In the last week of March, Facebook held Facebook features a conference with over two thousand five hundred developers in attendance. This conference is called “F8” and always brings great new tools (more than 25 were announced), in addition to discussing the future of the company. “This edition of F8 is all about the future of sharing”, said Zuckerberg , founder and CEO of the social network.
The event announced features that aim to help developers build, grow and monetize their applications ( apps ). I have gathered and summarized in this article the main new features that you need to know. Let’s take a look:
Facebook Messenger as a platform
What it means: Facebook has made Messenger Facebook features an “open” platform where developers can create applications to work within the messaging service (subject to prior approval by the app before it can be downloaded , of course). Get ready to send and receive messages with much more interactivity.
In fact, this represents a great opportunity for brands. ESPN has already developed its own app for Messenger (probably at the invitation of Facebook), where it offers a library of GIFs with sports scenes that it has captured.
Messenger Business
What it means: it is a new tool dedicated to Facebook features communication between companies and their customers and which promises to reinvent the way people interact with companies.
When completing a purchase on a website , the customer can choose to receive information about the order directly through their Messenger , as if they were chatting with a friend.
New improved plugin for comments
What it means : The new version promises to further encourage users to comment on your posts on Facebook or on your website ‘s comment plugin , as well as this will actually save you time and money making it easier to control spam. This is because it aims to unify the two (comments on Facebook and outside of it). This way, when you comment on a post on Facebook at the same time Facebook features as a friend of yours is browsing a website about the same topic, the comment you made on Facebook will appear on the website. This will encourage more participation by unifying the discussion, in addition to the possibility of displaying a larger social context.
New feature for Facebook video integration
What it means: Now available, this feature allows you to bitesize: latest seo news embed Facebook videos directly into any web page. Unlike the “ post ” that already , “ video ” encourages video viewing.
Social sharing plugins
What it means: The Like , Share, and Send buttons have been . Now, on both desktop and mobile , you can use these items to share content. The “Send” button hong kong phone number will let you send news privately to one or more friends via Messenger . This is great for when you don’t want to share something with everyone.
Competition with Google in monetizing videos and ad spaces
What it means: Facebook doesn’t want to show ads (and make money) only within its social network.
Another very important step taken by Facebook was the purchase of LiveRail in July 2014, for around 400 million dollars. This was originally an advertising platform for video publishers “only”. At the event, it was announced that this platform will also allow ads to be displayed on mobile displays . Facebook will allow publishers to display ads in different formats with LiveRail , including a pre-video ad option, similar to YouTube.
Competition with Google ?
LiveRail will certainly compete with Google, specifically with the DoubleClick platform . While Google has information about consumer intent based on its users’ searches, Facebook has very precise information about its users, their demographic profiles and interests. And this is exactly what many advertisers are looking for: precise targeting.
Commitment to fixing bugs
What it means: Facebook said it is committed to fixing 90% of reported bugs within 30 days. Bugs involving critical features of the platform like login and the social plugin will be given an estimated time of when the bug should be fixed. Bugs are natural when things evolve quickly, but it’s good to see this commitment from the company.
Facebook Analytics for Applications
What it means: Now available, it will provide more data and insights for app companies to better understand their users. With cross-platform analytics, you’ll be able to see metrics based on goals, user profiles, better understand the purchase funnel, perform cohort analysis .