How to get facebook bots
Building Bots - Documentation - Facebook for Developers
Building bots for Workplace in groups and chat
Bots in Groups | |
Bots in Chat |
Overview
With custom integrations for Workplace, it's now possible to build powerful bots that can interact with people in groups and chat.
You can build a bot that automatically posts content into groups, responds to questions with extra information or takes action when mentioned in comments on a post. You can also build bots that can converse with people in Work Chat, providing information in real time, or handling requests with structured conversation elements like quick replies and persistent menus.
To build a bot for your community, you'll need a System Administrator admin role.
If you are not an admin of your Workplace community, you will need to work with an admin in order to build a bot.
Bots as Pages
On Workplace, similar to the Messenger platform, bots are represented as pages. A page is automatically created when you create a custom integration app. People in your Workplace community can discover and interact with your bot through this page
Bot pages are company-public, so any member of a Workplace community can see, tag, and message the bot. However, depending on the permission level you choose when creating your bot, it may not be able to see and interact with all of the content on Workplace.
For example, if your bot has the Read group content permission, it will be able to see content in groups. And if your bot doesn't have the Post to groups permission, it won't be able to reply to content in any group.
Additionally, people will only be able to find and message your bot in Work Chat if it has Message any member permission.
Bots in Groups
In groups, bots can do many of the things that people can do.
This means you can build bots that post new content, comment on content with new information and like posts to indicate acknowledgement or approval.
Bots can also @mention people to get their attention, and be @mentioned to kick off a specific workflow or ask a question.
Lastly, bots can subscribe to group and @mention webhooks which provide the ability to monitor content and interact with users in flexible ways.
Bots in Chat
While in groups, bots are able to consume and share information across a group of people asynchronously, bots in chat are best for direct real-time interaction with a single person or defined group of people.
For instance, a chat bot can be used to send important reminders or notifications to someone based on an upcoming event like an interview or a meeting. Work chat bots can also be used to engage with a user in a conversation and take follow up action based on feedback received.
This interaction model is based on the same concepts used by the Messenger Platform.
As a result, work chat bots can use features like persistent menus, quick replies, and templates to enrich the user experience.
A bot can only reply to a Chat thread in which Bot is a member(1-1 chat or Groups chats). Additionally the Bot must have Message Any Member permission.
Bot-to-User Chat
When a bot has the Message Any Member permission, it will be allowed to send a direct message any person on Workplace via their email address or their Workplace ID via the Messenger Send API.
A bot in a new message typeahead
The Message Any Member permission also allows your bot to show up in typeaheads in Workplace chat surfaces.
A bot in a new message typeahead
By subscribing for Page Message webhooks, your bot will also get notified when a user messages your bot, and you can build a conversation flow by combining sending and receiving.
A bot-to-user conversation
Bot-to-Group Chat
Bots can also create, manage and be added to multi-person group chat threads.
Bots can create new group threads by specifying a list of recipients, and can rename threads to create chat discussions on specific topics with specific people.
A named thread with specific people, created by a bot.
Enabling bots for group chats
To enable a bot to create group chats with Workplace users, open the Permissions panel of the Edit Custom Integration dialog, and check the box labelled Allow this integration to work in group chats.
Enabling a custom integration bot for group chat support.
By enabling group chat support, your bot will show up in the Add people typeaheads in an existing group chat thread. It will then receive webhooks for each message sent by people in that thread, and can reply to that thread using its thread ID.
Adding a bot to a group chat, then @-mentioning the bot
Creating new named threads
To create a new thread with specific recipients, make a POST request to the /me/messages endpoint specifying an array of recipient IDs and an initial message payload as follows:
POST /me/messages { "recipient": { "ids": [<user_ids>] }, "message": <message_payload> }You'll get back a response payload that includes a thread ID, which you can use for follow-up messages.
If you use the same endpoint with the same list of recipients again, a new thread will be created. To send follow-up messages to an already-created thread, make a POST request to the /me/messages endpoint using the thread_id in the recipient payload, as follows:
POST /me/messages { "recipient": { "thread_key": <thread_id> }, "message": <message_payload> }To rename a thread created by your bot, make a POST request to the /{thread}/threadname edge, as follows:
POST /t_<thread_id>/threadname { "name": "new name" }Note the need to prefix the thread_id with "t_" in the edge path.
