There is a new era in doing business especially online. This is called Social Commerce and Facebook is one of the main platforms for this way of doing business. There are almost 6 million people using Facebook which, for that same reason a big market opportunity has been developed for business. Many businesses are taking advantage of this market to increase traffic to their site and build up their sales. Here are some of the ways merchants are using Facebook for Social Commerce.

Facebook Page

Facebook offers every individual, businesses and organization to create their own pages. There many options involved in doing this. But out of these three options are commonly used for doing this: you can make a local business page, set a page for a brand or a particular product, or set a page for an artist, a band or public figure. Most businesses obviously are using the first two options.

You cannot edit a page once created. On the page, you can give all the necessary information about your business, upload as many pictures of your products and place a link to your online store where people can make purchases. The astonishing thing about Facebook pages is that users will only have to click on the like button to become fans of your business. After that, you can share information about your products and promotions with them.

After setting up the page, the next step most businesses take is to add the “Facebook Like”button on your website. So that Facebook users who visit your website will have the option to become your fans right from your website.

Facebook Groups

This is quite limited in scope when related to Facebook pages. A lot of companies create a special group of Facebook users who have been sharing information about their products and services. You should have a Facebook user to create a group. You can then invite people to bring together the grouping so that you can share information with them.  The important difference between this and the Facebook page is that information shared is limited to members of the group alone. Friends of group members don’t get to see group information.

Facebook advertisement

A large amount of people using Facebook makes it a perfect platform for advertising. A lot of companies are taking advantage of Facebook to drive traffic to their websites. It is a perfect medium for advertising big events and product launches. There are three things to note about Facebook adverts:

• this should not be static
• the cost of Facebook advertising is not how much you pay to Facebook, but how much you invest in the team that runs the campaign
• it could be automated to save cost

Facebook e-Commerce applications

Some businesses are also using special Facebook applications that help them do business right on Facebook without the client having to leave Facebook to the online store. The applications are used to create a store on Facebook where people can buy products and services. This helps to do businesses easy for the client because they don’t have to search for another website.

Facebook login for e-Commerce site

In order to facilitate access to social commerce sites, businesses are allowing people to use their Facebook login to their sites. This has the advantage of being sure that you are doing business with real people. As this is very user-friendly it will help to retain visitors. You can create a Facebook storefront to promote various sites