Up until a few months ago, I worked at a BMW Dealership in sunny Downey, CA (for those of you who don’t know: home of The Carpenters . . . yes, those Carpenters). Working at a dealership, you get to meet a lot of characters from around all ethnic and national backgrounds. One day when following up on a sale, one of my former coworkers, who happens to be Chinese, mentioned that he would reach out to the client via What’sApp. My first reaction was: What’s that? He explained the platform to me, but I waived it off as yet another social media platform to keep up with. Fast-forward to about two weeks ago, I’m now working at a Hispanic marketing agency and overhear one of my current coworkers, who happens to be Columbian, talking about reaching out to a demonstrator via What’sApp. Again, I wonder: What’s that?
It turns out everyone and their mom outside of the U.S. uses this platform to communicate . . . which means you probably should too.
I know, you’re still wondering: What’sApp . . . What’s that?! For those whose first introduction to this platform is this post, What’sApp is a mobile instant messaging app that uses your phone’s internet or wi-fi to send messages without using your cellular data. Founded in 2009 by two former Yahoo! employees that were rejected from Facebook and a Russian coder from RentACoder.com, the communication app has since been sold to Facebook (ironic) and has 1.2 billion active users (Rousseau, 2018). As a marketer in the making, you bet that number caught my attention.
What’sApp allows you to have all of the conveniences of your favorite social media platform sites all in one place. Users can instant message, make calls, send photos, share videos, send files and share voice messages to individuals or groups. It also has the capability of a “Snapchat story-like feature, which allows users to update their “status” using pictures, GIFs and videos” (Pirani, 2017). All of this made possible with the use of end-to-end encryption which allows only the sender and recipient to view messages or files sent, similar to Apple’s iMessage. So how does that benefit a marketer trying to connect with consumers?
Well, What’sApp recently launched a separate application titled What’sApp Business. This app allows users to “create a business profile and add details like the company’s website, location and contact information” (Sulleyman, 2018). It’s designed with small business owners in mind as the app allows businesses to manage their orders, directly message customers with updates, and answer any questions their customer or clients may have.
While it’s currently aimed at small businesses, the possibilities for larger companies and corporations are endless. This type of platform could revolutionize B2C and even B2B communication and services as it would allow for personification of all of your favorite brands. In other words, the brand itself would be able to connect with its customers the way friends and family would: through independent and quick private messaging. This may eventually eliminate the need for that annoying pop-up chat box feature on a company’s website that may or may not directly connect you to a real person at the company (that was for you DSW). Although that seems like a dream when trying to get quick store or product information, I can’t help but wonder: is the personification of a business, especially through an encrypted messaging service, more of a liability than an asset? Time will tell as the What’sApp Business is only currently available for Android users.
References:
Sulleyman, A. (2018, January 19). WhatsApp Business: New messenger app launches, letting companies chat to you. Independent. Retrieved from https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/gadgets-and-tech/news/whatsapp-business-app-download-android-google-play-iphone-features-a8167631.html
Pirani, F. (2017, March 27). What is WhatsApp? 5 things to know about the popular messaging app. Boston 25 News. Retrieved from https://www.boston25news.com/news/what-is-whatsapp-5-things-to-know-about-the-popular-messaging-app/506494102
Rousseau, C.L. (2018, June 13). WhatsApp: Everything you need to know! iMore. Retrieved from https://www.imore.com/whatsapp
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