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Inside Facebook

Facebook Ecommerce: What Features Are Important in a Page Storefront Application

Posted: 25 May 2011 06:05 PM PDT

Facebook Marketing Bible

The following is an excerpt from the Facebook Marketing Bible, the comprehensive guide to marketing your company, app, brand, or website using Facebook. The full version of this article includes 10 more important features to look for in an ecommerce app, with explanations of each, as well a discussion of why you might want to send users offsite to complete transactions.

Future articles in our ecommerce series will look at examples of well executed Facebook ecommerce strategies, compare different storefront applications, and provide, walk through how to set up your store front, and provide best practices for promoting your Facebook ecommerce experience.

Facebook offers a huge opportunity for increasing brand loyalty, but there’s also a way to earn money directly from the social network’s built in audience of hundreds of millions of users. Ecommerce delivered through Page tab applications can help you to generate a return on investment that is easy to measure.

In this first installment of a Facebook Marketing Bible series on ecommerce, we’ll discuss what features to look for when choosing what ecommerce storefront app to use for your business. We’ll list the features, such as product  catalog importing, checkout, design, and promotion, and explain why each is important and what choice is best for different business types.

Introduction

Facebook Pages can install third-party ecommerce storefront applications that allow them to display a catalog of products, let users add items to a shopping cart, and the checkout either within Facebook or on an external website.

Key Features

Some key features of Facebook ecommerce storefront apps include:

  • The ability to import your existing ecommerce webstore or catalog of products
  • Integration with other ecommerce software such as Magento and Shopify
  • Checkout functionality that either lets users complete the payment process within Facebook, pay with popular payment system, or that direct users back to a business’ website to finish the payment process

Ecommerce software integration or catalog importing will make it much easier to get your ecommerce storefront started and keep it up to date as your product line changes. When choosing an application, make sure it is compatible with whatever software or product database format you use. In terms of checkout functionality, there are advantages to both checkout on and off of Facebook. Checkout on Facebook means there will be fewer clicks in the purchase flow, which can significantly reduce drop off. Some users may not want to navigate away from Facebook to complete a purchase, as the primary reason they were on Facebook in the first place was probably not ecommerce.

Other Important Features

Some additional features to look for in a Facebook ecommerce storefront application include:

  • Product search, browsing and display options

This will define how easy it is for users to find the products they want. “Most Popular”, “Recommended for You” based a user’s Likes, and “Liked by Your Friends” display options can quickly lead users to the products they’ll find relevant and may be more willing to buy.

  • Display customization and branding

Some apps require you to use a default color theme, layout, may show the developer’s name, and may not allow you to add a branded banner. In contrast, some white-labled apps allow you to customize your storefront’s them and layout as well as brand the store with a banner and other signage.

  • Ecommerce analytics

Analytics about product views, checkouts, sales and other metrics can help you optimize your storefront and track your return on investment. For example, analytics could help you determine what step in the purchase flow is causing the most dropoff, and then allow you to track the results of design changes. Conclusion

Look through the features above and decide which are most important to your business. You can then use this as a checklist when choosing which Facebook ecommerce storefront Page tab application to choose.

For the complete list of important storefront features and a discussion of why offsite checkout might be best for your business, visit the Facebook Marketing Bible. Future installments in our ecommerce series will include case studies of Facebook ecommerce, a comparison of storefront apps, a storefront set up walk-through, and strategies for promoting your storefront.

ShopIgniter CEO Matt Compton on Raising $8M and the Growth of Ecommerce on Facebook

Posted: 25 May 2011 05:13 PM PDT

Founded back in 2008, when social shopping was an exciting but unproven idea, ShopIgniter has been building its business among clients who have real-world goods to sell online, with a focus on Facebook. And like some of its rivals have recently, the Portland, Ore. company has raised more funding, an $8 million second round led by Silicon Valley venture firm Trinity Ventures with existing investor Madrona Venture Group participating.

The new interest is because brands that had been focused on gaining Facebook fans in past years are now looking for what do next, as chief executive Matt Compton tells us in an interview today. For many Page owners, that means selling direct. ShopIgniter has a set of interlocking products aimed at meeting this emerging need.

One is a customizable white-label application for Pages, with ways to adjust the look and feel to match the page, tools for easily sort through product offerings, and other features seen social commerce apps. The Portland TrailBlazers basketball team, for example, has been using it to sell team merchandise on its Page. Compton tells us that in a recent test between on and off Facebook sales for a brand, conversions were twice as high on Facebook.