You can also get the list of participants of a thread by issuing GET requests on the /{thread}/?fields=participants edge, as follows:
GET /t_<thread_id>/?fields=participants
You can also add and remove participants from threads by issuing POST or DELETE requests on the /{thread}/participants edge, as follows:
POST t_<thread_id>/participants { "to": [<user_ids>] } DELETE t_<thread_id>/participants { "to": [<user_ids>] }Bot Platform Partners
Workplace has a number of bot platform partners who have built support for bots on Workplace.
You can see a list of them here. You can use one of these platforms to build a powerful bot without writing a single line of code.
Best Practices
Use The Right Channel
When deciding whether to build group or chat interactions for your bot, it's worth considering where your bot will be most useful.
- If you're building a bot that several people might interact with at once, or a bot that posts content for several people to see, it makes sense to build a bot that posts into groups and responds to comments and mentions on posts in groups.
- If you're building a bot that needs to alert someone about something immediate, something that might require quick follow up, or something that people should interact with in private, you should support conversations in Work Chat for your bot.
A single app can handle both channels. There may be times when, for example, your helpdesk bot takes messages in work chat, and other times when it needs to post in groups and pick up the replies.
Group Interactions
Once your app is subscribed for webhooks, your bot will get notified when it's mentioned in a group post or comment. It's important for your bot to respond to mentions in a timely fashion. If your bot has to process a request before replying, it's useful to like the comment, to indicate to the person that the bot knows it was mentioned.
Then if you're providing information after being mentioned in a comment, add a threaded reply to keep the rest of the group conversation flowing.
If your bot needs to provide info to the original poster, add a comment on the post itself, so they get notified too.
Chat Interactions
Bot interactions in Work Chat support similar functionality to the Messenger platform. This includes quick-reply buttons and templates that help you implement decision trees in bot conversations.
This makes it much simpler to build useful workflows and reduces the amount of typing people need to do, without the need for sophisticated natural language processing, which makes internationalisation much much simpler if you're building bots for a global workforce.
The Complete Guide to Using Facebook Chatbots for Business
What is a Facebook Messenger bot (a.k.a Facebook chatbot)?
The benefits of using Facebook Messenger bots for business
The dos and don’ts of using Facebook Messenger bots
6 tools for building effective Facebook Messenger bots
Most brands don’t have the resources to offer 24/7 online customer service and sales support on Facebook Messenger, let alone on their website. Fortunately, chatbots don’t need to sleep (or eat lunch). Facebook Messenger bots can answer customer questions, track packages, make product recommendations, and even close a sale any time of the day or night.
Facebook is the most-used social media platform in the world. If you already have a shop set up on Facebook, you’ve taken the right step to join an ever-growing online marketplace. You’d be missing out on solid sales opportunities if you don’t consider adding a Facebook Messenger chatbot to your team.
Find out how to use Facebook Messenger bots (a.k.a. Facebook chatbots) for customer service and social commerce below. Create a streamlined experience for your customer and followers, and stand out from your competition.
Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Hootsuite.
What is a Facebook Messenger bot (a.k.a Facebook chatbot)?
A chatbot is a piece of automated messaging software that uses artificial intelligence to converse with people.
Facebook Messenger bots live within Facebook Messenger, and can converse with some of the 1.3 billion people who use Facebook Messenger every month.
Chatbots are like virtual assistants. They can be programmed to understand questions, provide answers, and execute tasks. They can provide a customized online shopping experience and even make sales.
The benefits of using Facebook Messenger bots for business
Meet customers where they are
First, let’s look at some quick stats to set the stage for how much of your potential audience is accessible through Facebook Messenger:
- Chat and messaging are the most-used types of websites and apps, followed by social networks.
- The number of messages sent to businesses on Facebook has doubled in the past year.
- More than 375,000 people from over 200 countries engage with bots on Messenger every day.
- Facebook Messenger has the third-most active users of any app, beat out only by Facebook and Whatsapp
- More than 100 billion messages are exchanged on Meta apps every day.
- People spend an average of 3 hours every month using Facebook Messenger (and 19.6 hours a month using Facebook itself).
- Meta reports the potential advertising audience for Facebook Messenger is 987.7 million people
- Most people (69% in the U.S.) who message businesses say being able to do so improves their confidence in the brand.
The point is that your audience is already using Facebook Messenger, and they expect to be able to interact with your brand there when visiting your Facebook page. Chatbots can increase your rate of response, making it easier for people to get the information they expect in real-time, on a channel they already use.
