How To Successfully Leverage Facebook To Drive Commerce

January 26, 2011

Socially-driven features like Share-Within-Your-Network (SWYN) and Refer-a-Friend enable retailers to extend brand outreach by empowering enthusiasts to spread the word. Social Marketing-as-a-Service program provider Extole, founded in 2007, offers a fully integrated platform designed to enable high-value customer referrals, social fan base expansion and visible brand recommendations. Retail TouchPoints had the chance to catch up with Extole CEO Brad Klaus to explore Facebook retail best practices, how to quantify Facebook marketing and the effectiveness of building a “social graph” to identify influencers.

RTP: In 2011, one of the key trends on the social/retail front is the ability to enable purchases from within Facebook. What are your thoughts on the potential for Facebook Commerce, or “F-Commerce?”

Brad Klaus: There is no doubt that Facebook is becoming a major channel for retailers. For starters, its reach is astounding: the site has over 650 million users, most of whom visit the site every day.  And according to data from Compete, social media sites send more referral traffic to online retail sites than Google.  It’s no wonder that retailers are leveraging Facebook as a new sales channel.

Facebook’s huge user base is a key reason why brands are adopting F-Commerce, but that’s only part of the story. Social networking sites have become important to retailers because they provide a platform for easy sharing of product recommendations between friends.  According to eMarketer, 68% of Facebook’s half-billion users are more likely to buy a product that has been referred by a friend. In other words, it’s not just that Facebook is getting traffic — Facebook is allowing brands to tap into their customer base to acquire new customers.

Our client Roku is also tapping into Facebook to increase sales based on social recommendations. Lomit Patel, Senior Director of Direct Marketing at Roku, the market leader in streaming entertainment devices for the TV, said: “We went from nowhere to over 10,000 customer referrals a month. Our program is really working.”

Read full article at Retail Touch Points