Are your Facebook Pages running your Facebook Stores?

Ecommerce Facebook integration is becoming increasingly important in this social 2.0 world we live in, businesses can’t fall behind. Recently some big name retailers have been seamlessly merging online shopping with their Facebook fan pages by creating e-commerce apps specifically to sell their products on this social media site. Product listings are cleverly added to the fan page without being too apparent. The trend is catching on with a number of other retailers following suit. Soon anyone with a product to sell will be able list it on Facebook and tap into that enormous market, making it one of the best ecommerce Facebook integration techniques.

Things to understand

Facebook Apps are applications that most often are FREE to set-up based on a standard template design and integration.   A good idea is to upgrade and spend some money on a Custom Design Fan Pages so it’s branded to your Business.  Prices may vary but it is well worth the spend.

With Ecommerce comes hosting just like anything else and Facebook is no exception and Facebook also does NOT host your products, so understanding hosting costs is something else to pay attention to.  Most 3^rd party Ecommerce software applications will charge you for hosting.  An average price depends on the amount of products one can expect $20 – $150 monthly fees and some may charge you for set-up.

Merchant Account services who are ‘you’ going to trust to handle the Oh mighty virtual money.  Most concur that PayPal is #1 choice and another strong suggestion is to use and we LOVE it!   Google checkout we saw a 40 percent increase in cart conversion rates due to the streamlined checkout process.

Pay attention to

As a business, you will need to consider the objectives of what you want to achieve from a social media application. This application should then be tailored to the most efficient ways of achieving your goals. For example, it may not make sense for you to take on outright e-commerce functionality. But if you offer a valuable service that sparks a purchase decision, the customer should be offered the option of purchasing without having the user experience interrupted.

What I am getting at is how many clicks and sign-ups do you have to go through to get to buying!    I really don’t need to rehash the redundancy on Security & Trust Logos, Policy Return promotion, privacy and trust language next to fields asking for personal data. We’ve been hammering on this for years, and it drives me nuts to see how many merchants still completely ignore it.

But beyond that…   “Why didn’t you buy? Or “what did we do wrong?”

Otherwise known as Shopping Cart Abandonment

The users shopping experience has to be seamless and quick, redirecting them to another site, in particular one that isn’t consistent to your brand may confuse them, and several opt-ins will also make your shoppers runs.  One we all want is a one stop drop in my shopping cart in and out easy user experience online.  Make your cart STICKY!  People are 18 times more likely to buy directly in their News Feed than when clicking off to a separate website.  According to Forrester Research, 23% of shoppers will abandon when asked to register before checking out. Unless you absolutely must require registration, test a guest checkout and see how much it impacts conversion.

Do not overlook Direct Selling on Facebook!

Build you’re Facebook Fan Pages like a website with a good CMS and e-Commerce platform that will allow you and the shoppers the same experience every time and they didn’t get bounced around / redirected and confused in their shopping experience.   For much less than the cost of a basic website, brands can now have a fully functional e-commerce Facebook Fan Page

Social Media YOU make money with PEOPLE who know, like and trust you!

Your social media strategy must look unlike a traditional communication strategy. It’s not an enforced strategy – full of campaigns, ‘push’ models, restricting and mobilizing people – but a nurturing one, providing the platform and then support…

Just a random thought. period!                                                                                                                                                                              



Puzzled about it all?!?!  

Which brings me back to social media sites. When you’re giving the masses the ability to submit, vote on and promote any sort of content from across the entire web, what do you think they’ll do?

Sure, some people will want to know about the latest news in the Middle East while others are interested in Obama, and lots of people are are paying attention to Jerry O’Connell’s ‘Life in a SPEEDO’ wtf, howabout the economy, and other relevant or non-valuable information.

And yeah, niche social media and social news sites will have a focus (Digg leans towards technology, BallHype is sports-oriented, and Linkswarm focuses on Pop Culture & bizarre news).

But when you sift through the crap most of the general social media site that allows anyone to participate, you’re gonna see a lot of mainstream, general crowd pleasing stuff. Pictures you can easily glance at and laugh about stupid rants that have no discernible point and won’t make any sort of positive impact other than the fact that they made you smile or laugh for five minutes out of your busy, hectic Facebook day.

Similarly, great content still exists on the web just as it’s always existed, and it’s easy to find it if you know where to look.

Don’t take a cursory look at social media and reduce a vast, entire Internet’s worth of content to the stuff you see being featured on LinkedIn, Stumbleupon, Facebook, and MySpace profiles, etc.

Just because the “crappy” stuff now has a magnifying glass being held over it doesn’t mean it didn’t exist before or that the “good” stuff  is drastically declining.  That’s the beauty of the Internet–it’s a comprehensive resource created by humans, for  humans.  And it’s for every and all kinds of people–freaks, snobs, dummies, juveniles, women, men, geeks, liberals, conservatives, and porn stars.

Today, I’m wondering why you engage in social media marketing -  is it personal, on behalf of your company (or clients), or some combination of the two?

Why do you have social media accounts?

What do you use them for?

Agreed, there are a great deal of social news sites on the internet, sometimes too many.  Most of them are dormant and no longer active or you forget about them and the usernames and passwords, perhaps it’s largely because they are poorly marketed and hence, never had an active community of users in the first place!

Just my opinion but most of them are a waste of your time: they are riddled with spam and possibly will never attract a critical mass of viewers and participants so know your sites and don’t bother.   hmmmm

YOU don’t have alot of time on your hands.

YOU want a community that gives you fresh news on topics that appeal to you.

YOU want somthing that sends prospects and traffic while ‘branding‘ your website or business.

YOU want a social news site with a long term return on your investment!

Here’s my TOP  5 General Social News Websites in no particular order..

1. Reddit-popular social news website with a large user base. Covers a wide range of news. Includes several topical sections called subreddits, which focus on specific topics like programming, science, politics and business.

2. Digg - the largest and most popular social news website on the internet. Covers all topics including politics, entertainment, technology and general news. Includes a separate video and image section.

3. Propeller – A social news site that covers all topics from technology to politics and entertainment. Operates in a similar fashion to Digg.

4. Fark – A community news site which allows users to comment on news articles. User submitted links will be posted on the main page once they are approved by the administrators.

5. Slashdot – primarily a tech news site, Slashdot also covers topics like books, games, politics and entertainment. Users can submit stories and they may be published after editors approve it. A popular site that can send a large amount of traffic.

But don’t take my word for it try them yourself!