security concerns.
YouTube is making it easier for creators to deal with any content that becomes subject to copyright claims with the launch of a new feature.
Finally, Facebook and Twitter have announced the latest work undertaken to remove accounts that have been found to be involved in political manipulation on the platforms.
Get…
Incorporating the latest Messenger updates will help you drive business success
As a professional in the digital marketing space, you are probably aware of the restrictions on Messenger responses because of Facebook's 24 + 1 policy. However, you can still take advantage of this narrow time frame, boost marketing efforts on the platform, and connect strategically with consumers.
In fact, 1-800-Flowers has experienced success using Messenger for outreach. The flower and gift delivery service reports that 70% of its chatbot orders are made by new customers, many of whom fall into a younger demographic than its usual audience. As a result, the use of Messenger has helped 1-800-Flowers stretch its consumer reach further than before.
Other high-profile uses of Messenger included the Wall Street Journal, which allowed users to get stock quotes or headlines delivered to them; HP, which enabled users to print files from Facebook…
Facilitate customer acquisition through direct conversation and provide a seamless shopping experience for your prospects on a platform they’re already familiar with
An estimated 1.2 billion people used Facebook Messenger every month in 2018. A report by Flurry Analytics noted that the time spent on social media and messaging apps increased by a stunning 400%. With this, businesses have begun to realize the importance of communicating with users via the platform they’re already using. Unlike banner blindness (ads) and spammy emails, the experience on Facebook Messenger is immersive and superior.
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Why should you advertise on Facebook Messenger?
Email fatigue is a real thing. Your prospective customers may not be comfortable sharing their email address in exchange…
Millions are 5G-ready, Facebook disagrees with ACCC recommendations, YouTube will never be "100% safe" for brands, Facebook to improve messaging privacy and new interracial couple emojis announced
This week's news roundup sees concerns raised about privacy when 5G is rolled out, with the Information Commissioner's Office raising concerns about personal data on a faster network.
Facebook has also responded to the ACCC's initial recommendations, disagreeing with the suggested extra regulations.
Google has admitted that there is very little chance YouTube will ever be totally brand-safe, although it is making changes to its advertising program to try and protect brands' reputations.
Mark Zuckerberg has announced controversial changes to messanger apps, with auto-encryption set to be rolled out.
Finally, it has been announced that interracial couple emojis will be available this year following a petition by Tinder.
Find out more about each of these stories below.
Millions ready for 5G but is privacy an issue?
Up to 15 million UK…
Messenger apps have a bigger audience than social networks. Here is how to reach them.
Messenger apps are big. The top four messaging apps - Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, and Viber - now claim nearly three billion monthly active users combined, which is more than the combined active users on the world's four largest social networks (source: BI.com).
Brands understand that one of the key ways of being increasingly relevant to customers is to be where they are; more specifically, communicate where their customers communicate. This of course was a key reason why many early-mover brands began to shift budgets away from TV and towards social networks. Fast forward to 2017, and being ‘where your customers are’ means focusing on one-to-one chat apps like Facebook Messenger and China’s WeChat. Indeed, in terms of the latter, users can not only use the app…
Facebook messenger hasn’t been around for that long but it has definitely made an impression. With 1.2 billion active users, ⅙ of the global population is using this app!
Messaging apps have become extremely popular overtime, with a lot of the younger generation spending more time socialising through text messages, than face-to-face conversations. There are many different platforms, vying for users, in the messaging app ecosystem. In the battlefield of messaging apps, Facebook Messenger even leads Whatsapp for memberships, while WeChat is dominant in China, with over 90% using the app.
Even though geographic locations play a role in determining the popularity of messaging apps, the rise in usage of Facebook Messenger remains undeterred, with 1.2 billion active users that make ⅙ of the global population. 88% of online adults are a member of at least one of Facebook’s four main services: Facebook, Facebook Messenger,…
Chart of the Day: The amount of time people spend using messaging apps in Europe, Latin America & Asia has grown by up to 10 times that of the USA
In a recent report by ComScore measuring the percentage of time the average user spends using messenger apps versus all other mobile activity found that people outside the USA, UK and Canada spend significantly more of their time on mobile using these apps. The messenger apps included in the report were the 5 key apps globally, Facebook messenger (with over a billion installs on Android - who doesn't have this on their phones), WhatsApp (and this one), Line, WeChat & QQ messenger.
These 5 apps share 1.4% of all mobile minutes in the USA and 2.3% in the UK, but when you compare that against 15.8% in Mexico and 14.9% in Indonesia the difference is staggering.
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Facebook's updated inbox will allow marketers to manage messages across different Facebook-owned networks on a single platform.
As social has grown, it has diversified. Where once a marketer focused on social media may have just had to manage the company Facebook and Twitter accounts, with LinkedIn on top if they were B2B, now there is an abundance of networks. We can add Instagram, YouTube, Pinterest, Snapchat to the list of major platforms, and then there are Messenger apps likes Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp that also require attention. More niche sites like Reddit, Tumblr, SoundCloud, SlideShare and Imgur may also deserve a social presence, depending on the brand in question.
No one ever had success on a social network by quickly setting up a profile, posting a few times and then forgetting about it. To drive results these platforms need constant attention and effort from marketers, so inevitably the increasing number of platforms that…
Facebook's new analytics tool for Chatbots signals its desire to make bots a key part of Messenger's attractiveness to brands
Chatbots are the hot new trend that's got marketers excited this year. Their success comes from the confluence of two separate trends - the massive growth in the popularity of chat apps (which is in turn driven by the rise of mobile & social), and the development of ever more powerful AI technologies. Since Facebook announced it would support Chatbots on its Messenger app in April 2016, over 34,000 Messenger bots have been created. Whether it's Taco Bell's bot giving menu recommendations, being able to order an Uber via tapping a car icon in Facebook messenger or getting a rundown of the day's news from CNN's chatbot sent straight to you, brands have been quick to seize the potential afforded by building Chatbots within the Messenger platform.
It easy to see why…
In-app purchasing functionality and new 'web view' feature transforms Messenger into a powerful tool for making mobile sales.
Importance: [rating=5] (For ecommerce businesses)
Recommended source: Facebook Developers Blog
Yesterday Facebook introduced changes to its Facebook Messenger app, the most important of which for marketers is the introduction of a 'buy' button which will let users buy products via bots that exist within Messenger. There will be no need for the customer to leave the Messenger APP, the bot will be able the handle the whole transaction without having to re-direct to external pages.
To see how it'll work, just take a quick look at the short clip below:
Users can give Messenger their card details so it can handle payments for them (something many have already done for sending money to friends via the app), this reduces friction and saves having to fill in fiddly forms on mobile devices. Businesses will then…