A ShopIgniter product called the “Social Promotions Engine” reaches further into Facebook, helping Page managers create custom campaigns designed to get users sharing content about the brand on their Walls and news feeds in order to generate sales. In an example detailed by Ryan Spoon, Nike promoted a limited set of collectible golf balls to fans of its Page. The contest winners got free golf balls, and Nike was able to increase fan awareness of and interaction with the store. Finally, participants were also encouraged to share a news feed story about their winnings with friends.

For the Blazers, Compton wrote last month, promotions like these resulted in the Page fan count growing by 25% and, perhaps more importantly, transactions conversions originating with Facebook friends growing by 16%.

Beyond the application and promotions, ShopIgniter also provides a white-label ecommerce product for web sites. The point of it is to go beyond more general online ecommerce management products, instead capturing commerce around social interactions wherever they happen. For example, one customer may go to a web site, find a product they’re thinking about buying, click the Facebook Like button, and generate a story about it in their news feed. Their friend might then click to look at the product, be taken to the Page of a company with a ShopIgniter store, and buy the product there. Meanwhile, the person who Liked the product on the site might still go to the site when they decide to complete their purchase.

A variety of competitors in the business provide their own variations on social commerce applications — some we’ve looked at include 8thBridge (formerly Alvenda), which announced a $10 million second round in late May, and Payvment, which added a $6 million second round in December.

With client lists growing and venture capital firms doubling down, the non-virtual goods part of the platform appears to be coming of age. We just kicked off a series on social commerce in our Facebook Marketing Bible subscription service. Stay tuned for more.

New This Week on the Inside Network Job Board: Context Optional, AdParlor, PopCap Games and More

Posted: 25 May 2011 12:15 PM PDT

The Inside Network Job Board is dedicated to providing you with the best job opportunities in the Facebook Platform and social gaming ecosystem.

Here are this week's highlights from the Inside Network Job Board, including positions at Context Optional, AdParlor, 6waves, Tagged, TinyCo, PopCap Games, Roblox, Openfeint, PopCap Games and Kixeye.

Listings on the Inside Network Job Board are distributed to readers of Inside Social Games, Inside Facebook and Inside Mobile Apps through regular posts and widgets on the sites. Your open positions are being seen by the leading developers, product managers, marketers, designers, and executives in the Facebook Platform and social gaming industry today.

Report: A More Official Spotify-Facebook Partnership Is Coming Soon

Posted: 25 May 2011 11:46 AM PDT

Spotify, the streaming music service that’s big in Europe, is coming to Facebook in the form of a special integration, according to Forbes. The rumor of some sort of partnership between the two has been going around for a while. The new report says this integration, which sounds as if it will give Spotify special placement on users home pages, could be coming as soon as the next couple weeks.

The pent-up demand for a seamless, streaming music service on Facebook might finally be met. Licensing issues have until now stopped that from happening (and still are in the US).

The music service already has a relatively popular Facebook platform integration live in its desktop-based player, with 2.39 million monthly active users and 937,000 daily actives according to AppData, our app tracking service. But most of those users are younger men in the United Kingdom; Spotify has not worked out a deal with all the major labels for US distribution, and has not launched in the US as a result, although a number of Facebook employees including chief executive Mark Zuckerberg are users and fans of the service.

Facebook had looked at partnering with a third-party music provider a few years back, but despite many conversations with labels and music startups, no product ever launched. In the meantime, music-based Pages have grown to become one of the most dominant interests that people express on Facebook through Liking Pages. Some 44 of the 100 largest Pages are music-related. A growing ecosystem of music-focused Page service providers has arisen to do things like provide streaming music player applications for bands. It’s unclear how the Spotify integration might help or compete with these other companies in countries where it is available.

The report offers a few more details of how the product will work. A Spotify icon will appear on the left-hand column of the home page, in the top section next to Events, Photos and other Facebook apps rather than in the lower section for third-party applications. Users click the icon to download the Spotify desktop app. The integration, like the current one, will show users what their friends are listening to, as well as publish their own selections to their news feeds. There’ll also be a feature to let people listen to the same song at the same time — some sort of user voice service? The name will either simply be “Facebook Music” or more cobrandedly “Spotify on Facebook.”

Also from the report: Facebook will launch Spotify in the US once a deal with the labels has been worked out.

