How Facebook Chatbots Can Make Your Life Easier [Infographic]

So you always wanted your own army of robots but you ended up in digital marketing instead? Don’t give up hope! The next generation of bots are here, and they’re perfect for the marketing pro who wants to get the most out of social media. Specifically, the Facebook chatbot is here, and it’s quietly taking over Messenger. There are already an incredible 300,000 chatbots on Facebook’s messaging service, serving well over a billion Messenger users. Isn’t it about time you built and trained your own? A Facebook Messenger chatbot can do all sorts of wonderful things for a business. It saves money by answering questions that would normally cost precious employee time to address, and it makes money by proactively making offers and pursuing sales. In the first case, you can think of it like an automated FAQ system. People are lazy on the internet! A few clicks and they’re gone if they don’t find the information they’re looking for. They’d rather just ask somebody.

Now, it’s easy to train your Facebook chatbot to understand what information your customers are asking for and how to respond. You can even give the bot little tics and catchphrases to make it seem more friendly while it does so. And that’s not the limit of your bot’s responsibilities. Trained well, it can deal with product research and transactions, and even make those personalized offers that we hinted at.

Once you get to grips with programming your bot using a simple tool such as Chatfuel or Botsify, the only limit is your imagination (and, of course the Three Laws of Chatbotics – no offense, Mr Asimov). Ready to put your army to work? Everything you need to know is collected in this fab new visual guide to chatbots from Headway Capital. Chatbots, roll out!

Author Bio: John Cole writes on behalf of NeoMam Studios. A digital nomad specializing in leadership, digital media, and personal growth topics, his passions include world cinema and biscuits. A native Englishman, he is always on the move, but can most commonly be spotted in the UK, Norway, and the Balkans.