Episode 28: Bots Mean Business - How Entrepreneurs Can Use ChatBots

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Stephanie Liu: Five seconds. I'm playing music. One... This is always the fun part. This is the fun part where I get to see everyone. What is up everybody! Welcome, welcome, welcome. Thanks for joining us. This is going to be a great time. Alright you guys. This is Stephanie Liu and welcome to Lights, Camera, Live! We've got a lot of things going on today. First of all, if you've ever wondered about how you could use bots in your business that's exactly what we're going to be talking about today. In fact I've got my girl, Molly Mahoney over there! And we're talking about Boss Babes, Bots and how to automate your business that way you can go ahead and blow up and scale up so boom boom boom. So if you're watching say what's up. Leave a comment. Tell us where you're watching from. I'm in San Diego, Molly where are you at?

Molly Mahoney: I am in the city of Orange, California just a little north of you.

Stephanie Liu: That's right. Very cool. All right. So, who do we have here. I'm going check the comments right now. Oh, Claudia Sandoval is here.

Molly Mahoney: Catherine! Woo!

Stephanie Liu: Yay! And you just send out your bot right?

Molly Mahoney: I just sent it, I think literally two seconds ago which is awesome. So hopefully we'll have some more people who are responding to that as well. I love that it can happen in real time like that. It's crazy.

Stephanie Liu: Absolutely. So for those of you who don't know my girl Molly Mahoney she is the Camera Confidence Coach. She is also what would you say like the influencer for BeLive.TV?

Molly Mahoney: Yes! So I'm a Brand Ambassador I'm actually... They call me their Camera Confidence Coach, so I work with BeLive as well which is really fun.

Stephanie Liu: Very awesome. And then you were at Social Media Marketing World earlier this year talking about Facebook Live, right?

Molly Mahoney: I actually... It's kind of crazy, I was there as part of a networking spoof. Did you know this?

Stephanie Liu: No! No. What does that mean?

Molly Mahoney: So, it was amazing and I was able to be on stage in front of the entire crowd of like 3,000 people as part of the keynote speech. So right before Michael Stelzner did his, or I think it was right after he did his big keynote, we all jumped on stage. Amy, Amy Schmidt started it and she was Dorothy, lost in the Land of Oz, looking to network with people. And then the rest of us popped on individually and my... I was a bad networker. I sang the song that was like, "I don't care what you need now, to me you're just a lead now, here take my business card..." in front of the whole entire thing and it was really crazy. And my friend Lisa Rothstein wrote it and then there was about six of us we were all social media you know rockstars participating, playing but it was great just to help people to know how important it is to actually make real human connections. So, it was cool.

Stephanie Liu: Yes. Very cool. And so you'll be at Social Media Marketing World next year as well? I bet?

Molly Mahoney: I bet! We're both going to be like it, "Put it out there, yes!"

Stephanie Liu: Yeah. Hello, universe. All right. So, what's up! Hey Lacey thank so much for joining. We also have Elaine. So nice to see you guys. So it sounds like there might be a little bit of interruptions with the broadcast right now and we'll just gotta roll with it. That's how you do with Facebook Live, am I right?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah I always say that the fact that any of this works is literally magic. And so when it doesn't work that's what's normal. When it does work it's like wow, this is amazing that people can do this!

Stephanie Liu: Exactly it's like can somebody go out there and feed the hamster that's making this whole Facebook Live thing work right now? OK. All right. So if you guys are just joining us today it's all about Boss Babes, Bots, and Business and so let's talk about what Facebook Messenger bots are.

Molly Mahoney: Yes.

Stephanie Liu: So Molly, I mean as far as I know what I've learned about Facebook Messenger is the fact that it's the number one app in the U.S. and in Canada with one billion active users, that's insane! That's insane. I use it all the time to message my friends, but I've just started this year really really using it for my business. Right?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah. It's the only way that I will converse with people actually. So, email you know is just... we are so inundated with e-mails and I find that e-mail can actually cause just more stress in my life. And if I can keep things quick and you know we're out here hustling getting things done we don't need to go into any lengthy, long drawn out thing through e-mail we can just send a little quick message via messenger I find that it's so much easier and more fun because we can use little emojis or stickers on it.

Stephanie Liu: Oh my goodness, I use GIFs all the time.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah, totally!

Stephanie Liu: Very cool. So Facebook Messenger, if you guys don't have it downloaded it's basically you have Facebook, the app itself that you could use to make your connections with your family and your friends, and then you have Facebook for your Pages. But then Facebook Messenger is just kind of like it's your chat, it's your chat function, right? And so Facebook Messenger bots is a way that when someone goes to your Facebook business page they could actually message you and get the information that they need about your products or services, your lead magnet, any of that good stuff, right?

Molly Mahoney: Right. So it's... sometimes when people first hear about it they're like oh my gosh I'm so confused and overwhelmed and what are you talking about. So the easiest way that I think to explain it is that it's very similar to something like MailChimp or ConvertKit, or Infusionsoft. So it's a system that manages your messages for you so you can grow a list of engaged amazing community, you can go grow a community, and you can have a welcome message that greets them right away and says that you're not there right now but that you have other information to share. You can have the main menu and this is all within the Messenger section of your business page.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So I love that it does all of that kind of like it's automation but instead of having to pick up the phone and you get like the robotic voice it's an actual light click click and you get whatever it is that you need. But when it comes to bots, does that require coding? Because I'm not a coder, you're not a coder. So, how can people build their own bots?

Molly Mahoney: OK. Do you know that I actually, when I first looked it up and I think I'm going to say our amazing friend Lynda who we were just talking about, the amazing Lynda West, I feel like Lynda might have messaged me this too and I've had another client who messaged me trying to build a bot themselves by diving into the coding of it.

Stephanie Liu: Oh my gosh!

Molly Mahoney: Without realizing that this is something that's actually already created for us. It's a tool that's super affordable. You can even do it for free. There's a slight learning curve I will admit, but it's there and it's ready and you can get started right away.

Stephanie Liu: OK. Yeah. And so what do you use to build your bot?

