The rise of 'dark social' and chat apps to impact marketers

Fascinating look at the enormous potential of ChatBots in driving measurement on Dark Social. No, Dark Social is not a party for Sith Lords, it’s “online conversations that are not trackable by marketers,” e.g. two people sharing links via a text. You know, how people *actually* communicate with each other vs. how marketers wish we did. For anyone looking for reasons why it makes business sense to deploy a Chatbot, and actually respond to changes in user behaviors, this article is full of ‘em, with great stats that make it feel like a no-brainer, like “84% of social sharing happens via dark social platforms, whilst 90% of social marketing investment is on public platforms.”

Designing a chatbot: male, female or gender neutral?

On the heels of the Women’s March last weekend, an interesting piece on the role of gender in chatbots. Chatbot creators should challenge themselves, their users, and stereotypes when deciding which or if their bots have genders. Also discusses the very real reality that some people are, well, rude to bots (we have seen some salacious responses to bots we’ve built, let me tell you). Why? Is this how WestWorld starts? Are people’s default setting when talking to a bot repercussion-less? The guys at Poncho have some thoughts on the subject--"The way people interact with AI is going to set a new social norm and the way we have conversations with these things that are part of our normal lives." 

WeChat rolls out ‘mini programs’ in a bid to kill off apps

Not the freshest of news but worth discussing here. This step by WeChat is a clear indicator of the future of interaction with bots--not necessarily about  the conversation so much as achieving a user’s goal fastest. And that is significantly expedited with visual interfaces, too. Interesting how Apple prohibited WeChat’s use of the word “App.” *Cat noise*!

Monetize Your Chatbot - Waves.ai

When it comes to monetizing a standalone bot, we’ve thought for a while that there are few ways of achieving this: transactions in the bot, Ads (not cool), and Surveys. Looks like the folks behind Swell.biz have just launched a way for any Bot creator to do the latter. Pretty cool. The next challenge is for those Bot creators to wield this new toy...tactfully. 

Cheeze

We’re tickled by this concept. You can “Instantly trigger a camera by sending emojis on Messenger.” Unclear when exactly you’d *need* this but we’re intrigued by the idea of a) communicating via emoji and b) the simple desire for a visual response. A new piece of content that’s meant to feed our content-eating monsters/brains

Don´t miss the 4YFN Awards at Mobile World Congress 2017

We’re thrilled to announce Reply.ai is a finalist for the 4 Years From Now Awards in the Disruption in Mobile Category! If you’re heading to Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, come see us pitch, and hopefully win!