Dive Brief:

• Social media software company LiveWorld released a SaaS platform that allows marketers to manage customer conversations in real-time on social media, and on the currently trendy messenger apps communications channel.
• The software platform uses analytics, semantic and sentiment analysis, and customer targeting to detect conversations.
• LiveWorld’s announcement comes right after Facebook made chatbots available within Facebook Messenger to allow brands to automatically engage in conversations on the app a point of focus at its F8 developer conference.

Dive Insight:

"The new LiveWorld software is specifically designed to manage conversations in messaging apps such as Facebook Messenger and this includes working with chatbots. The software already has some chatbot like automated features and more will be deployed later this year to support Facebook’s new chatbot APIs and protocols," Peter Friedman, chairman and CEO of LiveWorld, told Marketing Dive.

The software gives users a number of abilities including transitioning conversations from public to private on Facebook and Twitter, providing support for conversations on Facebook Messenger, and providing marketers with an additional source of data from the communication channels.

"LiveWorld’s platform is distinguished by how it helps brands manage conversations on the back end. This includes managing the human-to-human interactions at scale and deploying bots just enough to enhance, but not so much to degrade, the customer experience," Friedman said.

Right now the U.S. marketplace lags other global markets, such as China, in using chatbots for customer service and other communications. But messaging apps are becoming a more viable communication channel given Facebook’s emphasis on that usage, LiveWorld’s announcement, and other recent news about brands launching chatbots.

Friedman said as chatbot communications become more popular, there are certain dynamics that marketers need to understand. First, brands need to take the approach of creating customer experiences around conversations rather than focusing on page interactions. Second, depending on how chatbots are used, they can produce great or potentially disastrous experiences for consumers. It's important for these communications to be effective and efficient in that they provide information, help guide or entertain consumers.

"They key is to use bots in some places as a tool to enhance the customer experience preferably by bringing it to a human-to human experience when appropriate instead of just throwing bots at customers across the board without realizing how they improve or lessen the experience," he said.