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Stephanie - Hey guys, it's Stephanie Liu and welcome to an episode of the lights camera live. We are doing, we are doing but first messenger bot mastery and I've got "the" master in the studio with me today. We'll virtually, virtually right. It is the amazing, the beautiful, the wonderful, the wickedly smart Kelly Noble Mirabella. Mara and you know what Kelly welcome to the show. Say hey what's up.
Kelly: What's up! I like your introduction anytime anyone's gonna be like amazingly smart beautiful new best friend.
Stephanie: Wickedly smart. Yes, absolutely girl I got you. Alright, so if you guys are just tuning in go ahead and leave the comment let us know where you're tuning in from. I would love to know where you are watching from I'm here in San Diego. Kelly you know I never actually got to ask you where you're from.
Kelly: I'm in Santa Clarita California. It's just outside of LA.
Stephanie: Okay cool alright cuz I was like I've had other people from Denver and they're always wearing sweaters and they're, they're like it's December and I was like wow it is very cold.
Kelly: That's my hometown and it's very cold there.
Stephanie: Yeah, yeah well good good. If you guys are just tuning in going ahead and leave the comment we're actually trying something new today. I'm using restream.io do ,which allows me to go live on YouTube, Periscope and on Facebook. So, let me know we'll see ya let us know how it's working. But first, let me go ahead and say what's up to everyone that is tuning and I just wanted to go head and let you guys know we're talking about Messenger bots. And is it a fad? Is it a thing? Is it a must-have for your marketing in 2019? So, if you're interested in messenger bots please ,by all means, go ahead and hang out with us today. If you know anyone that would be interested, go ahead and tag them in the comments because they should be here with us today too. So before we go ahead and get started Kelly, go ahead and drop the bomb and let us know a little bit more about yourself and what it is that you do because you've been in business like 11 years was that?
Kelly: A while a little while yeah so I own Stellar Media Marketing. It's a social media management company. Most of my clients are social media management clients which basically means I do their social media for them. Yeah, I've been doing that for ,well I've been in the social media game since forever. It feels like sometimes like 12 years ,but I've owned my company this is my 10th year I'm going into and I love it I'.m obsessed. I'm pretty much the biggest social media geek. In fact my business card says Kelly Noble Mirabella "social media geek girl" ,and I'm into it. So, I'm also into chat bots. I've been doing chat bot building for about two years now. Last year probably about April or May, I launched "Baby Got Bot" which is my free youtube channel full of tutorials that are 80's themed because why not? Life's too short for boring chat bot videos ,so that's why I'm bringing you the 80's flavor.
Stephanie: Oh my gosh, I love it. And P.S. By the way here let me actually show you guys her her youtube because I was like girl, first of all she said "Baby Got Bot". Brilliant, love it. So, this is her YouTube channel ,and you have tons of videos on here.
Kelly: Yeah, there's a lot actually one just dropped today. I drop a new video every Thursday.
Stephanie: Really? And do you record them all yourself? You edit everything?
Kelly: Everything.
Stephanie: I love it you do the ninja arms too, yeah! Oh good, good good. Okay, so let's talk about messenger bots. Um, what is the future a messenger BOTS, right now because I feel like there are all the rage in 2017. Maybe I'm like a little late to the game.
Kelly: You're way ahead of everybody!
Stephanie: No, I thought 2017 yeah that's late, right?
Kelly: No, I mean I feel like 2017 was kind of a whisper. Like just the the people in "the know" knew about it ,right? And then, 2018 popped up and we started hearing about it at the conferences. Many chat had their own conference ,September 2018. And it just started blowing up. So I would say right now is when people, the more of the bigger masses are learning about it and getting kind of excited or scared, if you will, depending on your point of view. So, I think that you're not late. I think you're right on time.
Stephanie: Okay, okay and. So, like who is using chatbots right now? Is it everybody you know?
Kelly: No, no everyone is not using them. I think everyone should ,but I think you see a lot of bigger businesses adapting them you know. I've seen Lego is really known for utilizing their chat bots. We've seen companies like Zulily ,which is one of my favorite shopping sites. Yeah, Domino's Pizza ,like these big companies are starting to adopt this technology. But now even in the circles that I run in, I help a lot of small businesses entrepreneurs a lot of them are starting to see the power of this. I think at first they were afraid that the tech was gonna be too much and that it was unattainable. But when I break it down for them, they realize "Oh, this is actually really easy and I can jump in and do this myself!" So, I'm seeing a lot more small businesses on Facebook starting to adopt the chat bot tech into their strategy.
Stephanie: Wow that's that's amazing and P.S: By the way I want to give a shout out to Darrell Stern who's just tuning in he says that Mirabella rocks ,so we've got like one of your fans in the audience. Hey! Okay, so because the only people that I've seen chat bots and are really really crushing it would be..who is it? Well she's a pop star right now of course. Ah! Katy Perry.
Kelly: Oh really!
Stephanie: Have you seen hers?
Kelly: I haven't seen hers. I know there's another pop star. Hmm and I can't remember her name. She's like an 80's pop star and she does it too. So you see a lot in the entertainment business and I think a lot of times there are chat bots that you don't realize that that's what it is. And then I'll explain to you what it is. Then you're like "oh, yeah!".
Stephanie: Do you think chat bots are only going to exist on Facebook? Do you think the other platforms are gonna follow suit like what do you know?
Kelly: Fun fact: what kind of phone do you have?
Stephanie: Umm Iphone. IOS.
