“Messaging is one of the few things that people do more than social networking” – Mark Zuckerberg But there are only a few platforms that people are messaging on. 72% of U.S smartphone users use less than 7 apps in a day. In response to this consumer behaviour, the social platforms that we all know and love started letting companies build chatbots with them. This created a need for existing platforms to step up, and large platforms started letting businesses build platforms on top of them.

Credence Research recently predicted that enterprises would transmit two trillion messages a year by 2017 to create a market worth $78m by 2022. The chatbot can talk to you through different channels, such as Facebook Messenger, Siri, WeChat, Telegram, SMS, Slack, Skype, among others. Consumers spend lots of time using messaging applications (more than they spend on social media). Therefore, messaging applications are currently the most popular way for companies to deliver chatbot experiences to consumers.

Now people won’t need to download an app to interact with brands. They can just build a bot on popular platforms like Facebook, Twitter, Skype etc. and instantly reach people on whichever device and platform they use. A chatbot’s conversational interface lets companies communicate in the moment, in a personal way; real businesses with real results. Due to sheer volume, Facebook is by far the most popular platform on which businesses launch their chatbots.

However, the below points explain why brands must have Twitter chatbots as an integral part of their digital customer service and sales strategy.

Live Events and Streaming Driving Traffic on Twitter

For example, there were 103 million tweets sent about the Winter Olympic Games and, in total, this led to 33.6 billion Impressions (views on and off Twitter) of tweets.

Twitter total audience: 33.6 billion views of Tweets on & off Twitter, based on 103 million Tweets during the #Olympics. https://t.co/JHAk3AdgqA

— TweepForce (@tweepforce) March 9, 2018

Twitter is now worth more than Snap!

Twitter now has a bigger market cap than Snapchat maker Snap, after posting a thoroughly interesting earnings beat for its fourth quarter this morning.

So, Twitter now has a higher market cap than Snap. https://t.co/UBNxZT0XJ0

— Scott Nover (@ScottNover) February 8, 2018

Oscar After Party Live streaming Got Over 2M Viewers

During Q4, Twitter live-streamed around 1,140 events, with 60% of those reaching a global audience. In addition, 28 million live user-generated streams were broadcast in the quarter across Twitter and Periscope. For example, Vanity Fair’s 2018 Oscar Party Livestream got over 2M views on Twitter.

Vanity Fair is live on the #VFOscars party red carpet with hosts @IAmCattSadler and @Mike_Hogan! Tune in now: https://t.co/PUuQBTfgPk

— VANITY FAIR (@VanityFair) March 5, 2018

And Twitter is the most popular tool for people to have their discussions on before, during and after an event.

"ABC says the Oscars broadcast pulled in a total of 23 million interactions, with Twitter getting 48%; Facebook, 28%; and Instagram, 24%." ? $twtr https://t.co/U98xN2cuOg

— Sean (@seanlauer) March 7, 2018

Q4 results show MAU/DAU are on the rise

Twitter averaged 330 million monthly active users in Q4. Analysts had anticipated 2 million MAU net adds in the period. In Q4 2016, Twitter gained an average 1 million monthly users. During Q4, Twitter live-streamed around 1,140 events, with 60% of those reaching a global audience. In addition, 28 million live user-generated streams were broadcast in the quarter across Twitter and Periscope.

So #proud of our team @Twitter. A return to Rev growth (despite tough comps & reducing expense 14%), record EBITDA margins of 42% > LT Margin of 40-45%, GAAP EPS profitable $0.12/sh, 1,140 Live events, 12% Y/Y growth in DAU our 5th consecutive quarter of double digit DAU growth https://t.co/WmvMYXbKg5

— Anthony Noto (@anthonynoto) February 8, 2018

Real-time Twitter Data Invaluable for Customer Insight

Markets get huge real-time insights from ongoing Twitter engagements about their products, industry and customers. For example, Microsoft recently launched a data analysis system to assist bots.

“These systems do not simply repeat what is said to them or respond with canned answers. They teach themselves to carry on a conversation by carefully analysing reams of real human dialogue. At Microsoft, for instance, a new system learns to chat by analysing thousands of online discussions pulled from services like Twitter and Reddit. When you send this bot a message, it chooses a response after generating dozens of possibilities and ranking each according to how well it mirrors those human conversations.”

Twitter Filtering Out Spam(y) Bots

Twitter is getting serious about its bot problem.According to the new rules, developers that use Twitter’s API will no longer be able to let users: Simultaneously post identical or substantially similar content to multiple accounts.Simultaneously perform actions such as likes, retweets, or follows from multiple accounts.

Use any form of automation (including scheduling) to post identical or substantially similar content, or to perform actions such as likes or retweets, across many accounts that have authorised your app (whether or not you created or directly control those accounts).The new rules, which come in the wake of a larger spam and bot crackdown, are meant to prevent many of common tactics that bots use to, say, make a hashtag trend or spread spam.

Twitter Announces New Enterprise-Focused API to Improve Chatbot Experience.

And now Twitter has improved its enterprise offering so that developers can build more conclusive and engaging experiences via chatbots. “Today’s news of the new enterprise Account Activity API is a part of those promised changes. “Specifically, the API is designed to help developers build apps that can power customer service, chatbots and brand engagement on Twitter, the company says – an area Twitter has been increasingly invested in this year.”

Conclusion

Twitter has traffic, real-time data insight along with the right support to launch an interactive campaign, and therefore Twitter is increasingly recapturing the eye of marketers who want to engage with their customers, increase sales and build brands. And with more advanced support for developers, Twitter chatbots must be the obvious choice to become a critical part of companies’ customer service and sales strategy to leverage this platform.

We at Tweepforce are building Twitter bots for consumer electronics, HR, automobile, publishing, retail and many other industries, on our reusable and scalable technology sitting on top of the IBM Watson AI platform. That helps brands to build the right user experience over time to align with their KPIs.