Molly Mahoney: So I guess... Lynda's here! Hooray!

Stephanie Liu: I know, Lynda you're amazing. I love the fact that she said the "amazing" Lynda, I feel like that should be your hashtag.

Molly Mahoney: Oh my gosh we should. And actually before I jump to that I just want to give Mo a shout out because she said that when the video is minimized it's working smoother on her end. So minimize your video so that you can get all of that lightning speed value that we're throwing at your feet.

Stephanie Liu: Seriously, seriously, yeah.

Molly Mahoney: So I use a tool called... Are you ready? ManyChats. It's actually called ManyChat but every time that I see it everyone thinks that I'm saying MiniChat, so I started calling it ManyChat. It's M-A-N-Y Chat. And thats the tool that you use as well, correct?

Stephanie Liu: It is, yeah. Let me actually go ahead and switch over to the desktop so there it is you guys, this is where the magic happens. It's ManyChat, so ManyChat.com and obviously, wait is that your robot?

Molly Mahoney: This is one of my bots!

Stephanie Liu: Oh my goodness! You're getting into the bot game, you've got like Sue B. Zimmerman has her hashtag thing and now you have bots.

Molly Mahoney: Oh my gosh they're everywhere. They've attacked my life, I love it.

Stephanie Liu: You know what? You should do some guerrilla marketing of Social Media Marketing World where it's like you walking but then you have like bots like behind you.

Molly Mahoney: Oh my gosh, you are so right. I already have three bot costumes because randomly my family and I went as robots, at least I tried to have us go as robots for Halloween last year, and so I have bot costumes ready to go. Good idea, Stephanie. We're doing it.

Stephanie Liu: That's legit, yeah. No, seriously you should definitely do it and if you do like a photoshoot can you imagine just like you and like this is empty warehouse studio, and then like all these little bots on the ground just like dancing you're just like getting after it.

Molly Mahoney: I'm sitting in my atrium, I could run grab it. But have you seen the bots that I have that dance and have my website name on them, my business name on them? Don't worry, I have thousands of them and they dance so I have them in my pocket when I go to events and if I meet somebody that I think will appreciate my humor, I give them a bot. It's a little wind-up toy, like a 1950s robot.

Stephanie Liu: Oh my goodness. That's amazing. OK, wait we totally just geeked out. Alright, so ManyChat. For those of you that are wondering how you could use chat bots for your business, this is what I use, this is what you use Molly. It's ManyChat and it's easy to get started, you could get started for free. It goes through the process of like what is the bot. So if someone hits you up on a page you could give them the menu, kind of like what you and I just talked about, but then you could also do like keyword activations. And I kind of look at you 'cause like should we get into that? Should we not get into that? Should we just talk about the easy stuff?

Molly Mahoney: This is what I was wondering ahead of time because there is literally enough content and well, there's enough content that we launched a whole full additional course about it because it's like "What! There's so much happening!" Maybe we should focus on the tools that work really well with live video since you are a live video queen.

Stephanie Liu: Yes. Oh you're so sweet. OK. So with ManyChat you guys I mean honestly like Molly I had said there is no coding required. This is what I love about it. Molly, you could jump in too. But I love the fact that you could just drag and drop whatever it is that you need. Like if you want to add a GIF add that in there if you want to add an image, a video... All of that, you could do it. I love the fact that you could even do buttons.

Molly Mahoney: Yes. Okay, Nicole says we should get into it. OK. We'll get into it. Yeah, there's so many.. OK. But actually before, I would love to say one thing before we get into the technical side because when this first started I actually learned about I had already signed up for ManyChat before Social Media Marketing World last year in March. But while I was there the amazing Kellie, I'm going to mess up your last name, Mirabelle... What's your last name, Kelly? Do you know who I'm talking about?

Stephanie Liu: No. I see Kimberly Ryan, I see Nicola.

Molly Mahoney: Well, she's not here right now. Kelly Noble Mirabella, she and I were in Mary Smith's mastermind workshop that she had. Big shout out to Mary Smith. How much do we love her?

Stephanie Liu: Love! She's crushing it.

Molly Mahoney: We love you Mary! And Kelly leaned over and she was like did you know that you can actually use a bot with a live video? And I was like woah.

Stephanie Liu: And from that moment on, the rest is history. I became completely obsessed. However, I want to state that I've had a few people in the beginning who reached out to me and were like, "Molly, what are you doing? Do not teach people how to do this. You're going to create a monster. This is not going to work anymore, you should keep this a secret for yourself." And I had to take a moment and like check in and really decide whether or not I was going to be responsible.

Stephanie Liu: Yeah. Because marketers always mess up stuff, right?

Molly Mahoney: We get excited and just in business in general I love to talk about salesy weirdos. And really it's because we're passionate about what we do, right? So, we want to make sure that we use this tool really wisely. And for me it's always setting the intention before I create anybroadcast, like some of you may have gotten from me just now I sent out a broadcast to like 3000 people. Which scares me when I hit the button because I know it's going to send that message into that many people's you know private messenger. And so you want to create that human feeling and make sure that that intention is behind it the whole time and that you're being honest about the fact that this is an automated thing with you know I have a little avatar with a name.

Stephanie Liu: MollyBot, which I think is hilarious.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah. So just make sure that you are using the human side of this, it's the first and most important thing that you're using this to build human connections.

Stephanie Liu: Yes yes yes yes. So for those that are interested in how to build your bot, there's kind of a lot to it but we're going to go through like at least like one. Let's go through one audience growth tool that that ManyChat has to offer. So, which one do you want to cover?

Molly Mahoney: Let's actually, can we do the Facebook Comment Growth Tool? Because that's the one that I was like "What!" And this is the one that helped me as I was telling you before to be able to do a video that had a reach of one million people organically.

Stephanie Liu: Okay, I want to repeat that again because some people might have missed that. So you did something where you did WHAT?

Molly Mahoney: A live video that had a reach of one million people organically.

Stephanie Liu: That was organic. That's insane! That's got to be like the best case study I've ever heard about using tool bots.