Kelly: So you've got Siri ,right? Siri is an audio-based chat bot. I've got an Android and I have the Google and I talk to Google I have Alexa and I talk to Alexa and those are our audio based chat bots. Chat bots have existed for a long time. Everyone is already familiar with them they just don't realize that those are chat bots. But chat bots, in the form of like messenger bots that we see on Facebook. Yes, I do see a cross-platform. Facebook has already hinted at the fact that they're going to bring them to WhatsApp ,which is a Facebook owned platform and eventually even, we'll probably see them on Instagram. So probably a little bit more limited on Instagram. But yeah, it's gonna get rolled out. And even ,you know, even on Amazon has had talks about implementing more of the chat bots throughout their platform. They use their Alexa throughout all of their platforms ,so if you're on you know the shopping app you can actually use Alexa to purchase stuff and look up stuff. So, chat bots are actually already out there. They spread like wildfire, But yes, in terms of social networks I do see them going across the border. We're gonna see a lot more adoption on all the platforms.
Stephanie: That's very cool and P.S. by the way Kelly. I just want to let you know that Tony Coleman Jr. just joined us on YouTube he said I subscribe to both of you and love your content. So hey Tony, this is like the first time I go live on on YouTube and there you go. Boom first comment. Love it. Okay, so you had mentioned Siri as a chat bot and it's so funny because I've never heard it named as that. You know I went to this other conference and they called it like voice recognition apps. But to actually call it a bot I was like "oh okay, that's interesting."
Kelly: It's basically what it is. It's a platform that is built ,where the builder will kind of foretell... how do we want the the chat bot to react? So, if someone says "Siri get me XYZ" then what does it do next? So that's really the framework of how a chat bot works as we kind of direct people in the choose your own adventure of our flows if you will.
Stephanie: Well ,do you think it's gonna come over to Instagram?
Kelly:I do. I do foresee it coming to Instagram. It's not there yet ,but I do think it's going to. I mean it's owned by Facebook. Again, I think it's not gonna be like the wildness of what we see on Facebook. You probably won't be able to do everything ,but we're already starting to see some integration ,third-party integrations on Instagram even with the buttons. I had Jen Herman on a webinar this morning in one of my groups. I love her. I know she's in the 360 with you.
Stephanie: Yes!
Kelly: Yes and she did an amazing breakdown of Instagram and my "Social Media for Brainstorm" Group and she was talking about the buttons. You know how you have like "email me," "call" ,and that? Those are already getting third-party integrations. Although those aren't chatbots, it's a sign that facebook is opening the platform to those other options. So I do think that in the future we're gonna see this.
Stephanie: Very cool! Awesome! Well darn. Well, let me go ahead and give a shout out to the crew that's following along. Rhys treatments and show you my facebook comments that's okay though. But we've got Craig here. Craig is here. Darryl Stern. We've got Tony. So thank you guys so much for joining us. So having said that Kelly what are the best and worst practices of chat bots because it's...I feel like it's still kind of the wild wild west. And some rules are just being rolled out now or you know some people like to skirt the rules?
Kelly: Yes, okay. So first and foremost, let's talk about the most important role which is the 24 plus 1 rule. That basically means that when someone subscribes to your chat bot -- I'll explain how that's done in a second-- but you have to send a promotional message. You have 24 hours from the moment that they engage with your chat bot. You have 24 hours to send a promotional message and then the +1 kicks in. After the 24 hours is up, then you have one message you can send to that person until they gauge again. So the key here is just to keep people engaged with your chat bot. You don't always have to be sending out promotions. You can send out other things and you don't have to worry about the 24 plus one rule. sSo when we're talking about the miss steps one of the big missteps I see a lot of people kind of like "Eh,Facebook won't know because Facebook doesn't pay attention." They do pay attention. So many people are getting their accounts shut down.
Stephanie: No way!
Kelly: Oh ,true story because they are abusing the... I was just in the mini chat community the other day and Mindy Chef--for those of you don't know-- is one of the platforms you can build chat bots in and someone had posted a screenshot of how all of their it basically said, "Facebook will no longer let you send out messages because you've gone against our community guidelines." So,basically what it was saying to them is "You went and you thought you couldn't do that.... you thought you would get in trouble but let me tell you." And 2020 we're sending out promotions "boom. boom. boom". and they got caught. So, that is a huge misstep I see people make. It's that you have engagement 24 hours plus one message. So if that lapses, don't send them a promotional just send them something that's going to re-engage your audience. And then as soon as they re-engage... Boom. Fall right back into the 24 plus one rule.
Stephanie: That's so interesting and when you said, "boom boom boom" that I thought I literally thought you're gonna say, "Oh sorry boo boo you, can't do that."
Kelly:Basically.
Stephanie: Hey Danny. Thanks so much for joining us - so good to see you here. Um, so that was the 24 hour plus one rule. Is that... was that what you called it?
Kelly: Yes! the 24 plus one. It's the number one .most important rule when it comes to Facebook Messenger chat bots.
Stephanie: And what happens? So, do they just shut down your ability to send out messages or they just take out your page completely?
Kelly: I've seen both. I've seen both things happen. We've seen people that their pages have gone to Facebook jail. If you don't know what that is. Basically, they do not allow you to do anything ,and you don't know if you'll ever get that ability back. Sometimes it's a day. Sometimes it's never. I've seen people say that their pages were shut down ,and the most notable is the inability to send out messages. It's just.. and there is no way to... I mean we all know how easy Facebook is to.. you know get a hold of. So you're kind of S.O.L if you do that. So don't. Don't break the rules. And you know they're paying attention because they they have the technologies--fairly new. They're already shutting down the people who are breaking the rules ,and they've been putting pauses-- like they did the pause this past spring-- to make sure all those ducks are in a row. There's no holes in the API's and everything. So,they're making sure that this is done right and they're paying attention. So don't go slinking in here and in the chatbot chatbot world thinking that you can get away with that. So that's a big no-no. Don't break the rules.
