ReEngage: [review]
POS:
People will get notifications to your postNEG:
Do you really need it?Today Im doing a review of a new Facebook marketing software called ReEngage So what exactly is ReEngage. Well its basically a response robot. What I mean by that is that it posts automated responses to your posts your fan page. Why would you want to do this? Well you have to understand that when […]
Today Im doing a review of a new Facebook marketing software called ReEngage
So what exactly is ReEngage. Well its basically a response robot. What I mean by that is that it posts automated responses to your posts your fan page. Why would you want to do this? Well you have to understand that when people comment on your post, they automatically start following that post (unless they opt out). What this means is that when someone else comments after them they will get a Facebook notification that there was a new comment. The point of ReEngage and other bots like it is that you can automatically have post responses, which will sent people who have commented notifications and some of them might click the notification, return to your post / fan page and RE-Engage with your post or fan page. This in essence becomes a kind of retargeting where you get a second change for people to interact your post (and possible buy if it is a promotional post). Sounds great right? Well Im not so sure. But more on that later, first I want to talk about the software itself.
When you first log into the software you are instructed that you need to set up a Facebook app. The instructions are clear and easy to follow so even someone who has not done this before should have little trouble with it. Once I set this up I was able to begin using the software. However I did find a couple of strange little bugs. Nothing major but silly things that I was surprised made it through testing.
For example: When watching the tutorials they show up in a light box pop up.
This seems to work fine, however when you close the pop up by clicking the X button in the upper right, the video keeps playing, so you can still here its audio even though the lightbox has been closed. The ideal thing is for the video to either stop or be deleted when the lightbox is closed so it does not keep playing. This is a silly GUI mistake that I was surprised to see they missed in any kind of testing.
Another is the support desk. Click on it and the support desk opens in a new window via a secure (https://) URL. However the domain they have their support desk on does not seem to have a valid SSL certificate on it so you get the following warning.
Again, another silly error that should never made it past any kind of testing phase. These are just two of them. There are several others that I noticed, such as buttons that do not work correctly and a ‘flow’ that allows you to proceed without even taking the crucial first step of creating your app first. While the interface is clean and well made over all, there where some things that while not big issues did make me wonder how well this was tested prior to release.
But what about the concept itself? The concept of posting responses to comments in order to increase engagement and get notifications to people who have commented previously is not a new idea. Its something that people have been doing effectively for a long time and I will admit I was initially quite excited when I heard there was a product coming out to automate this. However when I began to think about it more I started to realize that this might not be the best thing to automate.
First of all since your comment is premade you are not really taking part of the conversation or interacting with the people who have commented. In fact your premade comment might have no relevance at all as to what people are saying. Also they took the time to personally respond to your post and now your not going to even respect them enough to personally respond back? That does not sound like a good way to build up trust and relationship with your fan base.
Second it only takes a few seconds to make a comment back, so why not do it yourself, you still have to type in the post in the robot that you want auto commented so there is really not much of a time savings that I can see. It seems to me that typing into the robot offers disadvantages in that your not really interacting with your fans or readers and only a little bit of time savings advantage (if any).
Finally this is only going to make sense if you have a lot of people commenting in the first place. If you have a new fan page or a fan page that only gets a few people commenting on your posts this is not really going to help you very much.
So while I have to say initially I thought I was going to like this, after thinking about it Im not so sure its a good idea. The software itself is not horrible, though it could use some tweeking and testing, but I just dont see how using a robot to comment premade posts back makes sense. It only takes a few seconds to write your own comment and Facebook is about being social and interacting with people. Auto posting is the exact opposite of this. I personally would say people can live without this one.
Do you have a different opinion on the idea of a auto poster to Facebook comments? I would be more than glad to hear it. Let me know in the comments below.A quick note about the reviews I do on this site. The product vendors give me access to their products for free in order for me to do my review. However I make no promises to them regarding the results of my tests or what I will write in my review. Should you click a link that takes you to a sales page for a paid product for sale this link will be an affiliate link and I will be paid a percentage of the sales price should you decide to invest in it.
About the Author
Your last paragraph states exactly the reason why I’ve already passed on this.
Canned responses are easy to spot and, as FB is all about interaction with one’s fans, run the real possibility of losing their trust.
I thought the same thing…do I really need this???
Brett,
I do agree the majority of folks who have fan pages will not have the numbers of comments that they could not answer them individually, but there are circumstances where fan pages can grow to the size it becomes almost impossible to answer every post individually. In that circumstance, ReEngage could help, an automatic answer is better than no answer at all. The real question folks need to ask themselves, will they have a fan page that will grow to the point they could benefit from using ReEngage. I have purchased software to get in on a beta, or initial offering, to get the pricing because I felt I would eventually need it, and saving money is a good thing. I have purchased your software before to get in on the initial pricing and not having an immediate need, but knowing I would in the future.
