Messaging through social media is no longer used for interacting with friends and families, as the known messaging feature of Facebook and Instagram is now being utilized by most business owners to grow their enterprises in the Philippines, according to Meta.
This was proven by Peterson Polillo, owner of Zu Boh Ti milk tea, which boomed during the onset of the Covid 19 pandemic, utilizing social media such as Facebook and Messenger in getting orders from their clients.
“Facebook Messenger has been integral to our business because almost all Filipinos nowadays have Facebook accounts. It’s accessible to all, especially since about 70 to 80 percent of our clients are using Messenger to order their milk tea via delivery,” Polillo said in an interview.
His enterprise, which started as a small kiosk in his rented house, has now grown with 15 branches in Metro Manila and neighboring provinces.
Post booster
“The ‘send message’ button feature is very useful because we can boost any post with this. It’s faster to get engagement, especially for franchise inquiries. Almost every day, we are entertaining franchise inquiries. Our newest branch has recently opened at Robinsons Mall in Gapan, Nueva Ecija, and we got the franchise through Facebook Messenger inquiry,” Polillo stated.
In a virtual forum on Tuesday, consulting firm BCG Manila’s managing director and senior partner Anthony Oundijian, said the growth of business messaging has accelerated during post-pandemic, as the study of Meta and BCG, dubbed “Business Messaging: The Quiet Channel Revolution Across Tech,” found that 71 percent of Filipinos surveyed adopted business messaging and 97 percent of Philippine businesses recognize that messaging apps are important for success
According to the study, over 40 percent of Filipinos surveyed said they were messaging with a business more frequently than compared in the pre-pandemic period, with three in five Filipino consumers chatting with businesses at least once every two to three weeks.
The trend was similar across all age groups, especially among Millennials and Gen Zs who are messaging businesses up to eight times every month.