@BasilPuglisi

Content & Strategy, Powered by Factics & AI, Since 2009

apps

Marketing in the Messaging Era: How Private Platforms Are Shaping Public Strategy

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From Broadcast to Backchannel

Public posts on Twitter and Facebook may still dominate headlines, but savvy marketers are watching a different trend emerge—one that values intimacy over impressions. Messaging apps like WhatsApp, Facebook Messenger, and Snapchat are becoming the go-to channels for real connection. With billions of messages exchanged daily, these platforms are no longer just for personal chats—they’re becoming essential tools for customer support, brand storytelling, and private content distribution.

As businesses adapt, it’s clear that success requires more than just presence—it demands *Factics*. That means delivering content built on factual value and pairing it with actionable tactics. Brands that understand how to educate, not just promote, are the ones building real loyalty in these new, conversational channels.

WhatsApp and Messenger: Quiet Giants

Facebook’s acquisition of WhatsApp is now fully in focus. The messaging app boasts over 600 million active users worldwide and is rapidly becoming a preferred method of direct engagement, especially in global and multicultural markets. Meanwhile, Facebook Messenger, with more than 500 million users, is being positioned as a lightweight CRM system for small businesses—offering personalized support and instant responses.

For marketers, this shift offers an opportunity to transition from shouty promotions to helpful, educational exchanges. Answering a product question over Messenger or sharing a how-to PDF via WhatsApp isn’t just customer service—it’s strategic communication.

Snapchat, WeChat, and the Rise of Ephemeral Strategy

Snapchat continues to evolve with new features like Snap Ads and Stories. It’s teaching marketers to embrace brevity, impermanence, and creativity. The Story format, now embraced by Instagram too, encourages brands to create serial content and show behind-the-scenes moments in real time.

Meanwhile, WeChat’s integration of payments, content, and messaging serves as a model for what Western platforms might soon become. It’s no longer just about where people talk, but how they act on what’s said.

Trust Is the New Currency

At Digital Ethos, we’ve always believed in being *Teachers NOT Speakers*. The brands that offer real value—like tutorials, ebooks, or strategy tips—through private channels, are the ones earning trust and building long-term relationships. For example, offering a free download via Messenger on “How to Boost Local Engagement with Micro-Content” isn’t just helpful—it’s a signal. It tells your audience you respect their time and want to empower them, not just sell to them.

As messaging becomes central to the user experience, your content strategy must pivot accordingly. That means shorter formats, one-to-one value delivery, and always anchoring communication in useful, fact-based insights. That’s how Factics comes to life—education meets execution.

References

Facebook Newsroom. (2014). Facebook to Acquire WhatsApp. https://about.fb.com/news/2014/02/facebook-to-acquire-whatsapp/
TechCrunch. (2014). Facebook Messenger Passes 500 Million Users. https://techcrunch.com/2014/11/10/facebook-messenger-500-million/
AdWeek. (2014). Snapchat Snap Ads Begin Testing with Brands. https://www.adweek.com/performance-marketing/snapchat-launches-snap-ads-160926/
Business Insider. (2014). How WeChat Is Dominating China. https://www.businessinsider.com/how-wechat-is-dominating-china-2014-10

Why Apps are So Useful for Business

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Business owners rely on every resource they can get to help manage and monitor the endless aspects of their work.  From good employees to effective office supplies and efficient infrastructure, the success or failure of a business depends upon many factors, all of which need to work together harmoniously.  This is why apps are such powerful instruments for business.  They connect, streamline, and organize.  Good apps make all the pieces of a business fit together better.
Office Documents
Probably the most straightforward way in which apps benefit business is by making office files easier to share, more accessible, and interactive like never before.  Tablet and smartphone apps facilitate a level of physical interaction with digital files that was impossible just a few years ago.  And now we can work from home with much greater ease and flexibility.  No more forgetting important files at home or work.  Apps put the office in our pocket––everything is now instantly accessible and easily shared.
Data Crunching
There are many excellent apps that facilitate record keeping, data logging, survey taking, and time tracking.  Instead of wading through dense data lists and relying on clipboards while out of the office, apps now allow us to instantly record, organize, share, and visualize data.
Forecasts and Analytics
For evaluating everything from market trends to internal financial activity, there are countless brilliant apps available today for visualizing the information businesses depend on.  Charts and graphs have never looked so good, nor have they ever been so accessible and transferable.
Creativity and Innovation
Apps have digitized the traditional sketchbooks and notepads we use to plan, create, and innovate.  Now we have greater flexibility and adaptability in the way we mockup important ideas and experiment with business possibilities.
Bridging the Gap
Arguably the most significant improvement apps enable is the ability to link employees to the office even when they are out of it.  We can hold online meetings, assign tasks, monitor activity, share files, and be more mobile in our work than ever before.  Distance is no longer an obstacle.
As important as apps are, they are also inseparable from their platforms.  Mobile technology is ultimately the real champion of these modern business solutions.  It allows us to stay connected like never before with both the information and the personnel that make business possible.  At the same time, tablets and smartphones are making us more efficient and environmentally sustainable by eliminating the clutter and waste of physical files.
About the author: Kirsten works for WhoIsHostingThis.com working to help small and large businesses get online by providing customers with a place to read hosting company ratings and reviews. This allows businesses to choose suitable hosting for their business they they can guarantee their business is in safe hands. Follow them on Twitter.

