Facebook just recently acquired shopping search engine TheFind.com, showing their intent to become a big part of two of the Internet's biggest money-makers: search and e-commerce. On Friday they announced the deal for an undisclosed amount. Step by step Facebook is working to get it's users to search and then shop within their platform. So what does this mean for business owners?
Facebook is the largest social media platform in the world, and it's also the most active. Every 24 hours more than 4 BILLION people will give their opinion by clicking the "like" button, and that doesn't even take into account how often they share or comment. Engagement on Facebook is driven by three things-likes, comments and shares. Imagine what could happen if your friend bought mascara online, shared their purchase and you could just click on the 'buy now' button right there in your Facebook app and get one too. This is brilliant!
As business pages look for more opportunities to gain exposure for their products it could prove to be very beneficial for them to use the eCommerce feature on Facebook's platform. Because the most people are very territorial when they're on their feed or their profile page, interacting with their friends and talking about their day (or what is catching their attention at the moment) it can be a challenge to get a potential customer out of the platform to our website, and then through our sales process. Guards start to go up the minute they leave the app or Facebook pages. If a sale could be completed right in the feed or on any page their interacting with, it's not rocket science to see that our ROI- return on investment on the platform would rise dramatically.
Three Things A Business Can Do Now To Get Ready For The eCommerce Expansion On Facebook:
- Do highly targeted ads to grow your page. My business page has 1 million users and we have more engagement than even Starbucks and CocaCola. During the last three years we've strategically done low cost ads every single day to drive people to our page, and then we create culture and engagement with them on the page with the digital media we share. When people are engaged, having fun and interacting on your page, it's easier to close a sale. Our sales quadrupled the first year and continue to climb with our growing culture. Start doing highly targeted ads to your page now! The more people you have interacting on your page, the greater your chances are for more sales when you can add a 'buy now' button to the page. My Facebook Ads Template are a great resource to get you started at just $10 per day.
- Create content daily that tells your story. In traditional direct response marketing we tell a story that leads to a sale. We see this done in direct mail, through infomercials, on a sales page and more. But when one enters the social media platform, how can we tell a story in just a few words on a Facebook page? Connect the content you create to build a culture your customers love and want to interact with. Your digital media should include quote graphics, text posts, video posts and more that build a culture. As you tell that story, community begins and engagement continues to rise. Higher engagement on a page = more opportunities for increased sales.
- Don't crop share everything with Facebook. One of the biggest mistakes a business owner could make with the introduction of eCommerce on Facebook is shift all of their efforts and business to a Facebook page. I recently heard a fitness expert tell her audience that they really don't need a blog or website anymore, that everything can be done on a Facebook page or some other social media page. This kind of advice will harm business owners. What if something goes wrong on your social media page, or you get hacked or you mistakenly get slapped with a violation? As your attempting to put the pieces back together, WHERE do your customers find you if you've been crop sharing all day? To not have a blog or email and rely solely on social media is advice that will prove to be damaging to a company's successful online.
Get your page ready, build culture, increase engagement and make sure you don't forget the rest of your online real estate. Facebook is the leader, that is for sure. Playing on their platform is built 100% around culture and engagement. When they add the option to bring eCommerce into the mix, it's going to be a win win for many business owners. AND it will increase your other efforts as well.