Capitalize on Facebook Messenger App

Facebook Inc. is opening up its messenger app so that other software developers can add new features, such as photos videos and other enhancements to their online conversations (Bloomberg 2015). Take a quick look at Bloomberg's quick 3 minute video to get a brief on Facebook's F8 conference below

*Skip to 1:31 to see what Mark had to say about making the Messenger App a place where customers can communicate with businesses that they care about.

Mark puts out a clear example of how this can be used to help your business, "if customer has put an order online, but would like to change it all they have to do is communicate through the Messenger App to get it done". Mark adds, "that when a customer has placed an order they can receive shipping information, receipts, and more also through the Messenger App".

Here are five suggestions to how your SME business could capitalize on Facebook opening up its Messenger App to other businesses and developers:

1. Provide more effective means of communication

Your SME Business could provide faster communication to the person's mobile, with simple and easy responses to allow effective initial enquiries to be addressed.

2. Give "real-time" information transmission to ease customer worries

Mark's earlier suggestion that businesses could send important information to customers after completing their purchases such as tracking information, and e-receipts that can be immediately scanned when physical items are delivered.

3. Add a key advantage, "human-factor" to your digital business

Technology has a tendency to alienate a person and perform very much like it was intended to be, a robot, but your business could be very different in having convenient means of communication to provide effective personalized support, and more.

4. Follow-up for services

What better way than to follow-up with a client or prospect right after a presentation or consultation, with scheduled future appointments that could link up with their phone's calendar applications, or even suggestion of future available times that your customers could likely need.

5. Save paper

You could reduce the need for a printable receipt, having to submit forms with digital integration. This also reduces repetitive work such as data entry.

Key Advantage: 44.78% of Malaysian Population Adoption

Here is hard evidence, empirical statistics, to show you why Facebook Messenger is a big thing. Lets compare Facebook Messenger with a notable competitor WeChat. According to Hays (2014) WeChat had 40 million users in 2014. While Facebook has some 1.23 billion users at the end of 2013 (Sedghi 2014).

Not convinced? Can't see how this helps you? Data suggests that Facebook adoption in Malaysia is staggering with 13.3 million users in 2013 making it 44.78% (World Bank Data: Malaysia Population is 29.7 million in 2013) of total Malaysian population (Mahadi 2013).

Take that approximate and multiply that with an indicator, and you would get a rough estimated market size to make use of. Combine that with industry contribution to Malaysia's GDP, approximately (USD 313.2 billion x 3) MYR 939.6 billion should give you a rough estimate of the market opportunity available to your business (World Bank 2015).

Barriers to entry, is a bunch of smush.

All you need to worry about is getting your business strategy right. Hosting for your SME Business is super easy with worry free hosting like this and you don't need to develop yourself, all you need to do is to hire a professional consultancy company to implement Facebook Messenger App into your business offerings.

photo by Facebook video by Bloomberg

References:

Bloomberg 2015, Facebook Opens Up Messenger App to Developers and Businesses, Bloomberg, <http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-03-25/facebook-opens-up-messenger-app-to-developers-businesses>

Hay, S 2014, The WeChat Revolution, The Clickz, <http://www.clickz.com/clickz/column/2363343/the-wechat-revolution>

Mahadi, N 2013, 13.3 million M'sians are Facebook users, Borneo Post, <http://www.theborneopost.com/2013/06/16/13-3-million-msians-are-facebook-users/>

Sedghi, A 2014, Facebook: 10 Years of Social Networking in Numbers, The Guardian,
<http://www.theguardian.com/news/datablog/2014/feb/04/facebook-in-numbers-statistics>

World Bank 2015, Malaysia, World Bank Data, <http://data.worldbank.org/country/malaysia>

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