As a bonus, Facebook Messenger has sponsored ads, which can be targeted to people who have previously been in touch with your Page. Use these ads in tandem with your chatbot to target high-intent customers.
Save time for your team and your customers
Customers expect 24/7 availability, and they hate waiting on hold. They also ask many of the same questions over and over (and over) again.
If you’re spending a lot of time helping people track deliveries, check your return policy, or book appointments, a little automation will go a long way. Customers will be able to access the information they need, even if you’re unavailable.
They’ll save time with instant answers to their questions, and you’ll save time by letting your Facebook Messenger chatbot answer the easy questions, like in this example from Canadian retailer Simons.
Source: Simons
This frees up more time for humans to address more complicated Messenger conversations that go beyond the capabilities of a Facebook chatbot.
Automate sales
Don’t limit your Messenger bots for Facebook to customer service requests.
More than 16% percent of people use social media messaging and live chat services for brand research. And 14.5% say a chat box to speak with a company is a driver of their online purchases. This all leads to real business results: 83% of consumers say they would shop for or buy products in messaging conversations.
With the right script, a Facebook Messenger chatbot can make sales. Conversational commerce allows for personalized recommendations, lead qualification, and upselling.
As your bot greets potential customers, it can identify their needs, ask basic questions, provide inspiration, and direct high-quality leads to your human sales team.
Source: JoybirdSource: JoybirdYour Facebook chatbot can also follow up with people who abandon the conversational commerce process, like in this message Joybird’s bot sent 24 hours after completing the sofa-style quiz.
The dos and don’ts of using Facebook Messenger bots
DO set expectations clearly
First, make sure the user knows they’re interacting with a bot. Introducing the bot can be a good way to start. You can even give it a name, like Decathlon does here.
Source: Decathalon CanadaThen, make it clear what the bot can and can’t do. Program your Facebook Messenger chatbot to take the lead in guiding the user through the experience by asking questions or using prompts that move the interaction forward.
Source: Decathlon CanadaIf the bot needs time to process a request, use the typing indicator (three dots) to make sure your customer knows things are still happening, as seen in this example from Tiffany & Co.
Source: Tiffany & CoIf you need time to reply or pass the conversation along to a person, make that clear, too, and set expectations about when the customer can expect a response, like Bumble’s Facebook bot does here.
A mini-don’t as part of this tip: Don’t refer to your Facebook chatbot as “live chat” or use other terminology that implies it’s a real person.
Bonus: Download a free guide that teaches you how to turn Facebook traffic into sales in four simple steps using Hootsuite.
Get the free guide right now!
DO keep it short
According to Facebook, most people interact with Messenger bots on their mobile devices. Don’t make them read big chunks of text on a small screen or type a lengthy reply with their thumbs.
Buttons, quick replies, and menus can make the conversation flow more easily than asking the customer to type at every stage. Here, KLM provides eight potential options to drive the conversation with the bot.
Source: KLMAllow the customer to type details when needed, but always provide default answers or options to choose from when your Facebook Messenger bot asks a question.
DO maintain your brand voice
While you want to be clear that your Facebook Messenger chatbot is a bot, you want it to sound like your bot. Use turns of phrase your customers expect from your website, and maintain the same general tone. If your brand is casual and friendly, your bot should be too.
That said, keep it simple. Don’t use slang or jargon that will confuse users. Try reading your bot’s prompts out loud to a colleague to make sure they’re clear.
And always use a tone appropriate to the task at hand. If you’re asking someone to provide personal details like a flight number or their address, take a more professional tone.
DO let human agents handle complicated inquiries
A Facebook chatbot’s success depends on its ability to recognize when a human being is needed. Automated conversations are speedy and responsive, but they can’t replace human connection.
Customers should have the option, at any point in the conversation, to connect with a person.
Your chatbot should be able to recognize a request for human help, which builds trust, even if it’s outside the expected flow of conversation.
In this example from La Vie En Rose, the bot understands the requests even though it does not flow logically from the bot’s prompt.
Source: La Vie en RoseDON’T spam
There’s really only one major don’t when it comes to Messenger bots, and this is it. Don’t spam.
Don’t assume that a customer who reached out for help wants to receive marketing messages. Personalized product recommendations might be helpful, but make sure you have permission before sending them.