Stephanie: Yeah! I love that you say that because some people are like "But I only have this many fans, it's not like I'm an IBM or a Cisco ,so I won't get in trouble,"
Kelly: No it doesn't matter and so let's backtrack a second and talk about how you get subscribers.
Stephanie: Yeah. Let's do that.
Kelly: It's simple to understand. You know you can't just jump on and build a chat bot and expect everyone who likes your page "oh, I'm gonna just go send them messages." That's not how it works. It doesn't matter how many fans you have. You could have two fans. It doesn't matter. The subscribers are people who engage with your page--has to be a facebook business page. People who engage with your business page via private message or the messenger platform, that's how they subscribe. Once they've engaged with a they hit that little "Get Started" button that you see, they're in. They're part of your subscriber base. So you can't add them. It's not like email where I'm all you know "I think I'll just go download this list off LinkedIn"-- which P..S so glad they got rid of that feature-- "and then add you to my I'll add you to my email list." It doesn't work that way. You cannot add people. They have to be you know added themselves. They have to give that permission basically and say "Yes,oh yeah send me a message so.
Stephanie: Oh interesting! Mm-hmmm, you know it's so funny that you mentioned all of this because I have run into people where they're just like "I'm just gonna do it and if I get in trouble then I get in trouble.Just create a new page." And I'm just like WHAT.
Kelly: Hey, why do it wrong? Y'all are getting shut down okay, I hope you do.
Stephanie: HAHA!
Kelly: Oh I'm sorry. I am so over people you know bending the rules or playing dirty when there are people out there that I know personally, they are my students myself that have done it the right way. And it just that's like a pet peeve. I'm like do it right or get off the platform.
Stephanie: Okay so then here's here's what when I was talking to you about earlier.So this person had reached out to me and said you know ...."I want to run a contest on Facebook using a messenger bot" and then you enter in the contest and then by default they would send you a consolation prize, but it's really they're selling you something. Does that still fall under your 24 plus one rule?
Kelly: Yes, so the 24 plus one again is based off at the engagement so as long as if... let's say you put the contest on the page and you say okay comment whatever, tell us a little story ,and we're gonna send you an entry. Then you can do it right then because they are when you set up the chat bot... so it's what we call a "comment trigger". You might have seen them. You probably use them on your on yourself, right? So those are okay because they know you're being explicit. That's another thing you must do. You have to say "hey, yeah I'm gonna send you a message if you do XY and Z."
Stephanie: Yeah!
Kelly: And then they come in and you give them... there's usually a little disclaimer saying, "Hey, you know please confirm that it's okay to send you a message." They confirm and then you're able to send them whatever your thing is. It could be promotional or whatever ,but you have to get them to engage with you first before you can send that. Does that make sense?
Stephanie: It does. It does.
Kelly: Okay, now one thing you can't do--because I know you brought up contest and we kind of chatted about this before-- is you cannot ask them to share for an entry even in the chat bot there is a shared feature. You can't do that you can't skirt the Facebook Terms of Service just because you're in like the "hidden platform".Just because this is not encrypted you guys. Facebook can see what you're doing and..
Stephanie: This isn't what's up you guys.
Kelly: I know Congress is a little confused about what that is.
Stephanie: A little bit about everything. Please don't stop my facebook live now, okay? Okay, so cool. So we talked about some worst practices that people are doing which is breaking the 24 plus one rule. So what are some good ways to get people to subscribe to your bot? what are some really super cool things that you've done or you've seen your students do or other brands do that you're just like "hey, everyone should know this!"
Kelly: Yeah! So my personal favorite thing to do is games. I love building games. I love running them. So I've run lots of games in the summer time. Amanda Robinson and I have the Amanda and Kelly show live in the suburb. We have a summer show. And we play tons of games every time we go. We have a game. We have a leaderboard. We get people involved. We get them engaging in our page. They get extra points and it's all done via chat bot ,and it's a really great way of getting people into your chat bot. In fact, I've run a couple of games organically-- meaning I didn't run any ads or anything. I just ran a game via my page Stellar Media Marketing and I was able to within a week grab an extra hundred subscribers because people love games. I mean think about when you're cruising Facebook-- if you're anything like me and you're cruising Facebook and you see like one of those stupid BuzzFeed like quizzes... let me tell you when you're gonna get married by how you eat your carbs. By the way I'm married.
Stephanie: You still want to know!
Kelly: I still want to know and I take like every one of those quizzes. It's because people love those those dang quizzes. They love games and so that's actually...
Stephanie: They want to learn more about themselves!
Kelly: I think just almost every business page could probably implement a game. Some are gonna be more successful than others-- like your bars ,restaurants, coffee shops... that sort of thing. But even me, I'm a b2b business and I find quite a bit of success running games so that's one of my favorites. I also have a video on my youtube channel teaching you how to build your very own trivia game ,so...
Stephanie: I was just going to ask you. I was like "Uhh..okay games so cool? ..but how did you even start?" So you have this step-by-step on your on your YouTube channel?
Kelly: Absolutely.
Stephanie: It's free?
Kelly: Totally free. It's on YouTube go check it out. It was like one of the first videos I did. So that's one of my favorite ways because it gets people really engaged ,and it's just, it's fun. I just like to have fun. So another thing that I have seen be really successful that I really really love and I see this a lot with my clients is the Facebook live coupled with a "comment trigger". So if we have a chat bot, I don't know if you have a chat bot attached to this, but if we if we're on my page we would have a chat bot. "Hey what's your favorite way to grow a your chat bot list. Tell me below and I'll shoot you over a special chat bot guide, right?
