San Francisco, Nov 21 (IANS): Inspired by small businesses who are using Facebook Messenger to connect with their communities and customers, the social media giant has announced the launch of the first-ever "bot makeover contest".

In partnership with the bot development platform ManyChat, the contest will have three winners who will receive $5,000 each in ad credits.

They will also get a makeover to their Messenger experience courtesy ManyChat, along with consultation from Messenger experts, Facebook said in a blog post late on Monday.

"For small business owners looking to get started on Messenger on Tuesday, we will be partnering with small business expert Gene Marks for a Facebook Live panel about Messenger best practices," the company said.

According to a recent Facebook-commissioned study by Nielsen, 63 per cent of the people said their messaging with businesses has increased over the past two years, and 67 per cent expect to message businesses even more over the next two years.

In fact, in 2017 alone, over 330 million people connected with a small business on Messenger for the first time.

More than 1.2 billion people on Facebook are connected to a small business in another country, out of which over 250 million people are connected to a business in India.

Also, 42 per cent of the people on Facebook in India are now connected to at least one small and medium business (SMB) in a foreign country and 65 per cent of Indians are connected to at least one domestic SMB.