Offer people a way to opt-in to ongoing messaging before you contact them. And be sure to offer a clear way to opt out of future communications. Your bot should recognize language that seems like a request to opt out and either ask to confirm or implement the unsubscriber request.
Source: World Health OrganizationFacebook puts this bluntly in their guidelines for developers: “Don’t change the type of info you send without consent.
If people signed up for a specific alert, honor their preferences.”
6 tools for building effective Facebook Messenger bots
1. Heyday
Heyday is a conversational ai chatbot that works as a Facebook Messenger bot built for customer support and sales. It automatically connects to your product catalog to provide personalized product recommendations to customers.
Source: HeydayHeyday also resolves customer service inquiries as a FAQ chatbot in multiple languages and understands when it’s necessary to pass the conversation on to a human agent. The Facebook Messenger experience is excellent for customers with the help of Heyday.
customer service inquiries as a FAQ chatbot in multiple languages and understands when it’s necessary to pass the conversation on to a human agent. The Facebook Messenger experience is excellent for customers with the help of Heyday.
Get a free Heyday demo
And if you have a Shopify store, take note: Heyday sells a version of their chatbot that is specifically designed to help with customer service for Shopify stores.
At only $49 per month, It’s the perfect place to start if you have a smaller budget.
Try it free for 14 days
2. Streamchat
Streamchat is one of the most basic Facebook chatbot tools out there. It’s meant to be used for simple automations and autoresponders. Rather than managing a whole conversation, it’s useful for out-of-office replies or messages that set expectations about when you’ll be able to respond.
It’s quick to implement and easy to start with if you’re just dipping your toes into the chatbot waters.
3. Chatfuel
Chatfuel has an intuitive visual interface complemented by editable front-end and customization options. While you can build a Facebook Messenger bot for free, a lot of the more complex (and interesting) tools are only available with Chatfuel Pro accounts.
4. MobileMonkey
This free tool features a visual chatbot builder for Facebook Messenger designed for non-technical users. You can use it to build Q&A sessions in a Facebook Messenger chatbot.
There’s also a “Chat Blast” feature, similar to Chatfuel’s “broadcasting” feature, that allows you to send messages to multiple users at once. (Remember: Only do this if you have permission!)
5. Messenger for Developers
If you have the solid coding knowledge required to code your own Facebook chatbot, Facebook provides plenty of resources to get you started. And they are always working with their developer community to come up with new ideas to improve the user experience.
6. Facebook Creator Studio
While it’s not strictly speaking a Facebook Messenger bot, Facebook Creator Studio does allow you to set up some basic automated responses to common requests and events in Messenger. For example, you can set up an away message, provide contact information, or set up a list of FAQs and answers. There’s no artificial intelligence happening here to enable conversation or sales, but you can get some autoresponder functionality to keep Messenger working at a basic level when you’re away from your desk.
Engage with shoppers on their preferred channels, like Facebook, and turn customer conversations into sales with Heyday, Hootsuite’s dedicated conversational AI tools for retailers. Deliver 5-star customer experiences — at scale.
Get a free Heyday demo
Turn customer service conversations into sales with Heyday. Improve response times and sell more products. See it in action.
Free Demo
✅ Creation of chatbots in Facebook Messenger
How to create a chatbot for Facebook Messenger
Create and set up a chatbot with SendPulse in just a few clicks
No programming experience
-
Connect Facebook profile
to SendPulseIn your SendPulse account, select the "Messengers" section and log in
with your Facebook account. -
Select page
to connectThe chatbot is connecting to a Facebook page that you manage as an administrator.
-
Gather
followers with widgetGather a database of contacts for mass mailing of a chatbot and private messages.
Detailed chatbot interaction statistics
Analyze what your audience is interested in. See the number of sent and read messages, as well as clicks on links in them. Learn more
Subscription Widgets
Subscribe users to the chatbot directly on the site
Widget allows the user to subscribe to the chatbot mailing list on your site without going to Facebook. You can choose the type of widget form and add a description of the bot in the title.
Create widget
Creating a chatbot is easy, editing and sending messages is even easier!
Convenient message constructor
You can send a mass mailing of several messages, as well as different types.
You can insert a button with a link into the message or specify the phone number that will be called by pressing the button.
Different types of messages
Diversify text mailings with visual content. You can add an image, a product card and a file to the message.