Stephanie: Yeah
Kelly: And so they tell me their favorite way and I would have like chatbot be the the keyword trigger and as soon as it hit it would go and send them my chat bot. They would get engaged. They would get a lead magnet of sort. So the magnets coupled with a Facebook live in this comet tool is probably one of the most powerful ways to use a chat bot not only for growth of your of your chat bot list ,but also just for conversions. You can sell I have a friend ,or a client... not a client a student because I don't really charge for my classes right now. She sells unique cosmetics ,which is like lipsticks and you know makeup ,skincare ...she did a facebook live tied to one of these and within 30 minutes it was just a quick 30 minute Facebook live she made $500.
Stephanie: No way!
Kelly: Yep true story. And there that's just a small amount of what a lot of businesses are out there doing. I know Bella Vasa ,who you had what last week or the week before mm-hmm she did a whole series of webinars-- that she promoted in a facebook live coupled it with a chat bot and she ended up making like three thousand dollars off of that strategy. She got people into adore mastermind. She got people into her webinar. It was beautiful. It was beautiful. So that's you know.. the Facebook live strategy is one of my favorites. By the way, I have a guide on how to do that ,so check that out too.
Stephanie: I know, I feel like everyone's gonna be typing notes. Okay so at the 20 minute mark she started talking about what Bella did and then at the 15 minute she talks about trivia.
Kelly: The next one that I love to do is.. if you do it.. really depends on what your company is doing. So I do a lot of.. I did this whole last month. I did a ton of webinars and they were all in my Facebook group. There are exclusive to my Facebook group. The strategy was two-tiered. It was to build my Facebook group and build my subscriber list and I actually created a chat bot that helped people subscribe to my Zoom webinar and then send them to my group where I told them that was where the exclusive information. The light broadcast would be. They could also have the option to join us via Zoom, very few people joined via Zoom. Most people wanted to stay on facebook. It's easier and it's a lot more interactive because I'm using the pull feature and all that fun stuff keep people going and then it sent. And then I send a reminder on the day that we're about to go live like that morning. "Hey quick reminder we're gonna be live soon." That's all through messenger and then the moment I go live in my group or even with the live strategy we're talking about... I send it out to people who are subscribed to that. I have tagged those people as interested so I'm not sending it to my whole list as segments to them. I say "We are live right now, click here." The link goes directly into the group to that video or directly to your business page to that video ,wherever you want to send them. And that is a way to get people to show up for your Facebook lives or show up for your webinars and it's a really great way to make sure that your conversions are higher because it makes a seamless, signup experience. But also, it's another way to remind people because --you know how it is --you sign up for a webinar and then you totally space it out. It doesn't matter how many emails they just sent you. You space it out. But if I'm sending out a reminder email. Plus I'm sending you a little ping on Facebook, "Hey we're live right now click this button, and come join us." You're more likely to show up because it's right there in your face or you've been pinged on your phone. It's just a different notification experience.
Stephanie: Would you say that when it comes to reminding people to engage in a webinar or any type of training that you have, that the must have is the bot? Or is it the email is it either/or for you or is it just if I only have five minute the one that I will do I'll drop everything new.. tricky. Tricky.
Kelly: I like right now the bot is the most powerful way of getting people to convert and show up but that being said... the email address is so important because you own that right. If it's on your list ,your email list, you own that list. If it's on your chat bots subscriber list, you don't own that list. You're on rented property ,so it's the difference between rented property and owned. I like to diversify. I like a nice diverse portfolio ,so I'm all about both. So I almost always ,if I'm doing like a webinar, I will ask for both. If I'm doing a lead magnet, I'll ask for both ,but if it's just like a Facebook live.. then I'll only ask for the messenger because I'm in the environment of Facebook and that's naturally where people are going to be.
Stephanie: Oh good call! That was actually a ,that was a curveball. I just threw at Kelly because she said most people ask me this and I was like "I'm gonna ask you something different."
Kelly: Well great!
Stephanie: I know! Okay. So hey Anna Natasha Phillips Ferguson. WOW, I said that really well and really fast. She says what's up. She says that you have one of the best games out there Kelly ,so kudos to you.
Kelly: Thank you so much. That's so sweet. I will say one of the the biggest compliments that I get in my chat bot-- especially my games. Is in the very beginning, I will introduce my chat bot assistant-- you know you're not talking to me personally. But by the end, you felt like you were talking to me. I've had people actually message me at the end of my games and say "I knew I was talking to a robot ,but I felt like I was talking to you." And to me, that's a really big compliment because that shows a best, there's a couple best practices with that. Number one. You need to introduce your chat bot. You need people to be aware that they are speaking to a nonhuman-- especially since California now has the law that states that you have to be explicit about the fact that they're not talking to a human. Number two. You need to have a nice good voice. Like what do you want your brand voice to be. Have it be a fun voice for the most part... I mean have some fun so I think those are two big best practices. If you can walk away with people knowing they're talking to a chatbot ,but experiencing a happy feeling because it feels like you're really there then that's a good thing.
Stephanie: Cool and so when you're teaching all of these in your videos on YouTube... is it something where you have like the playlist set up to be sequential in terms of like.. "Okay, now that you've done this video, you want to hop over this one" Or is it just kind of...
