One way in which you can improve your exposure is by moving your businesses website into a more socially accessible environment. This can be achieved by integrating your pages with Facebook. The social networking giant is no longer a ‘phenomenon’ as with over 500 million users it has become a by-word for modern online networking and for a fast growing movement of people who stay in touch and like to hear each others ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’, often trusting this over more direct sales approaches.
The fact is that people don’t want to be sold to. They want to make informed decisions on their purchases. What Facebook integration can do for you is facilitate the decision of your visitors by providing an onscreen run down of what their friends say about your products. For example, let’s say you are in the business of selling shoes. Visitor A comes onto your website and you say ‘Hi, buy our shoes, they are really great.’ Now for some consumers this might be enough to convince them to buy your product. But for the more discerning consumer they will need a bit more convincing before any online credit card processing takes place. They may go off and find some comparisons, read some reviews, but above all they will trust the opinions of their friends, and are most likely to respond to a recommendation from one of them.
Now once you have integrated Facebook onto your site, Visitor B arrives on your website and is not only greeted by your assurance that your shoes are ‘great’ but with the Facebook integration they will be able to see instantly that their best friends ‘like’ your product or have even left a more detailed comment like: ‘yes I agree these really are great shoes, I would recommend them’. Who can you trust if you can’t trust your best friends?
Facebook Connect is the name of the program that you need. It offers you ‘Like’ buttons which you can apply to your products so that people can see at a glance how many of their friends like something, ‘activity feeds’ which lets people see what their friends are doing on your site (e.g. Tom just bought some shoes), and also a comment section so that visitors can see what their friends really think of your products (e.g. Wow these shoes are so comfy, really glad I bought them).
A good ecommerce website should have a good grasp of integration from the social activities all the way down to their payment service provider. Through this they can offer an assured service that is secure, comprehensive and still has a human element involved.
By creating incentives and building the number of people who are friends with your website online, you will be making strides into the biggest social network ever and providing your business with a whole new arena to sell your products and increase your profits. Visit www.facebook.com today and see how easy it is to integrate your website.
