Ecommerce Marketing with Facebook Integration

Facebook, which was once only known to be used for social networking and connecting with friends on the web, is starting to look like a vast online marketplace. Retailers are scrambling to market to the enormous audience that Facebook draws in daily and turn these users into paying customers. It started with the Facebook fanpages, which allowed businesses to build a presence for their brand on the social media site. They can add an unlimited number of fans on their fanpage, and many big name retailers have already successfully created a big following. Just recently Facebook has been connected to e-commerce on an even bigger scale. Many of these businesses that are already well integrated with Facebook are beginning to create their own e-commerce apps, which allows them to directly sell their products to fans through Facebook.

If you own an online business or are thinking of launching one and you have not tried Facebook marketing yet then you better get started. The first thing you must do is create a Facebook fanpage. It's fast and easy, just look for the link on their website and complete the requested information. Once that is done, it's time to really start customizing your page in a fun way that will draw people in and get them to become fans. Below is a list of features on the fanpage and how you can use it to market your business.

Wall - have fans write comments in this area, share their thoughts, help make suggestions, ask a question, etc.

Info - write a summary of your business, make it clever and remember to speak to your audience in a way that they will like

Notes - post the latest news on your e-commerce business, announce promotions, etc.

FBML - create up to 10 customized html display areas that allows you to add anything you want

Photos - add photos of your products and you let your fans to share theirs

Discussions - start a conversation, have your fans give you feedback

Videos - add videos to promote your products and demonstrate how to use them, you can also let your fans share their videos

Events - announce special upcoming events or promotions

Reviews - let fans rate your products or services

Others - install other applications created by third party developers that are supposed to be used for the fanpage

As soon as you have your fan page set up you can begin focusing on how to attract traffic. Your fan page doesn't have to be perfect, it is one of those things where the more interaction you are able to receive, the better the content. So start small and see it grow and develop over time. Once you begin to reach the pulse of your fans, you can think more creatively about what to include on your Facebook fanpage. You can create exclusive coupons just for your fans. You can also start a fun contest for your fans as part of a promotional campaign where the winner gets something for free. You should think of as many creative and fun Facebook marketing ideas to get more interaction on your fan page.

Advertisements are another great Facebook marketing tactic to get people to become better acquainted with your brand. However Facebook ads are in many ways significantly different from other kinds of ads. The ads on Facebook can't focus on direct sales like Google AdWords ads can. The reason for this is that they each have an entirely different type of audience. The users on Facebook are there to hang out whereas the people on Google tend to already know what they want and are actively searching for it. When trying to reach a Facebook user, you cannot push your products on them. You must first give them a good reason to become a fan and then build a relationship with them. As soon as the relationship is there, try finding interactive ways to keep your products and your brand fresh in their mind, and the chances of them becoming a customer is much better. So apply to become an advertiser on the Facebook network and build banner ads that link to your Facebook fanpage instead of your e-commerce website.

Most recently, an increasingly popular Facebook marketing technique is direct selling. Because selling directly through Facebook is now all the rage, there is no reason for you not to do it. The big name retailers are just beginning to make their fanpages even more interactive by posting their products there. The ones that have already built a large community are finding that merging e-commerce with Facebook can be very profitable.