Molly Mahoney: I couldn't even... And I sent Lynda screenshots of it, I kept jumping in like oh my gosh this is real! And then I ran to my computer, oh my gosh is this real! Like how is actually happening. But there was a whole process that I went through and some Facebook Ads I did behind the scenes that helped that to happen. So it seems like a go-to growth tool, so we can totally talk about.

Stephanie Liu: So I have the growth tools open right now through my ManyChat. So you let me know, we could just run through it step by step real quick - this is a real treat for you guys. Like seriously you're getting behind the scenes goodness. OK. So walk me through it, I'll act as if I've never done this before and let's do it.

Molly Mahoney: So before we actually jump into the tool we're going to remember the human connection. And you're going to be very clear which I know you are, but we're just for everyone that if you want these things to work you have to be clear about who you are as a person, as a human being, how that fits into your brand and how you're celebrating that through your brand (right?) which comes through your videos and your content and all of that, who exactly your ideal client is (right?). So we've got to know everything about that person and what type of transformation or what type of value you're offering them. That's like the prep before we start. Then what you're going to do is you're going to plan a Facebook Live video that speaks very clearly to that ideal client and that offers massive value. OK, so what video would you like to do Stephanie that's going to offer massive value?

Stephanie Liu: Oh my goodness. Way to put me on the spot here. You know what, one thing that I'm working on right... on next week on Tuesday is going to be a webinar with my good friend Darryl Stern and we're talking about how to supercharge your SEO on your website using videos.

Molly Mahoney: I love it. OK. Awesome. So you're going to have a graphic or a photo of you guys together or something that's engaging that connects with your audience and you're going to post that on Facebook. And in the description you're going to tap into the problem that you're solving you know, use your awesome copywriting skills and let them know that you'd like them to join you for this free training. You don't tell them it's a Facebook Live video! Are you ready? Because if you say, "I'm going to be going live on my business page at noon on Thursday, would you like to join me?" they don't need to get access. So I'm keeping that piece like behind the scenes. And we also... I know that the link is here, but I don't know how you do this on your show.

Stephanie Liu: Go for it.

Molly Mahoney: We have a link where I actually have written this whole case study out if you guys would like to see it. Just comment below with the word "case study" and we'll make sure that you get that link. Because I know sometimes as I'm explaining it I get excited and I talk really fast.

Stephanie Liu: Well actually you guys if you're watching right now, in the show notes we have links in there for episode resources. And so that's exactly the link that Molly is referring to. Show notes for the win!

Molly Mahoney: Yes. Awesome. So you want to do this post that says, "Would you like access to this training where we're going to share this valuable awesome information?" If you would, comment below this post with this specific word. So what word do you want to use?

Stephanie Liu: Oh my goodness. You'd probably want like one word, right?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah, it can be a phrase. I mean I use... Heck [Yes] because you want to be clear with your brand, that you're like reinforcing your brand so I use (whoops, upside down), I use "Heck Yes." All the time, right?

Stephanie Liu: Yeah, I would probably say like "I'm in."

Molly Mahoney: Perfect, "I'm in." Sometimes using apostrophes can like... people will use the wrong one, but I've used "I'm in" and it has worked. So, "Comment below with the words "I'm in" and we'll make sure that we send you access via Messenger."

Stephanie Liu: You know what, I'm just going to do this right now. Is that cool if I do this right now? Doing this live? Oh my god, these people are putting comments "case study" on here right now, but it's not connected yet.

Molly Mahoney: No, but that's OK. So I actually... and this is something to keep in mind also is that before bots even existed, I used that strategy where I said "Comment below with the word "case study."" So I was able to set up a bot on all the videos.

Stephanie Liu: WHAT!

Molly Mahoney: Yeah, so that "comment below" with a specific word is great for many reasons. But you can set it up with a bot later, after the fact.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So I'm doing this right now as Molly is walking me through this and so I'm just creating like this... I want to see like which one did I just have of him. I hope you guys don't mind. I'm like in the middle of...

Molly Mahoney: And we're going to show you how easy it is to do it actually live, right? I love that people are commenting with "I'm in" as well, so that's awesome. So Stephanie, we're giving you a lot of work to do.

Stephanie Liu: You are, you are! You talk to everyone while I try to find this photo that I just had.

Molly Mahoney: All right. So the other thing that's really cool, as I was saying, "Comment below" with this specific word, even if you have written it up in the show notes, is it does three things. [Whoops, I can't do that.] Three things. It boosts the organic reach of your video because there's more comments coming in. If you like organic reach in your videos, give me a "Heck Yes" in my comments below., right? The thing is, it creates these micro commitments. So we are building a relationship as you're watching this video out there. We are building this relationship, right? When I say, "Comment below with the words "Heck Yes"" and you comment below with the words "Heck Yes" we are having a conversation where it's like Simon Says. We should play Simon Says sometime.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So I've created the test post with a "Comment below "I'm in.""

Molly Mahoney: Okay, are you posting it?

Stephanie Liu: Yeah I just did, should I edit it?

Molly Mahoney: It's okay, they'll just be some people that might comment before we actually set it up. So I usually don't actually post that part until I've done that the ManyChat part first. But you know what's really cool? If you actually post it as a scheduled post ManyChat will still recognize it.

Stephanie Liu: Oh, interesting. OK cool. I did not know that.

Molly Mahoney: It's super cool.

Stephanie Liu: So basically what you said is that you could do a scheduled post and still connect it to ManyChat?

Molly Mahoney: Oh my gosh, Jennifer just made the best point. And Jennifer, this is something that I have started adding actually into these posts and I'm so glad that you just said that, I love live video for this reason. Jennifer just said, "Hey beautiful ladies. I was commenting on a shared broadcast lol glad to be here for real." So what I have started doing and I haven't even added this into my course, I'm going to add this as one of the steps. Lynda, I didn't even tell you guys this yet. I just started this yesterday and it's working a lot better. Instead of just saying "Comment below" I say "Step 1: Click on this post. Step 2: Comment below." Because if people are commenting on a shared post like Jennifer was just doing, the comments will be on the shared post, not on your actual post, so it won't work.