So all in all, given Facebook’s long-term interest in music, its shared investors with Spotify, as well as the presence of early Facebook visionary Sean Parker on Spotify’s board, this news is not too surprising. Musicians should see new engagement on Facebook as a result, and Spotify should get a big increase in its subscription revenues. Meanwhile, music service providers on Facebook’s platform will need to wait and see if this integration includes anything directly competitive to what they’re currently providing.

Chase Giving, Luck, Astrology, Mobile, BandPage and More on This Week’s Top 20 Facebook Apps by DAU

Posted: 25 May 2011 08:09 AM PDT

A diverse array of applications made up our list of growing Facebook apps by daily active users this week. Everything from astrology to luck to virtual gifts, videos, photos, mobile, Chase Community giving and assorted Page tab apps. All told, the apps on the list grew from between 69,500 and 1.7 million DAU. Our list is compiled using AppData, our data tracking service covering traffic growth for apps on Facebook, and covers those that gained the most users in the past seven days.

Top Gainers This Week

Name DAU Gain Gain,%
1. Astrology 1,961,620 +1,770,414 +926%
2. BandPage by RootMusic 1,546,288 +356,460 +30%
3. Luck Daily! 423,902 +335,290 +378%
4. Send Gift 270,016 +245,801 +1,015%
5. Genç Video 275,655 +233,354 +552%
6. Monster Galaxy 810,361 +167,399 +26%
7. Gardens of Time 2,604,895 +160,913 +7%
8. VEVO for Artists 324,045 +150,005 +86%
9. 60 Photos 608,039 +135,787 +29%
10. Norton Safe Web 149,980 +127,470 +566%
11. Zuma Blitz 868,368 +100,711 +13%
12. Yahoo! 8,115,579 +100,063 +1%
13. friend.ly 355,967 +91,637 +35%
14. picplz 135,992 +87,560 +181%
15. flipboard 407,394 +77,794 +24%
16. Chase Community Giving 81,734 +77,120 +1,671%
17. e-Diagnostics 133,916 +74,758 +126%
18. eBuddy 2,158,987 +70,483 +3%
19. Welcome Tab for pages by SocialAppsHQ 231,083 +70,385 +44%
20. HTML + iframe + FBML = iwipa 397,764 +69,502 +21%

The top app on the list tis week was Astrology, which grew mostly in the United States, by 1.7 million DAU. The app includes a pop-up upon use asking the user to allow for daily horoscope posts to their Wall. Luck Daily grew by 355,300 DAU; the app posts your luck "percentage" to your Wall. Send Gift, with 245,800 DAU, is an app that allows users to send virtual gifts to their friends' Walls, also providing the user the opportunity to subscribe to new gift notifications.

Genç Video grew by 233,400 DAU; the app allows users to view, Like, share and comment on videos. 60 Photos is an app that allows users to click "nice" or "pass" on friends' Facebook photos, generating feed stories with answers; the app grew by 135,800 DAU. Norton Safe Web grew by 127,500 DAU mostly in the US, as did Yahoo's app grew with 100,100 DAU.

The friend.ly app added 91,600 DAU, Flipboard saw 77,800 new DAU — the app is for iPad users to view social media content in a magazine-style layout. The Chase Community Giving app grew by 77,100 DAU. Finally, e-Diagnostics is an app that grew mostly in Indonesia by 74,800 DAU; the app appears to be an IQ-type test, which after the user completes, the app asks users to select which of their friends carries traits such as "the best logical reasoning skills," creating feed stories when answered.

Two mobile apps were on the list. Picplz grew by 87,600 DAU and promises to help users share photos from their phone to Facebook, Twitter and Foursquare. Then there's eBuddy with 70,500 DAU to allow users to use chat clients on their phones.

Page tabs of all sorts made up the remainder of the list. BandPage by RootMusic grew by 356,500 DAU in the US; the app continues to become the go-to app for musicians to share their music, tour and merch information. VEVO for Artists, the music video tab, grew by 150,000 DAU. Welcome Tab for pages by SocialAppsHQ grew by 70,400 DAU and is set to allow users to share photos or video on a welcome tab. Then HTML + iframe + FBML = iwipa grew by 69,500 DAU; the app allows users to build tabs for their Pages.

All data in this post comes from our traffic tracking service, AppData. Stay tuned for our look at the top emerging apps on Friday.

torsdag den 26. maj 2011 at 07.30