Facebook EMEA Marketing Summit: What to expect
The focus on e-commerce has meant that companies and consumers interact in new ways. How consumers discover and buy new products is changing rapidly and the advertising ecosystem is evolving just as quickly. Technology, such as VR, has become a new normal much faster than expected.
This means that the role as marketers is changing fast and that they need to acquire new skills. They must follow the tech developments and be able to fast adjust marketing efforts as users find new interesting ways to experience and buy products online.
The pandemic with closed shops has meant fast growth of new forms of ecommerce and social media marketing, for instance built on live shopping events with influencers as hosts promoting products during events that social media users of can join like a virtual stroll through a department store.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said that the world’s biggest social media company is focusing on expanding e-commerce, building augmented and virtual reality, and helping creators make money on its platforms. The company:
- has announced plans for new tools to allow researchers to analyze data across public pages, groups and events.
- announced ways for businesses to interact with customers on Facebook-owned Instagram and WhatsApp. The company said there will be tools for developers to build ways for businesses to message customers on Facebook-owned Instagram.
- said that with the announced new features, businesses can integrate Instagram messaging with their preferred applications and workflows.
“This can drive more meaningful conversations that increase customer satisfaction and grow sales. Our vision is for messaging to be the primary way people and businesses communicate.”
Facebook said WhatsApp would support more types of messages, like letting businesses send alerts when an item is back in stock. It is also testing a separate way for people to opt into messaging with businesses through a ‘Login Connect’ feature.
The company said every day, more than 175 million people message a WhatsApp Business account to discuss products and get customer support.
Technologies as VR are also on marketers’ radar as they open up for new ways of presenting products for ecommerce. So has social media company Snap recently bough Fit Analytics, a startup based in Berlin that has built technology to help shoppers find the right-sized apparel and footwear from online retailers, along with a wider set of personalization tools and other analytics to help retailers figure out how to sell more overall.
With the booming interest for social media audio, initiated by audio app Clubhouse, most of the big players have plans for audio. All of them show interest in services looking like Clubhouse’s chatrooms.
Some marketers have started talking about how these chatrooms could be used for qualified marketing. Marketing is developing fast and marketeers for sure need new skills and be on their toes to fast enough benefit from new opportunities.
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