Stephanie Liu: Yes OK so I'm just messing with this while we talk about this. This is actually kind of fun. If you are wondering what I'm using when I go live, because this is very different from what you use, you use BeLive. Yes, so I'm using OBS if anyone is interested, but this is how I am able to switch the screens between myself and Molly and go back over to the desktop to kind of show you how we're going to build this bot, cool?

Molly Mahoney: I love it.

Stephanie Liu: All right. So, what would you like to do next?

Molly Mahoney: Finish editing that and then we're going to go back to ManyChat.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So I just did "Step 1: Click on this post" but then I'll have to figure out what the link is for that. So one second, I'm getting click happy you could say hi to...

Molly Mahoney: But you don't need the link for that actually.

Stephanie Liu: Oh, I was just editing the post to say like "If they shared it that they know that you were talking about earlier. No, you're good.

Molly Mahoney: So, what is OBS? Do you want to answer that?

Stephanie Liu: Yeah, so OBS is Open Broadcaster Software. It's a free open-source tool that allows you to broadcast live onto Facebook. So you could create different scenes like the split screen that you see or the screen behind us, and run with it.

Molly Mahoney: And then you could also do, which is another huge part of this strategy, is that you have to pre-schedule the video. And so I use BeLive.TV usually or Ecamm Live to pre-schedule my videos, but Stephanie uses OBS. Both work exactly the same way in the pre-scheduling. Awesome! Hello, Vaughn! You guys, Vaughn Fahie is amazing and he's taking all of my Facebook Lives and turning them into a podcast.

Stephanie Liu: Oh that's amazing! OK you need to hook that referral up. Jen Evangelista, so the idea that Molly was talking about in terms of the shared broadcast was that in your original broadcast you'll want to say "If you want this freebie, this lead magnet, step one is to click here" and then you just put the link to the original post. Just because when it's a shared broadcast it'll have a different permalink at the very top, so that's all she's really saying. Right?

Molly Mahoney: Oh my gosh. You just took it one step further. That's a little different than what I was saying. I just meant click on... So OK. This is awesome because you've got like double ninja happening here. So that is an even cooler way to do it is to have them click on that link, but that might be too much, too many steps. I just meant click on a photo so they're commenting below the photo.

Stephanie Liu: Oh, I see!

Molly Mahoney: But both of those ways work. Yeah, that might be a more specific way to do it. I like that. And actually if they do click on that it'll just bring up the photo, so they won't even know the difference. So ninja!

Stephanie Liu: OK. I love that, so ninja.

Molly Mahoney: So, we haven't actually talked about the pre-scheduling the videos. We're getting there. So, so far all we've done is we've created a post that says, "I'm going to be doing a training that's coming up, comment below with this word if you want access."

Stephanie Liu: Yup.

Molly Mahoney: So then at some point we're going to go over to ManyChat and open that up. And we will see the growth tools and with the growth tools you're going to select the Facebook Comment Growth Tool. Are we sharing the screen?

Stephanie Liu: Yep. So let me... I just have to move my... Okay, there it is. OK.

Molly Mahoney: So, we're going to create a new growth tool and are going to create a Facebook Comment Growth Tool, okay? And then from there you want to enter the name up top just so you don't get confused.

Stephanie Liu: Testing live... This is crazy. OK.

Molly Mahoney: OK. And then from here what we're going to do is we're going to select that post that you just did. So where it says "Select Post" you'll click on that and your posts from Facebook will come up.

Stephanie Liu: Yep. So, if you guys take a look here it said, "6 minutes ago." It just says, "Testing with Molly Step 1." And then I'm going to select that one. Cool.

Molly Mahoney: Awesome. And then I always forget this part. When you come back you have to make sure that you check the little box that says, "I promise that I am being honest about the fact that I'm going to send them a message in Messenger" or whatever the words are.

Stephanie Liu: Yup yup. I confirm. I do that too all of the time. It's like OK save, and then it's like nah nah nah. You forgot.

Molly Mahoney: They are great about telling you when you've messed up, which I appreciate. OK. And then we're going to use... Now this is something I was talking to you about on Facebook yesterday. So this is one part that has confused so many people. So stay with me for just one second. There are two different types of keywords in ManyChat. The first is the trigger keyword and that's what we're using right now. So the trigger keyword is the keyword that they're going to put below the actual post and it's going to send them the initial message on Facebook.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So it's this one right here. Oh, you guys can't see my screen, let me move my Chrome a little bit. So it says... There's "Exclude Comments With These Keywords" and then there's "Only Trigger For Comments With These Keywords." Now before we dive into that, would we want to check off "Track First Level Comments Only"?

Molly Mahoney: I personally don't. Because sometimes people will comment with the keyword underneath in the lower comments, so I'll leave that up. Cool. And then we go to the next step which the next step is what sends them... I can't... I'm looking on the...

Stephanie Liu: Yeah it's OK, if you go through it I'll go through the steps because I'm familiar with it. Just know that there's always going to be a delay.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah I'm looking at the wrong thing. So, where are we at actually in real life?

Stephanie Liu: So we're currently at the screen where it says "Only Trigger For Comments With These Keywords."

Molly Mahoney: Perfect. OK.

Stephanie Liu: You're doing great!

Molly Mahoney: Awesome. Yeah, so you enter those keywords where... [it's the same thing, I'm looking at you] So make sure you enter those keywords at the bottom and here my audience tends to get excited like me, we use exclamation points. So I like to do "I'm in," "I'm in!" just to cover the bases because sometimes people will use different things.

Stephanie Liu: OK. Got it. And then I'm just going to put in like the typos too like let's say if they didn't use the apostrophe.

Molly Mahoney: Or the exclamation point.

Stephanie Liu: Now, does it matte if the word is uppercase or lowercase?

Molly Mahoney: I used to always make sure that I used both just in case, but I've actually been in a lot of discussions with the ManyChat team which is super cool and they just confirm it doesn't matter.