What Mobile Apps Can Do for Small Business

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Mobile Applications have rushed to the forefront of technology and further advancements with the increased usage of net enhanced mobile devices like the iPhone. Breaking beyond the traditional uses for phone and text messaging capabilities, mobile apps have been brought from playroom to boardroom.

Mobile App Statistics

Did you know that 38% of small businesses reporting view mobile apps as an essential aspect of their operations? A recent survey conducted by AT&T defined a few of the most recent statistics on mobile apps and small business. Around 72%, defined by companies that have anywhere from two to fifty employees, have reported that they use some form of mobile applications for their daily operations.

This poll of 2,246 small business owners is likely a great example of the average mobile app demographics for small business owners in the USA.

Most Popular Small Business Apps

The study showed that mapping and GPS tools topped the list of the most popular services utilized by the reporting small businesses at 49%. Other important statistics show:

  • One in four small businesses use social media marketing or document management apps
  • 24% use location-based services
  • 23% use time management apps
  • 22% use travel and expense tracking applications
  • 20% use mobile credit card payment services

When queried as to the chief factor making mobile apps desirable to companies was their time-saving benefits. Even more beneficial was the discovery that the smaller a business, the more likely it is to seek out methods for time saving with mobile and therefore far more convenient applications.

With business apps continually improving, this seems to be in turn, fueling the increase of usage of mobile devices, and therefore mobile applications, by small business owners.

Case Study

Mobile App Photo Sharing with Zurfer

A case study conducted by Mor Naaman, Rahul Nair and Vlad Kaplun of Berkley California, using a high end mobile phone application for photo browsing may give more in-depth clues to how quickly mobile applications are becoming more of a requirement than an option for business owners.

With Zurfer sent to over 500 possible users, only nine of those users participated in the extensive user research. Some of the first statistics noted were those that showed how many users preferred entertainment driven mobile applications as opposed to utilities and working tools.

Nielsen Study

With a recent Nielsen Study reflecting that SmartPhones now cover up to 28% of the U.S. cell phone market, increased usage of mobile applications are an understandable side effect. With studies further showing that the greater part of SmartPhone owners are under thirty-five as well as finding a larger diversity among Hispanic users than may have been expected, this also most certainly opens up some new possibilities for those small businesses that are in tune with mobile application development as well as usage.

Who Are the Main Users?

Perhaps most unsurprisingly, the mobile user market tends to be dominated by younger males with relatively elevated educations and more affluent connections in comparison to the rest of the population. Although studies showed that some users have a disproportionate amount of apps on their phone, the average number claimed a median of ten.

Although apps are not quite as popular yet as photo taking at 76% and text messaging at 71%, the stats provided are still considerable since Apple’s app store didn’t even open until July of 2008.

Overall, considering that there was no app culture whatsoever until around three years ago, most all of these statistics can be most assuredly proof of impressive tech-adoption methods of mobile device users.

The Real Results?

In the end, the case study on Zurfer may have actually proven to supply more much realistic results, as with the reports flooding into Nielsen continuing to show that Game apps are indeed the most highly sought, bought and utilized mobile applications at an average of 60% of monthly downloads, followed by news and weather apps holding around 52% of monthly downloads, social media applications are still listed at number four with a somewhat surprising 47% of downloads monthly.

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Location Trends: Checkpoints

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“When was the last time you got a reward for just showing up? When did you get a prize for something you do every day? Now you can, with Checkpoints” is the catch-phrase of a new mobile app called Checkpoints.

Founded by brothers/ entrepreneurs Mark and Todd DiPaola, who put $1 million of their own money into forming a company in April 2010, the new product was launched about 3 months ago.

What Checkpoints offers is product integration, a way to introduce new clients to products in a fun and interactive way.

An example will illustrate it the best: You are about to go shopping for groceries. Opening the app on your cellular phone will show you which markets in your area are participating in the program. By going in and checking in there –pointing your cell phone camera at a bar code and taking a picture – you get some points.

The app will also show you which products in the store they are recommending. By picking a product up and scanning it (again with the camera) you will also get points. You can do the same with any other establishment, and Checkpoints is a universal currency, meaning it is not tied to a brand or to a currency. The points you accumulate can be redeemed for products; from gift cards to new electronic gadgets and airline miles.

For shoppers this app, available for all camera-equipped cell phones, is a fun way to interact with new products and get something in return.

For manufacturers and advertisers, which have been tied to a specific location in their advertisements, Checkpoints offers the ability to expend to the product level and drive customers to pick it up and really look at it, in an interactively engaging way.

Several brands have joined the program immediately; Belkin, Energizer, Seventh Generation, Tyson foods, 24/7 fitness center, and more. Just recently, Lionsgate, the movie production and distribution company has added Checkpoints to all their DVDs and Blu-rays. Customers are able to watch trailers and receive checkpoints for interaction with new movies. They will also have access to movie reviews and exclusive offers. “We know this technology increases the likelihood of purchase and we’re also excited by the sheer power of the experience and the brand engagement it creates” says Anne Parducci, Lionsgate Executive Vice President of Marketing and Family Entertainment.

Checkpoints hit the million check-ins and 600,000 bar code scans in January 2011, about 2 and half months after its launch. The brothers are now contemplating whether to continue in their boot-strapping operation with 13 employees or start a round of financing.

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LXwHkpGlQ00]

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