Facebook recently announced that it is doing something "awesome" and that it will announce what it is on July 6h. However, rumors have already begun to float around as to what this awesome invention is. Many speculate that Facebook is planning to include Video chat through their social network. The plan to do this is through a partnership with Skype. According to TechCrunch,
The product has been built on Skype and will include a desktop component. It’s not clear to me whether that means it will just work if a user has Skype already installed
on the computer, or if additional software will need to be downloaded even if user already uses Skype. But it’s clear that there’s very deep integration between the, products and from the user’s perspective, the product will be an in browser experience.
This to me seems like it has huge marketing potential. I feel that it could potentially change the way marketers have been interacting with consumers. Customer service representatiives can now have face to face converations with consumers. By giving the customer a human experience, they are more likely to appreciate the brand and not feel like they are speaking to a nameless telephone operator.Online sales might pick up through a face to face sales pitch. It will be interesting to see what is their actual game plan on July 6th but if the rumors are true, I think Facebook might have a winner on their hands.
What might be really incredible is if the Skype (video and phone service) were combined with the features of Facebook, enabling a massive conversation with all your friends, or portions of them, at once!
ReplyDeleteWhen I first joined Facebook, people were saying "it's like a big party." Real time video in a group would only enhance the powerful functions Facebook already has.
I was a little disappointed to hear the big announcement didn't have to do with music, because I think it's the most "awesome" something there is online.