Stephanie Liu: OK. OK good to know.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah. So and then you'll hit "Next."

Stephanie Liu: All right. Hitting "Next." So now I'm at the screen where it says the "Auto-response."

Molly Mahoney: Yes. So this is the first message that you're going to send to them. Now this is important too and people often don't listen to this part. So I'm going to go slowly. Your viewers, your tribe will only be subscribed to your Messenger bot once they have sent you a message. Or, in another type of growth tool, once they have clicked a button that says "I give you permission." So at this we have to make sure we send an initial message and then we have to ask for a response back in order to give them the actual thing that we're offering. Right? So there's different opinions on this, but you want to be really clear. And sometimes I'll say Facebook requires that you respond to this message. I play around with it in different ways.

Stephanie Liu: I was like that's interesting! OK.

Molly Mahoney: Because I just find it sometimes people write back in there or this is one thing that people do that's a mistake that people make they'll say I need you to comment again with this keyword in order to get access. However they're not actually commenting, they're replying. So if you say "Comment again"...

Stephanie Liu: Oh, they they might go back to the post.

Molly Mahoney: That's what was happening, people were going back to the original post and commenting again and so then on the original post it was like "I'm in," "I'm in," "I'm in." So you have to say like [you know, be your personality] "Hey, [maybe you introduce the fact that you're the bot]..." Like "Hey it's MollyBot. If you really want access to this training I just need to confirm that you want to access, so reply to this message with the word [blah blah blah]."

Stephanie Liu: "I just want to confirm that you wanted this training. Please reply back with "Yes"."

Molly Mahoney: Yeah. And so you delete... I'm just making sure you deleted the "Can I help you with something," right? Also you may have already done this, but I always change it so it's not full name, it's first name.

Stephanie Liu: Yep, just did it. As soon as you said that I did it.

Molly Mahoney: Perfect. OK. All right. And then you can include emojis and fun things in there too, which is cool. I know! Jennifer just said, "I wish there was a button for them to click instead of a response." Right?! Me too. I will put that in a ManyChat suggestion box, I will send it as soon as we're done. OK. So then, Stephanie, this is something we were talking about yesterday. What I have noticed is the way that they have this set up right now is that you can do an opt-in action, which if you go to the next page, right? The opt-in... OH. Actually, hold on. Go back. Because I would not use the word "Yes." It's because I want to set it up with a keyword and if you use the word "Yes," what I realized is I had used the word "Yes" as a keyword and "Yes" is a very common word. So, if someone responded with the word "Yes" in a different conversation, just like with me as a human, and they got a bot response.

Stephanie Liu: Oh no! Oh my goodness! OK you guys, these are the do's and don'ts. OK that makes a ton of sense. OK. So reply back with "seo." Not a lot of people will talk to me about SEO.

Molly Mahoney: Totally, that's perfect. And then what I do is at this point, and hopefully this will this kink will get worked out, but I have found that the opt-in action that's already right here can be a little glitchy. So, for two reasons. One is it's just a big technical awesome thing. The other is, if for some reason it didn't catch it the first time and they use the word again, it's gone, like the option's over. If you do it as an actual separate keyword that you're setting up, then that works all the time.

Stephanie Liu: OK. This makes absolute sense because this is what I had mentioned in the ManyChat community. So for those of you that are just joining us we're talking about how to use bots for your business. We're talking about how you could use ManyChat without having to learn how to code, so if you've been following along, I've just been clicking like whatever Molly says step by step. I've just been clicking and doing it. I haven't had to go into any of the code whatsoever. It's also helpful for you to know that there's a ManyChat Facebook Group. So if you have any questions you have awesome people like us that you can ask questions for. All right. Very cool.

Molly Mahoney: And so right here they've added this, it's new and it's cool that they've added it where it can send a message back to everyone who replies or send it to people who only use a specific keyword. So, recently I tried to noise test some things out where it said "Send to Everyone Who Replies" and I said "Reply with the number 10" and someone replied with the number 20 and it responded.

Stephanie Liu: Oh how funny!

Molly Mahoney: And it was like "Ha ha ha."

Stephanie Liu: I tricked your bot!

Molly Mahoney: Yeah, yeah, yeah! So my best practices for just right now, for a couple of different reasons which I'll explain, is to actually don't send this opt-in message, turn it off.

Stephanie Liu: OK, so don't send the opt-in message. Got it.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah. OK and then what we're going to do is we're going to... so you're going to finish this out. So you have to go back up to the top and hit"Save."

Stephanie Liu: Save. And then "Active"?

Molly Mahoney: And then activate it, yeah. But actually, don't activate it yet because you want to do one more thing before you activate.

Stephanie Liu: OK. Unactivated.

Molly Mahoney: OK, so now you're going to go to "Automation."

Stephanie Liu: OK. Automation.

Molly Mahoney: Do you like that I'm doing like all of this in my brain because I can't see your screen?

Stephanie Liu: I'm sorry!

Molly Mahoney: I know, it's amazing. I'm like totally testing my ninja skills.

Stephanie Liu: No, that's really cool! And I love for everyone that's following along... Also just to let you guys know, if you're leaving the comment "seo" and all that stuff on this one right now, we're doing this actually on a different post. So right now don't expect anything on this post.

Molly Mahoney: Right. So it's... I love the comments though. Bo is in the house, which is awesome! So when they write "seo" they'll actually be writing "seo" in the message back to your bot.

Stephanie Liu: Yes, yes.

Molly Mahoney: OK so now you're here. And this is the main menu is really what she's looking at right now. The main menu is a really awesome option to give your audience more choices when they first come to your Messenger, which is cool. But we're going to go in and we're going to go to "Keyword."

Stephanie Liu: OK. So we're in "Keyword." And do you want me to click on the "New Rule"?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah. So within keyword this is the second type of keyword that I was talking about. So Lynda and Kelly, my awesome amazing team members, we were like "How do we explain this to people in the way that they'll understand it?" So we came up with these different terms. Trigger key word is the other one and regular keyword is this one.

Stephanie Liu: OG keyword! Okay.

