Link Anyone to your Facebook Messenger Bot with M.me Links

by Kellan Alexander
Just over a year ago, we announced TextIt's Facebook Messenger channel. Facebook Messenger wasn't the first non-SMS channel we added to TextIt, but it quickly became the most popular. Millions of people around the world prefer Facebook Messenger to SMS. Moreover, messages aren't limited to 160 characters and your contacts "numbers" aren't likely to change. This article introduces a new feature, triggers for M.me referral links, that makes it easy to share your Facebook Messenger bot with others and craft their experience once they're on Messenger. Note sure where to begin with Facebook Messenger? Let us know, we're happy to help! 


M.me links are a convenient way to share your Facebook Messenger bot, and they're simple to use: Facebook gives each page a link in the format https://m.me/PAGE_NAME, e.g. https://m.me/textitin. When a user clicks your link, they'll get taken to Messenger where they'll either start a new conversation with your bot via the 'Get Started' button or continue a conversation they started previously.



This is great, but what if you want to assign flows to the links you send out? Doing so is as simple as defining a reference parameter and appending it to your link in the format https://m.me/mybot?ref=myparam, e.g. https://m.me/textitin?ref=join. Next, go to the triggers page in your TextIt account, select the 'Start a flow when Facebook refers a contact' trigger, and enter your reference parameter ('join' in our case) in the 'Referrer Id' input. 



Considerations

  • If you have configured a conversation trigger for your page (triggered when a user first interacts with your bot and taps the 'Get Started' button), the M.me referral trigger will take precendence when the user taps the 'Get Started' button. 
  • If a user already has an open conversation with your bot in Messenger, they are not shown the 'Get Started' button when they tap your M.me link. Instead, the person will be sent directly to the conversation and, if you have an M.me referral trigger configured, start the flow of your choice. 
  • You can change your M.me link on your page's 'About' section (admins only). 

Questions? Comments? Let us know! We value your feedback.