Kelly: I'm not gonna lie, it's to get after it. And that's because I.. I base my videos based on where I see a need. So I I don't consider myself a chat bot expert. I consider myself a student. So the reason I started my chat bot video channels, I saw there was a need there were videos out there. But to be quite honest, most of the videos at least the consistent ones, that are out there... we're really boring. Very long, very techy which is stuff I understand ,but the people I know that I teach, they don't understand a lot of that Tech Talk. So a lot of it was over their head and it's frustrating. A lot of times ,the most frustrating part, I would get like 15 minutes into a video and then all of a sudden they go, "Oh whoops, forget everything I just said let's start over." Like could you not edit this video? So I thought,I was like you know what.. "I'm gonna go learn this stuff and then I'm gonna turn around, I'm gonna teach it." So for instance, I have a video that teaches you how to do acuity scheduling through your chat bot. It took me four hours of non-stop ,just nose-down trying to learn this thing. It was very frustrating. I tell you what. I had a shit glass of champagne at the end of the day because I finally... I was like.. I was so excited. My husband was looking at me like I'm a crazy person. Yeah, but you can learn how to do it in 20 minutes. I'm watching my video and that's why I do it. I want to create stuff that's really simple ,so I see a need. I put it together. That being said a lot of people have asked me if I'm gonna do like an E core... something more streamlined. I am!
Stephanie: When?!
Kelly: It's coming next month day. It might be like a birthday present to myself.
Stephanie: Birthday discount.. if you guys say happy birthday to Kelly!
Stephanie: I'll give you like just just between us girls and like everyone who's watching if you are in my "Baby got Bot" Facebook group ,you are getting first come ,first serve for exclusive pricing.
Stephanie: Oh, Hey!!
Kelly: So just....that will be in order of how you should kind of go. I mean you could kind of pick and choose. If you've already want to skip ahead and that will include step by step how to get set up and how to create these but also my signature stuff of how to build a chat bot quiz or how to introduce very specific things. Then, there will also be written instructions, so it's not just the video because that was something a lot of people were asking about so that's gonna hopefully be something that'll make me stand out.
Stephanie: I mean it's great ,just from like a web accessibility standpoint, right? Like why is it only in video? I love it. When people give you written instructions because sometimes for me I'll have my daughter with me (she's 3) and I can't listen to a full video because in the background it's "Mommy! Mommy! can you do this." You know. Like I'll skip a step ,so if you give me ,you know.. the outline the step by steps or the timestamps then I could go and I can find that info. So the fact that you're doing that is like "head and shoulders" above like what other people are doing. So kudos to you.
Kelly: That's what I've been doing it, and I'm the same way. Like I love watching a video the first time ,but sometimes ..you know like a month later I'm like "Oh, I got to do that again."But I just see like a quick like a scan. I don't want to watch this whole video again ,so that's where I I find those kind of... .
Stephanie: Oh my god! You crack me up! You guys this is literally like the first real long conversation if I had with Kelly. It's usually like in passing or sometimes I'm tagged in a post and then you're tagged in to post and it's like a drive-by hi hi, right? but I love the fact that she talks with their hands just as much as I do.
Kelly: I'm like makes hand gestures.. people think I'm Italian.
Stephanie: Well, cool. cool. Hey, if you guys have any questions when it comes to all this messenger bot stuff. Seriously, I have the master right here for you and I don't know how much she charges by the hour. Probably a lot.
Kelly: Not free! haha!
Stephanie: So if you have questions, ask them ask them right now. And then she'll go ahead and help you out. Okay so we've talked about best and worst practices. We've talked about how chat bots are definitely gonna be evolving into other apps and into other platforms. It's just gonna become a daily thing for us. What are your tips for people that want to build their own bots? Like number one, check out Kelly's YouTube channel, duh! Number two. What would you say are you like a ManyChat versus...?
Kelly: I'm a ManyChat gal. I think I've never...I've like I logged in to Chatfuel and I was like not for me. I am a very visual person. I like to map things out and especially when it comes to the flows of chat bots. So I want to see if you click this button, it goes here and if you click this button, it goes here. I want to see that whole thing. Yeah and ManyChat has that ability. So, that's probably one of my favorite features. So I'm definitely a hundred percent a ManyChat user. If you are using chatfuel, my videos on YouTube are probably not going to help you at all. Yeah they are definitely ManyChat heavy . There are a couple on there. Like you know the number one big mistake for using chat bots is in there and that pertains to both and where to get started and you know some basics... but most of them are ManyChat tutorials.
Stephanie: Got it. Got it. Okay!
Kelly: And to answer your question though... a starting point... I think the very first thing that you need to do before you decide on a platform before you know really jump in. Think about what value can I bring with my chat bot ,and don't make it this huge thing. You do not need to solve the world's problems. You don't have to answer every FAQ. I find sometimes the easiest chat bot is just a welcome message to let people know "Hey I'm gonna get back to you in the meantime can I direct you somewhere? Here is my Facebook group. Here's my youtube channel. If you're interested in chat bots.. here's my services. Would you like to schedule a call with me? M chat bot can kind of lead people and qualify them. So if maybe they want to schedule a call ,maybe they want to learn more about chat bots... they don't necessarily need to talk to me to do that. Otherwise it'll say, "if you'd rather just talk to Kelly, just let me know and I'll go fetch her." By the way my chat bot assistant her name is Mika bot me, is my Mika Dogbot ...is my chat dog assistant named after my late dog ,so that's why I say stuff like that
Stephanie: Oh that's so cute! That's so funny! I love it when people named their bots. Mine is just mine just robo- stuff because I couldn't come up with anything.
Kelly: I think that's cute. I know Molly... has like Molly bot!
Stephanie: Yeah! I was like yeah! Molly has Molly bot. Which P.S.by the way Molly is tuning inn! Say,hey! Awesome! Yeah, I like it when they give them little names and their little personalities. I think those are definitely fun! What are also some tips for building your bots? So, ManyChat? you think it's easy?