Molly Mahoney: OG keyword. So create a new keyword and then this is going to be "Message is..." not "Message Contains."

Stephanie Liu: OK. So, "Message is..."seo.""

Molly Mahoney: And so what that means is if they send you a message that has the word "seo" in it, it will not fire this response. They have to send a message that has just the word "seo," right? OK. And then we're going to add the response and the response is going to have a link to your upcoming video.

Stephanie Liu: Very cool. OK. So let me pull this up real quick because I have it. Lead Pages, where are you...

Molly Mahoney: And you have it in Lead Pages? How do you have it?

Stephanie Liu: Oh it's just for the webinar that we have coming up.

Molly Mahoney: OK, so this actually if it's a... is it a webinar or is it a Facebook Live video?

Stephanie Liu: It's going to be a webinar for this one, yeah.

Molly Mahoney: OK. So that's cool that we can use it with that. If you're doing this to increase your Facebook Live engagement you can do one of two things. You can include a link to an actual Facebook Live video that you've pre-scheduled, which is a whole another thing that we probably won't cover here today. Or, if you're not pre-scheduling your Facebook Lives you can just include a link to your business page and say, "I'll be sure to remind you right before we go live."

Stephanie Liu: Got it. OK. I'm going to have to play that back because I'm clicking and doing it at the same time.

Molly Mahoney: OK. That's why we don't need that for today, but for people who are doing this for their Facebook Lives that's what I would do. OK. So now you're going to send them a message that says, "Great! I'm so glad you'll be joining us." And then here some more ninja. Do you want more ninja?

Stephanie Liu: Yeah, yes!

Molly Mahoney: OK. So as I mentioned, we always want to have this human connection, right? I know we have some people in the house right now who are in the Messenger Automation Academy, which is amazing. And I want to tell you I want to make sure that you all remember this, because as we start creating bots we forget this. So sometimes we get into like the awesome technical stuff that's possible and these basic human things get forgotten. Oh my gosh! I just realized the time and I have to make sure... I have a meeting at my... So, we're going to go quick. We're still good on time, but I just had a panic attack. OK. So what we want to do is you want to give people three options. So you're going to allow them to say, "Yes, I'll be there." So you can say like "I'm in" or whatever. And you're creating these buttons on the bottom. So instead of actually doing that link right there add a button that says "Yes, I'm in." Add another button that says, "I'll catch the replay." Is there a replay available with this?

Stephanie Liu: Yeah, there will be!

Molly Mahoney: And then add another button that says "No." This one actually... I'm sorry with this one there. They already said yes, so you don't have to say, "No, thank you." But usually I will give them a chance to say no if it's a broadcast.

Stephanie Liu: OK got it. I'm just going to fix my screen real quick because it looks like it got chopped off.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah, it's chopping off the top of it.

Stephanie Liu: Let me... one second y'all. There you go. Let me get this side.

Molly Mahoney: Awesome. Okay now there's loads of details within all of this where you can add actions which are tags which is the way to segment your audience. There are so many different things here, right? You want to add emojis to the buttons because it makes them more fun and exciting. You can have... Some people want to click a little bit more. If you are following us and this is amazing let us know in the comments below. If you're following us and you're like what on earth are they talking about, give us... I don't know.

Stephanie Liu: Everyone's just like this is going way too fast. But again you guys, you'll have the replay so this will all be put together. Plus Molly's got something amazing for you guys too. So don't worry. All right. So, I have "I'm in," "I'll catch the replay," and "No, thanks."

Molly Mahoney: Okay, we don't need the "No, thanks" on this one because this is the keyword response. I'm sorry, I messed that up. So do you know how to delete the button? OK. So then from here we're going to look for the webinar, you can actually just attach it to the website. So where that little bubble is you can just attach it to the website link right there and it'll take them straight to the website, which is really cool. Or..

Stephanie Liu: Don't worry, it's... I'm following you. It's just delayed on the Facebook Live.

Molly Mahoney: Sorry, I keep forgetting that I'm going to stop looking at it. OK. Or you can actually reply with a message if there's more details that you want to give them about the webinar. OK. So when they say, "Great, I'm in" or whatever you can give them more information. Yeah. One other secret ninja tip, do you want another ninja tip? I think I told this in a message before, but we've realized that if you're using a link to a Facebook thing like a Facebook Live or a Facebook page, I can't remember if I told you this or not, if you use the link to a Facebook thing in a button and it sends them straight to the link, it does some weirdo thing within Facebook where instead of sending them to the Facebook app it's sending them to a website that is showing Facebook.

Stephanie Liu: What?

Molly Mahoney: It's so weird. It didn't use to happen and it's something that's changed within Facebook, not within ManyChat. So what happened is I had sent out a broadcast saying, "Hey, I'm live!" like I did today. I sent out to broadcast saying "I'm here with Stephanie. If you want to join us, click this link." If I had put the link straight from that button, right? Like the button that you have right there set up to go to a website, it would have brought up not the Facebook app but an actual website with the Facebook Live video.

Stephanie Liu: Oh like a Safari app would open up? OK yeah, I hear you.

Molly Mahoney: And then the problem was is that it kept saying "This cannot be opened in this application," so everyone was trying to get the video but it was opening the video somewhere else. Super weird. So the fix, which this is something you like I am loaded with all these weirdo ninja... My client Kayla is so amazing calls me a leprechaun because I'm like figuring all this out. So instead of putting it where you have the button that goes straight to the video, to a button that goes to a message and then put the video link inside the message.

Stephanie Liu: So, "Reply with message" then?

Molly Mahoney: If it's a Facebook link. If it's a webinar link it's fine.

Stephanie Liu: OK, cool. So webinar link, open website, that's where it's going to be. And then we could tag this action as "Clicked for webinar" or something, right?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah!

Stephanie Liu: OK cool. I'm not going to get into that right now because I know that you are on a time crunch.

