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If you’re new to messaging on Facebook, you need to know that as a company, you
cannot send a direct one-to-one message to a customer if they haven’t first
started a conversation with you. They need to reach out to you. Once they have
communicated with you, you’re free to respond.

Also, even if they have communicated with you, you can’t download their email
address or send them messages if their Facebook page is set to private. This
ensures that, as a brand, you don’t violate their privacy or spam them.

Did you know that according to Facebook data, people exchanged over one billion
messages with businesses every month using FB Messenger? Perhaps it’s time to
join the action if you haven’t already done so.

Understanding Chatbots

One of the best technologies to come out of the use of messaging apps is the
development of chatbots. Chatbots are pieces of code that automatically respond
to queries in a natural way. They vary in complexity from extremely simple to
using artificial intelligence (AI).

Chatbots are gaining in popularity because they can be used in several different
ways. Consider using them to provide tech support, make product recommenda-
tions, schedule meetings, and generate leads, among other things.

In its most advanced form, when a customer asks the chatbot a question, it replies
in a conversational way as though a human was at the other end of the chat.
Chatbots are becoming relatively easy to create, but key to its success is determining
the best type for the job you need to do. We look at three types in the next section.

Classifying chatbots

As you can imagine, new technologies like chatbots spur different conversations
about classification. The industry designates chatbot types in various ways ranging
from identifying them as either tied to a platform like Facebook Messenger,
standalone like Slack, or scripted versus transactional. I (Stephanie) like the
designation used by Chatbots Magazine that classifies them as the following
three types (https://chatbotsmagazine.com/the-3-types-of-chatbots-how-to-
determine-the-right-one-for-your-needs-a4df8c69ec4c):

» Menu or button chatbots: These are the simplest form and are like the
phone decision trees we use (for example, “Press one if you want support.”).

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