When Facebook announced its new Facebook Messaging service, which will integrate SMS, email, instant messaging and Facebook messages into a single platform, many commentators dismissed it out of hand. I disagree, I think this product answers a lot of questions that consumers have been asking and digital marketers would be wrong to write it off.
When Gmail was launched as Beta back in 2004, people pretty much said the same thing. They were wrong. Google succeeded by offering a level of storage (1Gb at the time) that simply blew its rivals away. Now Facebook is seeking a step change in the way we interact online.
The truth is that email is a medium that was never intended for non-business communication. It’s fine for companies that need to transfer text and media from one point to another, but it lacks the instant hit that modern consumers demand. Texting, instant messaging and Facebook messages all answer this need in different ways, but this is the first time anyone has attempted to integrate them on a large scale.
If anyone can succeed with integration of these four platforms, it’s Facebook. With more than half a billion members, the site is ideally placed to promote Facebook Messages as a single access point for its users; it’s not hard to see why they’re calling it the “Gmail Killer”.
If Facebook Messages does succeed, it will change the rules for social media marketing professionals around the world, allowing individual users to control access to their various accounts. While this will help eliminate spam and other unwanted messages, it will also make things much harder for legitimate marketing campaigns.
The concept of opting in or out from emails will no longer apply as generic promotional messages in all formats are far less likely to reach their intended recipients. This means that you will actually need to be part of someone’s extended network in order to reach them, making social media marketing more important than ever, but also much harder to pull off.
For those who can find a way in, the rewards will be huge, particularly in the early days until rivals catch on. The concept of a simple email campaign will cease to exist as every single message will need to be tailored to its recipient, and I don’t simply mean the target’s name in the introductory line, but also the content itself.
So long as Facebook remains the platform of choice for the majority of online users, particularly those under 40, it will be harder for marketers to reach their target audiences. Facebook groups and fan pages are all fine if you want to reach out to people who have linked to them, but that usually means you’re preaching to the converted and, unless you can do something really special, they won’t attract new customers.
The recent decision by Myspace to allow cross-access with Facebook clearly demonstrates that the latter is now top of the heap and we ignore it at our peril. Online sites will find their own niche, but FB will remain the hub and companies that adapt to this new reality will be the first to benefit. Most importantly, we need to remember that one size no longer fits all.
Pascal Fintoni is Chief Executive of the Centre for eBusiness (www.centreforebusiness.eu)
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