Molly Mahoney: So at this point now we have sent them the information for the actual video that we're doing. So if we're doing it on Facebook Live video they now can see where the Facebook Live video is going to happen. And if you pre-scheduled it, they can comment below the video before it even starts because you have this pre-scheduled thing there. And here's the coolest ninja part. If you want the case study on how to do this, comment below with the word "case study" because it's all right there. We'll get it to you and know that the link is actually in the description above this video. But we're not allowed to boost a pre-scheduled Facebook Live.

Stephanie Liu: That's true. That's very very true.

Molly Mahoney: However, you are allowed to boost a post that is messaging them a link to your pre-scheduled Facebook Live.

Stephanie Liu: Ah, clever! Tickling your brain right there. I'm digging that, I'm digging that. Melissa Glaze says that this is amazing and that she's absolutely nerding out. She's one of my Captivators. So yes, this is probably like the nerdiest... We're talking bots, there's no way we can't not be nerdy. So I have goosebumps. I'm like cracking up.

Molly Mahoney: I don't have the oh my gosh I'm going to run grab my glasses just so I can embrace my full inner nerd.

Stephanie Liu: OK. She's so funny guys. She's like I have a meeting right after this. But you know we're going to run with it.

Molly Mahoney: Luckily I'm amazing and my kids... not "I'm amazing." Luckily I'm like the most lucky human being and my kids live directly across the street, like I can the school from my front door. So it's new and magical. So I just need to be done in like 10 minutes. So now, so what I did at this point is I actually took that pre-scheduled post or not, sorry. I took the post that you created and connected to a bot which now we need to go back and we need to activate the bot now that you've saved the keyword. Did you save the keyword?

Stephanie Liu: Yep! Well actually let me...

Molly Mahoney: And you can actually tag the keyword as well, which is important too when you've created that keyword.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So let me go back to the bot and let me go ahead and activate that, it's called "Testing Live This is Crazy." So that is now active, I'm just doing that on my part you guys. Now where would you like me to go next?

Molly Mahoney: OK. There's lots of other... So there's like little things you can do to make it even more powerful, right? Like adding tags to the actual keyword, all that kind of stuff. Now what you can do is boost that post and it is able to basically boost the Facebook Live video before you've done it, even though that's illegal.

Stephanie Liu: Even though that's a no-no-no from Facebook. That's OK, that's OK. All right. So let me change the screen quick while I figure out this post again. There's my testing one... So here's the testing. So she's saying once you have this post and you have it all connected on ManyChat, activate your growth tool, activate your keyword... The OG keyword is what we're talking about? The keyword here, not the trigger keyword, but the OG keyword. So then you could go back here and then if you want you can go ahead and boost the post to get people to start promoting your Facebook Live. Is that what you're saying?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah. And the thing that's so cool about promoting these types of posts is because it's triggered by commenting below, my goal is always when I spend money on these types of posts as an ad that I get a larger organic reach than a paid reach. Because people are commenting below and then it's boosting the organic reach of it.

Stephanie Liu: Got it. Got it. OK. You know it's... OK. So it's funny because Molly, sometimes I don't always get my live videos transcribed as a doc but this one for sure is going to be transcribed because captions is not going to help anyone. People are just going to be like "What the heck, it's covering the screen." So I, like mental note to self, I need to have this interview transcribed. OK. Yeah. OK. So are we good now? We're good?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah! And so that's... So what I did is I think I spent like... It's written in the case study, but I spent $50-90 on the promotion ahead of time. So I had like loads... And this was on the post ahead of time, right? To really get that out there. And that's the video that had over 244 people live, which was the biggest... I mean for me that was like absolutely mind blowing. And then it had a reach of a million organically.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So I'm writing this down as a mental note for those of you who want to follow along. I'm like trying to keep up with Molly as much as possible. So first you make a post with an image that says there's going to be this training. You're not going to mention that it's a live video and if they're interested then they're going to leave the keyword, whatever it is that they want, whether t's an "I'm in" or "Heck Yes," right?

Molly Mahoney: Yep!

Stephanie Liu: Then you go into ManyChat. That's where you going to go ahead and create your growth tool, tie it back to that post that we just talked about. And then you're going to put in there whatever your trigger keyword is, whether it's "I'm in" or if it's going to be "Heck Yes." And Gabriel, I have this question of well, what if it's misspelled? You're going to just have to put in uppercase, lowercase misspelled or whatever.

Molly Mahoney: And when people start misspelling it I go back and edit it, and I forgot I liked it but somebody else asked the question. I can't remember who it was, about an emoji. It can be an emoji.

Stephanie Liu: So the thumbs up emoji, that works?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah! Which I haven't actually done that because that seems it might be a different language. But they say it can work for an emoji.

Stephanie Liu: OK. So once you have the audience growth tool for the Facebook comments done, then you go into Keyword which we're dubbing as OG keyword, you create a New Rule and it's going to say "Message is..." whatever that trigger keyword is and then you're going to "Reply With The Message," right? OK. And then the message. This is all like from memory right now, so you've got to love me for this. And then the message is going to say "Great. Cool." Have the human aspect of it, put in your high fives, the what's up and say "OK great, join..." You could have a button and the button can link to open up in a website, which is cool if you're doing like a Lead Pages webinar. But if you're going to be doing a Facebook Live what Molly encountered was that you want to reply back with the message and then the message will have the link to the Facebook Live, that way it opens in the Facebook app, cool?

Molly Mahoney: And the reason that you want to have a button and not just have that link up top is because we're tracking. So we want to see how many people actually click on that link and you can't click the tracking of the link if it's just in that original message.

Stephanie Liu: OK, cool. So and then you could also have the option where you'll have the button that says "No, I'm not interested" or I'm sorry, it'll say...

Molly Mahoney: This one I do just "I'll be there for the replay" because I noticed that when I started sending these out more you know emphatically that people were saying oh I'm sad I can't be there, I can only come to the replay. And even though we know that the live video replay is the same exact link, they don't. So this is about knowing your ideal clients and like don't make them think, just let them choose which one they want.

Stephanie Liu: Very cool. So Melody is asking is that OG like the original gangster. Yeah, girl! Oh geez. So great. So I just, I summarized that for everyone on the steps to promote your next Facebook Live, the Molly method madness way, right? That's legit.

