According to a KPMG report, ‘Prepare Your Organization for the Chatbot Revolution’, the virtual assistants market can expect to see around 35% growth between 2019 and 2025, but the question is… why is the market expected to rise so rapidly? The answer, it seems, is the widespread adoption of chatbots in social media marketing strategies.
“As more customers engage on digital channels, VCAs are being implemented for handling customer requests on websites, mobile apps, consumer messaging apps, and social networks,” says Gene Alvarez, Managing Vice President of research firm Gartner.
Chatbots were already on their way to being a social media must-have, but the integration was accelerated with the changes to Facebook that were implemented earlier this year which made Messenger a more integral part of the social experience.
So what benefits can firms see when combining chatbots with their social strategy?
1. Effective management of social followers
Social media usage in the United States sits at a much higher rate than usage across the rest of the world. In fact, around 70% of Americans use social media; a massive difference to the 45% global average. For businesses targeting US-based customers through their social strategy, the response and need for management can be overwhelming, particularly during busy periods such as the holiday shopping season.
Chatbots can be used to guide conversations, and even make appointments, without the need for manual input. And with reports showing that around 40% of all appointments are booked after-hours, this can have a significant, positive impact.
2. Improved information delivery
Social media content differs extensively from website content. When browsing websites, users typically have more time set aside to learn and research. Social media, however, is typically associated with frequent yet quick bursts of activity. Pinterest doesn’t do too badly, with the average user spending 5.33 minutes on the platform at a time, but Facebook and Twitter hold attention for less time: 4.95 and 3.34 minutes respectively.
These short periods are not enough for users to thoroughly search for the information they need to guide them to the next stage of the sales funnel. Chatbots make fast information delivery easier, providing direct access to data based on user text input.
3. Better campaign monitoring
In many cases, the performance and success rate of a social media marketing campaign is judged through video plays or ad clicks, and while these key performance indicators (KPIs) can be beneficial, this method overlooks other ways that audiences engage with and connect with brands.
It overlooks the conversational side of B2C engagement, so using a chatbot can be an additional way of tracking successes.
There’s another benefit here, too. While aspects such as ‘likes’ suggest a user has responded positively to content, the level of feedback ends there unless accompanied by a comment. Chatbots draw further data from users for more complete evaluations.
4. Added personalization
Personalization is said to be preferred by customers, but there’s a problem. While 72% of people say they will only engage with personalized marketing messages, 86% are concerned about the data privacy violations that personalized marketing can bring.
Many marketers are finding themselves in a Catch-22 situation right now, but Chatbots help businesses to find a middle ground between customization and privacy protection.
While chatbots can often be indistinguishable from a human being, it’s important to remember that responses and questions are limited by the information that the user is willing to share. Chatbots personalize every interaction… but only use available data.
5. Convenience (and novelty)
Chatbots as part of a social media campaign can add an extra level of convenience for users, particularly those users who feel comfortable and confident on these platforms yet are less willing to engage through alternative channels. Taco Bell and Dominos have both done it, with Tacobot enabling users to place their order through Slack, and Dominos enabling hungry people to order by tweeting a pizza emoji.
Tap into the benefits of a chatbot for your organization with ConvertoBot. See our chatbot examples here to get started or book a free demo.
ConvertoBot is the leading chatbot website and social media bots platform.
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