Dubbed the ‘email’ of today’s socially-savvy generation, Recurring Notifications or RN, is a one-time opt-in where individuals subscribe to receive communications delivered via Meta messaging apps (Messenger & Instagram Direct Message). Here’s what you need to know according to social media expert, Amberlea Henriques, founder of AdSocial.

Bypassing the need to provide an email address or phone number (which, in today’s privacy-first world, most people are reluctant to share), users can elect to stay connected with the brands they choose, opting in using a unique Meta identification ‘Meta ID’ instead.

What is a Meta ID?

Every account on the Meta Suite of social media apps has a unique identification number used to authenticate a user’s identity, whilst selectively sharing only publicly available information with those in receipt of the ID number. 

What is public information?

Meta ID, account name, gender, platform and date of last interaction.

Frequency of RN Messaging

When people choose to receive direct messages from business accounts, they will opt in to a nominated ‘recurring notification’ frequency, per topic.

•   Daily RN: Up to once per day, over a 30-day period.
•   Weekly RN: Up to 52 times, within a one-year period – no less than seven days apart.
•   Monthly RN: Up to 12 times, within a one-year period – no less than 30 days apart.

There is no limit to how many recurring notification topics an individual can opt in for per brand.

For example, a person may choose to opt in to receive a monthly newsletter delivered via direct message and later opt in to receive daily messages about a seven-day challenge, from the same business.

This puts the individual in control of the frequency of messaging they receive from brands; and gives business accounts the ability to schedule broadcast communications in bulk or to segmented audiences captured via social media content and engagement.  

How do you collect opt-ins and deliver direct messages?

Whilst the official documentation on the feature can be rather confusing for anyone who isn’t a developer, Meta has partnered with third-party platforms that evidence compliance with data protection and privacy rules to make it easy for the majority.

I personally recommend ManyChat as a trusted software solution to collect RN opt-ins and deliver bulk messages to subscribers.

Those with Admin page permissions can easily connect social accounts to a Meta-compliant messaging automation platform. Whilst the process varies from one software solution to the next, it’s generally as easy as tapping a ‘connect’ button.

Once your third-party messaging software is connected to your social accounts, you will need to set up automated messages (chatbots) that will reply to users who engage with shared content and help grow your subscriber opt-ins.

Messaging tips for Recurring Notifications

A chatbot will send messages without human intervention, triggered by comments on posts or ads, Story replies, keywords being sent within messages, people clicking on a URL embedded within a website, or an email that redirects to a social messaging app.

WARNING: Gain a certification or hire an expert

Each software platform will have an array of training videos to teach you best practice when programming messaging conversations, and Meta themselves outline rules within their programmer documentation. If you don’t have time to gain a certification on completion of the tutorials and learn the requirements of use – hire someone who has. Meta will shut down your account for misuse, so don’t take the risk!

Chatbots can be programmed with a variety of responses, including calling users to opt in to recurring notifications, sending scheduled messages to bulk or segmented audiences, or even delivering sequenced messaging at various intervals either on a daily, weekly, monthly or custom date.

When crafting conversations, be sure to create tags and custom user fields to identify certain interest groups, or to track where each individual is at within your brand journey. This will be helpful when segmenting audiences to deliver RN messages that resonate.

TIP! Provide value, don’t spam

Just because you can send a message, doesn’t mean you should. Segmenting your audiences to deliver content that speaks to their interests will keep your read rates high. Users can and will opt out if the quality of content is not worthy of their time.

Businesses should also consider time-delayed conversion reminders. Meta allows unlimited (no-cost) messaging between brand accounts and individuals for up to 24 hours post the user’s last interaction. Take advantage of this and program automated reminders if you note that a user hasn’t taken your desired action after a short while.

Why are Recurring Notifications a game-changer?

•   RN provides businesses with a means to proactively communicate in a direct and personalised way.
•   Businesses now have the ability to get more value from the content that they are sharing beyond vanity metrics (likes).
•   Businesses can now collect valuable personal data on the individuals who comment or message their page (tagging and segmenting interests and content types).
•   Open rates are >80 per cent, compared with email ranking at a dismal 16 per cent.

How do you get access to Recurring Notifications?

Recurring Notifications is available on all (Facebook) business accounts now and is launching on Instagram very soon.

Costs

Recurring Notifications is presently free to both brands and users. Although, it is likely that this may change in the future.

This article was first published on Flying Solo, read the original here.

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