Molly Mahoney: That's the way up to the billions.

Stephanie Liu: Oh my god. Yeah. Yeah. That's awesome. I'm geeking out so hard right now my face hurts. All right. So I know that you got to run. Do you have time to like pop in and answer some questions?

Molly Mahoney: Yeah, totally! So let's just go for a couple more minutes then I'll have to head out. But yeah, any of these little questions! "SO... if you are adding the FB video link in the BUTTON, it's coolio, right?" Yeah, so you want to add a button but have the button go to a message, and then add the link not in another button. Add the link just in the actual text part of the message.

Stephanie Liu: Yeah. So Jen, what she's saying is when you want to link to the Facebook Live you'll just reply back with the message with the link to the Facebook Live. Because if you do open website it might open up in a different app on their smartphone and then that'll just screw your users over. And then what else do we have here. "Hey, what are you using for..." my Facebook Live. Oh I'm using OBS, Open Broadcaster Software you guys. So this is my setup. This is what I do. Cool. I feel like Jen Evangelista is the one that asks us all of the questions. Jen, I love you, you're the best.

Molly Mahoney: I love you, too!

Stephanie Liu: All right cool. I think those are all the questions for now, I'm going to refresh this just in case. And then there's probably going to be like...

Molly Mahoney: You guys, if you have more questions about this or you want to talk more about it. It's something that I am obsessed with like to the nth degree, whatever. It's the thing that I always want to talk about and I have to remind myself that not everyone wants to talk about bots.

Stephanie Liu: But this is the one time that you can, because it's called Bots Mean Business. But yeah, if you guys want to learn more about bots. Molly Mahoney obviously knows what's going on. So in the show notes under episode resources it's called "Messenger Millions: A Guide to Skyrocketing Your Video Reach with Bots." It's the www.ThePreparedPerformer.com/lcl. Lights, Camera, Live! I love that you caught onto that.

Molly Mahoney: Oh my gosh, last little thing! So what we're doing with that LCL link when you click on that it's actually what's called a Messenger fURL and so what will happen is when you click on that link it will send you straight to Messenger. So it might say you need to approve Messenger first but it'll send you the information, the case study ink right within Messenger.

Stephanie Liu: Very cool. Very cool. Melissa Glaze says, "What's this academy..." that you were talking about? You kind of snuck that in there.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah I have a full... I don't know like if that's cool to talk about, but I have a full mini-academy called the Messenger Animation Academy and we have six modules on how to set up the basic stuff of your bots, how to really attract your... Like how to build your subscriber list and grow your community, and then how to engage with your community, how to build those relationships. There's videos and written templates because this stuff...

Stephanie Liu: Like a swipe file?

Molly Mahoney: It's a full downloadable PDF for every single thing. Thank you Kelly and Lynda, because it was when we first launched it in the beta version it was just me and videos, and they helped to translate my brain and my mouth into words.

Stephanie Liu: Betas are the best, aren't they? Betas are just kind of like where you work out the kinks on all of that great stuff.

Molly Mahoney: Yeah and then you learn what people really need. So it's cool. I'll get you a link to that Stephanie, so that you can share that in the show notes too. If people want the link for that.

Stephanie Liu: Absolutely. OK. It's 3:53 our time... You've got to go? All right. Thank you so much Molly for your time. You're amazing. This is so much fun. Thank you everyone for hanging out and geeking out with us.

Molly Mahoney: Yes! Thank you for allowing us to be nerdy so that our faces could hurt from smiling.

Stephanie Liu: All right. Exit music! Boom. Bye you guys! Thank you so much. Take care everyone.

DISCLAIMER: This website contains affiliate links, which means that if you click on one of the product links, I receive a small commission. This assures that we can continue bringing you valuable content. Thank you for supporting Lights, Camera, Live! We only link to products we use or are highly recommended by trusted sources.

ABOUT MOLLY MAHONEY

Camera Confidence Coach, and Facebook Live Ninja, Molly Mahoney, will bring your crowd to their feet, eager to share their awesome with the world via Social Media, Messenger Automation, and Live Video. She is known for energizing a room, and inspiring others to step into an elevated sense of their own awesome.

Molly pulls from her vast experience touring the world working professionally as a performer for
more than 10 years. She delivers clear steps that allow business owners to step into their spotlight so they can increase their visibility and bottom line with clarity, confidence, and joy.

In addition to performance skills, she has a magical ability to make the complicated and technical easy and FUN! And can't wait to show you how to "take your show on the road" leaving your audience begging for an encore. When not celebrating the goodness of her clients, she loves cuddling her 5 and 3 year old boys and singing with her bass playing husband and their jazz ensemble, Her Lucky Stars. 

IN THIS EPISODE, YOU'LL LEARN

  • Why Chatbots Mean Business
  • Build Your Own Chatbot In 5 Minutes (No Coding Required)
  • Do’s & Don’ts of Using A Chatbot

RESOURCES

STEPHANIE LIU'S LIVE STREAMING SETUP

MUSIC

Stephanie Garcia

Stephanie Garcia is the founder of Captivate on Command™ and the host of Lights, Camera, Live® where she helps brands succeed on camera. As a Master Neuro Linguistic Programming (NLP) Practitioner, Trainer, and ad agency veteran, Stephanie combines her marketing experience to help individuals communicate with confidence so they can ignite their ideas and be brilliant for prospects and customers alike. Named as one of the Top 50 Digital Marketing Thought Leaders by University of Missouri St. Louis, her work has been recognized and awarded by Forbes, Online Marketing Media And Advertising, PR Daily, Forrester, and Gartner 1to1 Media.

Stephanie is the host of Lights, Camera, Live and the co-founder of Leap Into Live Streaming Bootcamp. She has spoken at Social Media Marketing World, VidCon, Podcast Movement, and many more. Stephanie is the co-author of the forthcoming book, The Ultimate Guide to Social Media, due out on bookshelves in August 2020 by Entrepreneur Press. She lives in San Diego, CA.