Stephanie: Yeah, I recommend ManyChat. I think it's really user-friendly. Don't be afraid of the tech. People hear chat bot and they're immediately like "Oh my gosh, this is I.. I.. can't do this."
Stephanie: Yeah.
Kelly:...for someone like Kelly ,who knows this stuff. It's for anyone. I have a client. I have a person in my Facebook group who learned from my videos how to build one-- and she sells little girls dresses. She does not... she sells these little girls dresses. She does not do chat bots for a living. She's not online all the time ,and she was able to build one in like 30 minutes, that did all these things. So, you know you can build a chatbot. Don't be intimidated and --especially with the tool like ManyChat. So figure out what's... what's the problem you want to solve, get yourself on ManyChat, it's free to start. I mean what do you got to lose?
Stephanie: Yeah no, that's cool! Okay, and then well... what about the people of that they're just like "I still don't want to do it ,but I do want a bot." What's the best way to get start...like what are some tips for hiring pros, right? Because some people might want it ..they might say like... What did you get quoted on... I'll undercut them by this much." And should they really be going by price? by experience? by industry?... like what would you say?
Kelly: I would say just like anything else when you're hiring like a social media manager or what have you. I would do a little research on them. Do they seem knowledgeable? Can they give you maybe examples? Or ,you know, if they're like me--or I know Molly does it as well-- there's Amanda Robinson. We're all chat bot builders. Just number one, we're experienced. You could tell. Just look at what we talked about, you could tell we're experienced. So, do some research on them ,and then from there... I think it's really about what you need because some people are going to be more well-versed in certain areas. So, if you're into politics or something, you might want someone who specializes in that. Maybe, it's not important ,but to you, it's important. So maybe you want to do that. So kind of figure that out. But in terms of price, it really comes down to "What do you want to do?". It could be as inexpensive as go into Fiver ,and getting someone. I wouldn't recommend that.
Stephanie: Yeah.
Kelly:...or you can get someone reputable ,is you know based in wherever you're based and can work hand-in-hand with you and build something really great that follows the rules and doesn't go into that, you know. black hat area.. and then you're gonna be looking anywhere between like five hundred dollars to start, just to set the dang thing up. Then, you know it could go to a thousands of dollars. I don't want to scare people away ,but it really depends on what you need. So for me, for instance, I charge five hundred dollars to set up your chat bot and that includes your... your connection from ManyChat to Facebook. That includes a welcome asset ,but not just a "Hey! We'll get it back to you!" ,but the one I talked about that has kind of a menu and directions... and little lead funnel and then it also has a menu. So that's... that's kind of my starter thing. Then ,you know, I can do a whole mess of other things. I think you're gonna find that most people in my range at least are gonna start there or up to maybe $1,200 starter packages so... just talk to them. Figure out what you want to do ,but remember you are buying time, you are saving yourself time ,and it does take a lot of time to learn this stuff --and not only learn it-- but stay up on it. So if that's not you, if you want to focus in on what you do then hire someone ,and it's a it's a good investment to make ,if that's something you want to add to your strategy in 2019.
Stephanie: How fun! Well, there you guys have like...you know where to start ,and if you're just like "Mmm... you know what, I need to go talk to somebody that is this gal. Yeah! You got it right!
Kelly:I never know....!
Stephanie: I know! Well cool ,and then so you have this... this course that's gonna be coming out "birthday launch" is what I'm calling it in my brain. Well. good. good. good. And then, um... let's see here. I have a question for you. What would you say--aside from your trivia stuff--what's the other cool thing that you've seen out there in the botverse?
Kelly: I LOVE Andrew and Pete's use of chat bots. Andrew and Pete have specifically this one chat bot that is a Sales Lead qualifier. It's a seven step lead qualifier.. if you guys don't know who Andrew and Pete is... first of all... ya better find out because they are amazing. I love them. I'm obsessed.... might be their number one fan. I even have a mug.
Stephanie: Oh my goodness!
Kelly: Yeah! and but basically it... it qualifies.. it basically takes their ideal client, who is an entrepreneur ,and it breaks them down into... they ask different questions and it kind of brings them down and qualifies them into their membership program and this think converts. Even when people say "no". It'll say "okay, well would you like to have a free trial for a month? or would you like to have us remind you? ,or let's break down how much this cost and how you can make it work. It really does the job ,and it's one of my favorite chat bot use cases. But it's one that you wouldn't like naturally just see out there, like the Lego on ,or what have you because it's all happening behind the scenes. You don't know what's happening to you until you become an atomic member ,and then you're like "What, they just converted me?",so it's a brilliant use of a chat bot and they do it really, really well.
Stephanie: Oh, that's very cool. I've you know.. I've heard so much about them, especially from Jen because she said, "I've had one of the most interesting interviews whatsoever. I've never sweat so many bullets before!
Kelly: Oh! They really put... they put their podcasts guest through the wringer.
Stephanie: Yeah, that's... that's so much fun. That's cool, it's coo. Okay, so aside from the course, aside from the YouTube ,where can people actually get to know like... and trust you in person.. like I know you speak at conferences, right?
Kelly: I do on occasion. I'm trying to speak more. I have little "littles", so I have two little girls under five, so it's hard for me to get out a lot. I will be at Social Media Marketing world ,and I am totally open to anyone ,who wants to be like "Hey Kelly!". You know pull me aside, let's chat about chat bots. I'm generally at the chat bot table in the big... you know like networking thing. I'm actually going to be leading --or what do you call it---moderating the content marketing track and I will be introducing Andrew and Pete. So, if you're looking for me at Social Media Marketing World.. I'll be the moderator and track leader for that track. I'm also speaking at Social Media De Lima. I think in June. So I'll be there talking about chat bots ,so just.... And, and that's all I have planned so far in terms of in-person conferences. You can reach out to me. I am very accessible on Facebook. I am everywhere at Stellar 247. I have two Facebook groups that are very active. One is "Baby Got Bot",which is the chat bot group. The other one is social media brainstorming ,which is kind of my general. I mean I've been doing social media marketing for you know 11... 12 years now ,so got a lot of knowledge to share. So come on over and just say "Hi!"
