Facebook Messaging – what it means for marketers - Exciting News on Connections User Conference

Since Facebook’s announcement of their new messaging platform, I’ve heard from marketers around the world looking for insight on what this means and how will it affect email and other interactive channels. With reports of this being a “Gmail killer” and the idea that the more than 550 million consumers on Facebook may soon have a new email address, let me provide some thoughts on this move:

It puts consumers first – Facebook messaging gives consumers greater control of their digital lives. With the ability to deliver text messages, emails, Facebook posts and IM into a single inbox, consumers can quickly see what’s important and what’s not. Marketers who can effectively build a relationship with their customers by delivering content that consumers want will make it to the inbox and face less competition because “one size fits all” marketing won’t make it through.

It helps consumers manage online conversations – Facebook messaging allows consumers to see all messages regardless of channel in one place. This not only makes “connected” life easier for consumers, it offers a great opportunity for marketers as well. Marketers who can communicate across all channels in a consistent single voice and understand what interactions are happening in real time have a never-before-seen opportunity to realize the potential of real one-to-one marketing.

It puts the consumer in control of marketing – Facebook messaging and recent innovations like Gmail’s Priority Inbox and Yahoo’s beta email are all designed to help consumers be more efficient online. The fundamental component in each of these innovations is the bar has been raised on what is delivered to the inbox.

The innovations by Facebook, Yahoo and Gmail are welcomed news and reflect the new reality for marketers today – consumers communications online are fragmented, evolve in real time and demand a new level of commitment from marketers to understanding the unique needs of each customer. Tosucceed, marketers must create a single point of understanding of their customers – what they buy, how they interact, what they have said and how they want to hear from you – and then give them control of how, when and in what channel they interact. Sometimes an email will be best, other times atext is most efficient and there are times when Facebook and Twitter updates will be the best way to communicate.

For addition thoughts please check out Data is the New Creative of the Real-Time Web that features insight on this new reality of data-driven marketing from our team of experts and industry analysts. It brings perspective and provides insight for marketers shaping their plans for 2011.

One thing is certain – new innovations will continue to accelerate and redefine the space as we know it today. It’s never been more important for marketers to have a partner like ExactTarget to help make the most of these new opportunities through new technologies, a robust ecosystem of partners and the industry’s largest team of experts dedicated to ensuring messages are delivered to the inbox – on time, every time.