Carol Dray, Marketing Director, Rakuten’s Play.com explains why after 10 years Facebook is becoming more important to retailers than ever before.
In the last 10 years Facebook has turned from a university social network to a powerful platform for commerce. Now it is truly driving sales; Rakuten’s Play.com has found that customer visits from Facebook are worth 40% more than an average site visit. With over 1.2 billion monthly users Facebook has shown that it has the potential to connect retailers large and small with customers around the world and to build loyal customer communities.
As Mark Zuckerberg’s creation celebrates its 10 year anniversary, Carol Dray, Marketing Director, Rakuten’s Play.com highlights 3 tips for retailers to make the most of the social network and where it could take e-commerce in the future:
1. Show the value of engagement
Once you’ve got a ‘like’ from a consumer the next step is to get them engaging with your content and show them the value of being in your ‘club’. If they engage with you regularly this keeps your brand prominent in their news feed and extends your reach to friends within their network too. Use incentives such as competitions, an offer of free delivery or a discount in return for being in your community and interacting with your brand. Incentives also provide a clear call to action so that members of your social community are more likely to go on to make a purchase.
2. Treat your community like your friends
Don’t oversell – treat your community as you would your friends. Rather than making it a sales channel, think of Facebook as a place to showcase your brand’s personality. Share relevant posts and entertaining content to retain fans and foster their loyalty. Make posts visual and exciting; funny photos or videos are much more likely to be shared amongst their wider network than content which is just a sales plug. Ensure that all of your content is worthy of sharing and don’t post it if it’s not.
3. Extend great customer service beyond your store
The power and reach of the Facebook community means that your customer service offering must be watertight. Monitor complaints from your community at all times and handle any unhappy customers with care quickly and effectively. Reply in a timely manner to posts asking whether you can message the customer privately and work to take discussions out of the public eye as soon as possible.
So what do the next 10 years look like?
Brands who will benefit from Facebook the most over the next 10 years will have more detailed insight about their community. For Rakuten’s Play.com shoppers are 40% more valuable to us once they hit the ‘like’ button, but with access to even more information retailers will be able to understand how and why a consumer began interacting with them on Facebook – and therefore what will keep them engaged. Whether they made a purchase, read about your brand online or are just a fan of the products, knowledge of what attracted them to your community will give the retailer power to offer them the correct goods in the correct way every time.
It’s not a numbers game, it’s all about engagement. Imagine being able to engage your Facebook community through specific ‘Facebook rewards’ gained by the interactions they make with your brand? By offering discounts and exclusive deals in return for engagement Facebook could develop lucrative loyalty schemes for retailers. Not only does it become an incredibly powerful marketing tool but it incentivises brand engagement massively.
By Carol Dray
Marketing Director
Rakuten’s Play.com