By: Chris Richards
E-Commerce, or more specifically, Facebook commerce (F-Commerce), is a relatively new concept in the social media universe. Creating the ability to sell products directly to fans (now, customers) directly through Facebook is an opportunity on which few companies should pass. Though, posting items to a Facebook store alone will not guarantee a successful E-Commerce solution for one’s business. Smart businesses and brands will craft entire marketing campaigns around their Facebook store. Following these few steps, anyone should find a new venture into E-Commerce both engaging and rewarding.
1. Put on Your Best Face: First impressions are always important. The Facebook page “welcome” page can be seen as the make or break point for a visitor. Dull? They might turn away. Confusing? They’ll leave. A simple, creative, and inviting welcome page is necessary in order to attract customers deeper into a brand page, potentially converting them to customers.
2. Determine Your Audience: Use analytics. Facebook has a built in page insights tool, though, beyond simple demographics and engagement numbers, it does little to highlight a page’s true brand ambassadors and valuable contributors. A successful Facebook page will use third party software to determine its “movers and shakers,” engaging outside of Facebook, and possibly rewarding them with targeted specials or promotions. This leads to the next point…
3. Create Unique Promotions: Over this past summer, the health/beauty company, L’Occitanne, achieved great social media exposure by offering free samples of their popular hand cream to those who “liked” their page and entered an email address. The buzz that a unique promotion, such as that, can provide is priceless for a brand page in the social media universe. Aside from drawing in current followers, a promotion can be the first introduction of your brand to customers. In this sense, close integration of a company’s products with a unique promotion can truly turn a simple Facebook page into a viable point of sale.
4. Integrate Your Products from Across the Web: Shopify, eBay, Magento, and Zen Cart are some of the most popular online
storefronts available to consumers today. If these dynamic and customizable storefronts are not integrated directly within a brand’s page, customers are forced to take one extra
step away from their point of entry, and hence one more step away from a sale. As a storefront changes, grows, or evolves the changes should translate seamlessly into Facebook. Eliminating the need of micro-management will not only make store management easier on administrators, but will keep store content fresh and current.
5. Stay Current: Social media is one of the most rapidly changing and dynamic industries; brands must stay ahead of the curve by committing to evolving with the technology available. In this sense, they must employ a social commerce and marketing platform that is capable of evolving as well. Paired with inspired, current promotional marketing messages, a Facebook store should find success remaining relevant in the public’s eye.
For a one-stop, integrated answer to the steps outlined above, take Fanpage Toolkit for a spin! Users will be surprised at the depth and expansiveness of its integrated apps, opening the world of F-Commerce to everything from businesses, brands, musicians, artists, or non-profits. Many companies have seen success in creating Facebook storefronts, though few have actually sold products within Facebook’s native environment. When completing transactions entirely within Facebook becomes commonplace, the social commerce industry will have truly evolved. Let Fanpage Toolkit make that evolution as seamless and successful as possible, and until then, best of luck!
Aaron Friedman
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[...] into the social commerce arena, let alone the Facebook commerce portion of it (otherwise known as F-Commerce). When the barrier to entry is simple, and access to powerful F-Commerce tools is FREE, there is no [...]
[...] into the social commerce arena, let alone the Facebook commerce portion of it (otherwise known as F-Commerce). When the barrier to entry is simple, and access to powerful F-Commerce tools is FREE, there is no [...]