The Best Facebook Tricks For eCommerce

This post originally appeared on hellospark.com on August 12th, 2015. 

Imagine this: You just got paid, and you’ve got a got a little money to burn. Just like 82% of Canadian internet users, online shopping is probably your go to. Let’s be honest, what is better than kicking back on the couch with a glass of wine, armed and ready with your credit card, and a cart full of options? Not much, if you ask me.

As a retailer in 2015, having an online presence is absolutely essential. The ability for your customers to browse and shop at any time of the day, or night, will only help your business to grow. The next step in pushing your business into the next level of eCommerce is to capitalize on your social presence, Facebook in particular.

Your eCommerce business is built on the back of the growth in technology and how consumers perform. Facebook remains both the most popular social media site as well as the top converting channel for online retailers. Find out some tips and tricks of the best ways to take advantage of Facebook for eCommerce.

Build Your Brand

At the very least, having a Facebook page associated with your eCommerce store is an effective way to strengthen your presence online. Your brand’s Facebook page can showcase a wide range of content for your audience. This content can include new products, news from your business, or even related trending articles, to promote your brand as a voice of authority on the industry.

Further than the posts on your page, it your Facebook page itself. You want to create a cohesive, recognizable experience from start to finish. Make sure your profile pictures, cover photos, and even the language of your content is on-brand and consistent. Your Facebook page should be an extension of your website, as natural as that.

Grow Your Audience

What’s imperative when creating content, is to make sure that it caters to your target audience, whoever that may be. Make it fun, make it interesting, and make it engaging; so that when it’s time to serve your branded messages (sales, promos, etc), you will have an engaged audience to serve it to. As they say, if you build it, they will come.

One surefire way to create an engaged audience, is a high level of community outreach and engagement. Since your Facebook page is an extension of your brand, your potential customers should feel comfortable reaching out or finding information here, that is typically and traditionally found on the website.

Beyond having complete and up to date contact information, be sure your customer service is on point. Has someone asked a question? Answer them! Has someone posted a compliment? Thank them! Making your audience feel heard and valuable is the best thing you can do to encourage further engagement going forward.

Advertise Your Products

Having a Facebook page is fairly standard practice for most businesses, not just eCommerce. However, there are a few specific tips and tricks you may utilize differently, due to your online status. The biggest of which being: advertising your products. This should be the bread and butter of your Facebook page, and it’s content. Let me explain.

Since social media networks are much more real-time than website (generally), it is much easier to preview your new products as soon as they are available. Additionally, posting existing products to the Facebook page allows your audience to experience pieces they may not have seen before, and will drive them to visit the website more frequently. More frequent visits to the website = more conversions. See what I’m getting at?

Arguably the best way to use Facebook to your advantage is with their Ad functionality. UsingFacebook Ads to display your current products allows you to reach a greater, but still targeted, audience with what you have to offer. Better yet, multi-product ads allow you to preview and display multiple products at one time, in one ad. Even BETTER yet, is Facebook’s recently released click to buy option for eCommerce Facebook pages, wherein your audience can purchase items from your website, without even leaving the Facebook platform. I know, right?

Keep Up!

Finally, one of the most important tips when using any social media platform is to keep up with the updates, changes, rules and regulations. Facebook is constantly updating it’s terms of services, apps, and service offerings. Make sure to be utilizing what is applicable to you, and do it within best practices. For example, if you didn’t jump on the new call to action feature when it first came out to add a Shop Now button to your page, stop what you are doing, and go add it now.

These are just a few of the great ways you can use Facebook to your advantage with your eCommerce site. 

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