Stephanie: Yeah! Would you say that bots is like your favorite thing now ,aside from everything else?
Kelly: Yeah, there if there two passions in my life right now in terms of like business and digital marketing. It would probably be chat bots up there, just because I have a lot of fun doing it. As long as I'm having fun, I'm gonna be teaching it. Yeah and that other big one for me is just helping other social media digital marketers succeed as entrepreneurs because I've always been a mentor to a lot of people... just openly. And it's just my passion to help other people kind of follow the footsteps because I love.. you will probably not meet a whole lot of people who love their job as much as I do... like I love it... like I am so blessed. I am so excited to--you know-- be a part of this world ,and I want other people to experience that freedom as well. So those are my two passions.
Stephanie: I do have one last question for you. And, it's um... you know there's a lot of digital...so I come from the agency background, right? So about 12 years or so working on the agency side ,and we're always looking for partners and to work with and so... does your business do you usually partner with agencies that are trying to add on a different service? Or is it mostly you just want to focus on entrepreneurs and then building their stuff? Like is that your target audience?
Kelly: I actually do both ,and it really depends on the service. So for like social media marketing, I do higher-end small to medium-size business, not entrepreneurs. They can't afford me. Sorry, guys because my social media management services generally start around $2,000 a month. Yeah, and so a little higher-end. I have worked with agencies before. I have subcontracted. I'm always open for partnerships in that realm as well ,even with chat bots. I'm happy to work with different companies in terms of like my eCourse, my videos, my groups, that's really stuff I built for the small business person, who can't afford.... because I understand you can't, yes not everyone can afford $2,000 a month for social media services ,or $500 to get their chat bot started. So I offer these other services as kind of a one-to-many and those... those can be for anybody who wants to learn about chat bots about social media and just wants a little bit of extra support. So it's kind of two-tiered in that way.
Stephanie: That's good ,and that's smart! That's the way it should be! I feel like you got a diversify and bring the people back to you. So that's awesome ,and that's P.S... by the way... that's gonna be like the bed clip for LinkedIn. I'm like "Hey! Here's my girl Kelly clip!"... !ell Jim fees just joined us and he said, "Kelly rocks!" so you've got a ton of fans.
Kelly: I love my people! Well! Good! Good! So if you guys are just tuning in, Kelly just dropped a lot of knowledge bombs when it came to messenger bots. This is why I definitely wanted to name the show "Messenger Bot Mastery" because Amanda has said so many wonderful things about you. Jen Herman's said many wonderful things about you ,and I was like, "I already use bots for one thing ,and I know that she's just gonna tell me so much more which was like trivias and girl..!
Kelly: Yeah ,but the cool thing is you only need to use it for one thing. I mean chat bots are only limited by your imagination ,but that doesn't mean you have to make them do everything for you. So if doing it just for your facebook lives is what's killing it... it's helping you... it's helping your audience. Then just do that. Just focus on what you need. It doesn't have to do it all.. you know. It's not like the magic pill.. well I think -- this is a mistake-- a lot of people are out there thinking like chatbots are gonna change the world and they're gonna solve all of your problems. There is never going to be a magic pill to solve your business problems. There's never going to be one platform you have... just so I keep bringing up diversification. I do that in my marketing as well it is about cohesively having a strategy that works. So Facebook live chat bots, email marketing, Instagram, Facebook. You need to figure out what works to your end goal. Otherwise, you're throwing spaghetti on the wall ,and hoping something sticks. And let me tell you, that does not work.
Stephanie: Yeah, especially if you want to be in business for a very long time ,and coming from someone like Kelly-- who's been in business for more than a decade. She knows her stuff ,so you might want to go and write that down. All right you guys Kelly you've been absolutely amazing! Thank you so much! I know a lot of people are gonna be interested in you ,and so... if you could help me out and drop all the links to all the amazing facebook groups ,that whichever YouTube video you think they should start with first.. I know I'm jumping in into the trivia stuff.. that would be awesome Then yeah invites into the "Baby Got Bot"
Kelly: Yeah! "Baby Got Bot", but there's a whole fun story about that.. that whole thing.
Stephanie: Alright, well thank you so much Kelly! You've been absolutely amazing! To everyone else that tuned in, thank you so much! We'll catch you next time on the next episode of Lights Camera Live! Bye! Thank you, bye everyone! [Music]
Have you noticed that quite a number of badass heroes are accompanied by loyal robots?
What if you, too, could have your own robotic sidekick to join you in your entrepreneurial endeavors?
If you’ve been thinking about messenger bots and how you can step up your game then you’re going to love this episode!
Messenger Bot Maverick, Kelly Noble Mirabella from Stellar Media Marketing, joins Lights, Camera, Live to share her tips on how you can master Facebook Messenger Marketing.
IN THIS EPISODE, YOU’LL LEARN:
📷 The Future of Chatbots
📷 Best and Worst Practices for Messenger Bot Marketing
📷 Tips for Building Your Own Bot or Hiring a Pro
ABOUT KELLY NOBLE MIRABELLA
Dynamic. Engaging. Totally rad. These are a few words you might use to describe your latest Facebook video … but they also apply to Kelly Noble Mirabella, self-described social media geek and marketing consultant with Stellar Media Marketing.