Like most purchases, this is a judgment call if it will help or not. Given all the little nagging things that need to be cleaned up, the core of the program does work well and can help if used in the the right circumstances.
Good feedback! Thanks for taking the time to comment.
I passed on this one for the same reasons described by Brett. But I also took the time to visit the fanpages that the author shows in his demo video, and there are almost no comments on any of the posts. There was only 1 post in which the robot responded to 1 comment and you could easily tell that it was a canned response.
Besides, the author does not mention in the video that in order to “crush it” with a fan page you need to invest a lot in Facebook ads, and he leaves you with the impression that just by using the robot your fanbase will grow automatically.
thanks for the review Brett.
Great review Brett. I watched the “debut” of this on another interview and the title made me sick.
It was “329,000 in Automated profits” Never knew FB replies were instant money makers ONLY if you had this software. I passed right away.
There was actually a WordPress plug in that was more effective. It let the person know immediately that you like theor comment. You could switch it on and off to get their attention
Thanks for the review Brett. My own view is that the concept of engagement tools always intrigue me from the standpoint that it has been my experience online with FB that responses to posts in general from the page owner/manager tends to promote a healthier/supportive virtual space which in turn leads to trust. I don’t care too much for the automation aspect, but I can think of several instances in Facebook where I commented and it would have been nice to have even receive some acknowledgement even if automated.
So re-engage seems like an okay product to buy if you manage lot’s of pages with high engagement and no comment management tool, but for me I get far more use out of comment maximiser {links removed} an adobe air desktop product. I would also encourage you if interested to buy it from Brett’s link because when i checked the domain link {link removed} the pricing was exhorbitant.
Hi Brett
Some of the “bugs” may have been ironed out by now but
the “basic concept” is a “Big Consideration”
Automating things like setup or installation processes is fine but
who wants to “interact” with a “bot”
(Rhetorical question; No answers on a post card please) 😉
All the best
Ian McLaren
My reason for rejecting this is more based on their marketing representations. I purchased their 1.0 version and they stated “lifetime” updates and to get in now before they go on monthly subscription. Well, in 2 months, they’ve released a new version with no offer to original purchasers for a free upgrade or even a discount to the 2.0 version. I just don’t like misleading marketing rather than upfront telling us that they plan on releasing a newer version but that you’ll get a discount…but 2 months from release of the first version at $97 (it had a lot of bugs which they obviously learned from and released the better version in 2 months….really pisses me off….stay away from this seller’s products.
you have saved me so much time and money over the time i have been following your reviews
thanks!
You hit the nail on the head w/your review Brett!
First off, if you have a small fan-page, then you really should be replying to any/all comments yourself!
On the other hand, if you’re a successful marketer and have multiple fan-pages, with a few making you some good money, then you’ll be better served by hiring someone cheap to reply to any/all comments with a more personal response!
I commend you for your honesty on this review….as you’re the 1st marketer I’ve seen/heard/read about who has thumbed down/rejected the need for said software!
Appreciate your honesty….! 😉
Dawson
Hey man,
Thanks for this review. You answered the one MAIN question that I had and the one I believe just about everyone should have before purchasing something like this. Actually, it is more of a roadblock that came to mind, as opposed to an actual question. The biggest hole that seemed to be evident from this software when I look at it is that you already need to have a pretty heavily engaged fan page for one of your sites, not to mention a lot of people following it in general.
It is not easy building up these kind of fan pages and they kind of just brush over that fact as if it is easy or obvious that everyone will have a fan page for their site with thousands of users. If you don’t, it seems to be virtually useless and it doesn’t seem to offer any advice on how to start building up those fan pages first.
I appreciate you clarifying what I believed would be the biggest hurdle right out of the box and that isn’t even mentioning the potential issues with spun and spammed comments all over FB, which seems like a very easy and quick way to lose that fan page with thousands of followers that probably wasn’t easy to build in the first place.
I purchased ReEngage prior to Brett’s review, but I’m actually glad I did in this case. What I have found very useful with ReEngage is running a contest where users are required to comment to be eligible. After receiving a significant amount of comments, I use ReEngage to reply, thanking them for participating and usually recommend they go to a website, download an app, etc. I have actually received good response rates from users replying to my auto comment. I then take the time to personally respond to those replies, which has significantly increased my engagement. I am in no means trying to recommend ReEngage, as it isn’t for every user, just wanted to share my experiences. Brett as usual does an excellent job in explaining what the software does.
That sounds like a good use provided you have people on your page in the first place.
Hey Brett, thanks for the review. I was going to buy the updated version of this software to help with keeping up with all the client pages I manage, but you are right when saying an automated reply is crap. Thanks man for this review!