Accept payments
Manage chatbots from your smartphone
Install the application to quickly respond to messages from Instagram, WhatsApp, Telegram and Facebook, work with subscriber data and analyze statistics.
Tools for setting up a chatbot
in Facebook Messenger
FAQ
🤖 What is a Facebook Bot?
This is a series of prepared auto-replies that is linked to a Facebook page. A “conversation” with a bot simulates a conversation with a human. Only users can initiate a conversation, which means you'll be dealing with really interested people.
In this article, you will learn more about chatbots.
❤️ Why should I create a Facebook bot?
A well-designed Facebook bot takes care of your business 24/7. It can offload sales and customer support departments. In addition, you can use the Facebook bot to advertise and send marketing emails directly to your private messages. You can even set up autoposting to fully automate your interactions with customers on Facebook Messenger.
🚀 What is the functionality of a Facebook bot?
It helps you support your customers at every stage of their life cycle. Without knowing a single line of code, you can set up a Facebook bot that will move users through the sales funnel, answer FAQs, register participants for webinars, collect resumes - the possibilities are endless.
Here's how to create a Facebook bot if you want to understand how it works.
💳 How much does it cost to create a Facebook bot with SendPulse?
On the basic plan, you can create up to 3 bots for free and send up to 10,000 messages to an unlimited number of users. The choice of a paid plan will depend on the number of your subscribers. Check out the prices and functionality of our Facebook bot at the link.
👌 How to subscribe people to a Facebook bot?
SendPulse provides a free subscription widget for Facebook Messenger that can be easily connected to your website. This is a great way to build a subscriber base. Read the instructions for adding a subscription widget to your site.
Learn more about chatbots for Facebook Messenger
-
Continue reading →
-
Continue reading →
Try free Facebook Messenger bot
Connect bot
How to create a chatbot for Facebook Messenger using ChatCompose
Build your own Chatbot for Facebook with ChatCompose
Chatbots can be an incredible product that allows people to create new experiences, from news to help desk information delivery.
Facebook allows its users to create chatbots for their Facebook pages through the Facebook developer platform. In this article, we are going to show you exactly how to do this. The best part? It will take us less than an hour.
Steps to create a chatbot on Facebook
1. Register with Facebook Developers
Register with Facebook Developers and create a new application. You will need a Facebook account, so if you don't have one, create one.
Once the application is created, we will add the Messenger product. Because the chatbot will communicate using this tool, some configuration needs to be done.
Click "Products" on the left panel and select "Messenger".
2. Generate token
To enable chat in the messenger, we need a token. This token is generated by an application you created in Facebook Developers linked to a Facebook Page. If you don't have a Facebook page for your service or product, create one. (How to create a facebook page)
These Facebook pages are required to create a token and this is where you can see and enable your chatbots.
To create a token, go to the "Access Token" section and link your page to the application. Then click on generate token.
3. Get a route to connect Messenger to ChatCompose
You must have an active ChatCompose account to complete this step. You can register here.
Once registered, log in to your account and click Install > Integrations. In this section, you will find information for establishing a connection between ChatCompose and Facebook Messenger.
Copy the token generated in step 2 to the Chatcompose panel. You will also need a passphrase, for security reasons and for Facebook, to provide control over the connection.
Enter the Facebook token in "ACCESS_TOKEN" and create a security phrase in "VERIFY_TOKEN" . Save your changes.
In ROUTE you will find the route of your ChatCompose account, you need it to integrate your bot into Messenger.
4. Enter the route and passphrase
Back in Facebook Developers, in the Web Hook section of your Messenger product, click Set Up Web Hook.
In the pop-up window, we will copy the path of step 3 and the passphrase.
Enter route and phrase "VERIFY_TOKEN", then press "VERIFY_TOKEN" and save".
Now click "Add Subscriptions" and select: "messages", "messaging_postbacks", "message_deliveries", "messaging_pre_checkouts" .
5. Check it out
Note: After saving your tokens, you will need to set your Facebook bot to "ON" on the platform. Whenever you want to stop the chatbot, just toggle it to "OFF". You can find the button under Install > Facebook.
Visit your Facebook page and talk to your bot to make sure it works well.
To send messages to the chatbot, you will need to add the messenger to your page and enable the "Send message" button. Send a message (Test button) to your page to test your chat responses.
Components and Limitations
You can use the image, link, and download components to display media.
The HTML component could not be loaded. Messenger is not a browser and cannot display HTML.