With more than 11 years of social media marketing experience—and more than a few wacky costumes—Kelly brings tricky social media concepts to life through her fun, clear and memorable social media training videos and classes. Long before social media savvy was status quo, Kelly recognized how social media can take brand recognition, customer engagement, and marketing efforts to a radical new level. What’s more, Kelly has spent the past two years learning to build Facebook messenger bots (aka “chatbots”), and now teaches others how to build them with simple, entertaining and, sometimes, 80s-themed tutorials. Today, she teaches entrepreneurs, small business owners, and working professionals how to use social media to improve their businesses and achieve their goals.
Kelly is known for her enthusiasm, creativity, and passion for demystifying social media—not to mention her playful costumes and thematic presentations. Whether trying out Facebook Live or building your own chatbot, you can count on Kelly to guide you with skill and flair for totally stellar results. www.youtube.com/stellar247
Below are key takeaways from Kelly’s interview on Lights, Camera, Live.
“Entrepreneurs just starting out with chatbots will get their Facebook Pages shut down if they don’t follow this rule!”
What is the “24+1” policy?
“That basically means that when someone subscribes to your chat bot, you have 24 hours from the moment that they engage with your chat bot to send a promotional message,” she explained. “After the 24 hours is up, the “+1” kicks in and then you have one message you can send to that person until they engage again.”
Entrepreneurs that are just starting out with messenger bot marketing make the mistake of skirting this rule and have their Pages shut down!
To avoid getting banned by Facebook, Kelly recommends keeping your subscribers engaged so that you don’t have to worry about the “24+1” policy.
To learn more about the policy, visit https://developers.facebook.com/docs/messenger-platform/policy/policy-overview/.
What have you done to pique a user’s interest and motivated to subscribe to your chat bot?
TIP #1. create a game
Kelly shared a case study of how she launched an entire series of games via chat bots and gathered an extra hundred subscribers.
“We created a leaderboard to get people involved and engaging with our Page,” she explained. “They get extra points and it's all done via chat bot.”
TIP #2. engage fans with a quiz or trivia game
She went on to explain that most B2C Pages like restaurants, bars, and coffee shops would do well with a chat bot quiz. In fact, you can learn how to build your own chat bot quiz in the video below:
TIP #3. Encourage facebook live viewers to subscribe
Connect your Facebook Live with ManyChat’s Comment Trigger feature to get viewers to subscribe.
Kelly shared that when she goes live from her Stella Media Marketing page, she’ll ask viewers what is their favorite way to grow their chat bot then offer them a special chat bot guide after they answer. As soon as a viewer leaves the comment “chatbot”, it would trigger her chat bot and the lead magnet would get delivered instantly.
“Facebook Live and the Comment Growth Tool is probably one of the most powerful ways to use a chat bot—not only for the growth of your of your chat bot list, but also for conversions.”
Do you think other social media platforms will follow Facebook’s footsteps and follow suit with their own Messenger Bots?
“Facebook has already hinted at the fact that they're going to bring Messenger Bots to WhatsApp,” Kelly explained. Facebook owns WhatsApp so it’s likely that consumers will be able to communicate with brands and services via chat bots and there’s a possibility that the feature will come to Instagram in the near future now that they’re allowing Business Profiles to add Action Buttons from third-party apps.
For example, in addition to the existing Call, Text, Directions, and Email buttons, you can choose from four new action buttons:
Book
Buy Tickets
Start Order
Reserve
“Although those buttons aren't chat bots, it's a sign that Facebook is opening the platform to other options,” Kelly added.
With chat bots driving higher open rates and conversions compared to email, should entrepreneurs ditch email?
“Right now the chat bot is the most powerful way of getting people to convert and show up [to webinars and live streams] but that being said, the email address is so important because you own that,” she explained.
Kelly went on to add that using chat bots is similar to renting property instead of owning your own land.
“I like a nice diverse portfolio so I'm all about both. I'm hosting a webinar, I will ask for both. If I'm doing a lead magnet, I'll ask for both. BUT if it's just a Facebook live, then I'll only ask for the messenger because I'm in the environment of Facebook and that's naturally where people are going to be.”
What else do we need to know about chat bots in order to be compliant?
I asked Kelly what entrepreneurs need to be aware of when building their bots and she quickly replied, “People need to be aware that they are speaking to a nonhuman.”
In September 2018, California governor Jerry Brown signed regulations into law to make it easier for Californians to know whether they’re speaking to a human or a bot.
The new law goes into effect on July 1, 2019 and will require companies to disclose whether they are using a bot to communicate with the public on the internet.
The is designed to target deceptive commercial and political bots, not those that are meant to assist consumers (e.g., paying a bill).
“If you can walk away with people knowing they’re talking to a chatbot but experiencing a happy feeling because it feels like you’re really there, then that’s a good thing. ”
Any last words of advice for someone thinking about building a chat bot?
“Before you jump in, think about what value you can bring with your chat bot,” she answered. “Don’t make it this huge thing - you don’t need to solve the world’s problems. You don’t have to answer every FAQ. I find sometimes the easiest chat bot just a Welcome Message to let people know that you’ll get back to them.”
Want more tips on how to create your own chat bot?
Check out Kelly’s YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/stellar247
RESOURCES:
▸ Stephanie's Live Streaming Gear: https://bit.ly/2J523hL
▸ Join the Social Media Strategist Group: https://facebook.com/groups/smstrategist
UPCOMING EVENTS:
▸ Social Media Marketing World 2019: https://bit.ly/2MRY8Ko
MUSIC:
▸ No Worries featuring Dyalla by Joakim Karud
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