If your clients won’t come to your website...

If you still think Facebook is just for us ‘normal’ people, think again. Social media is today one of the major contributors of successful businesses which harness innovation and believe in serious communication with major stakeholders – customers and brand ambassadors.

Over the past decade, ever since the inception of Facebook, the web has witnessed a strong shift of online presence from websites to Facebook pages. Or rather, where until just a few years ago, only the large businesses had an online presence by means of a website, today even the smallest reseller or sole trader has an equally strong representation on the web – especially by means of a Facebook page, which intrinsically comes at zero cost.

The only mistake businesses make nowadays is stop there – all that matters is posting offers and pictures on the Facebook page and increasing the number of “likes” without the need for beefy marketing budgets. Although cool, this has its limitations, especially where sales efforts are concerned.

Let’s take a real life example from Malta: a local florist’s presence on Facebook with a small number of “likes” on the company’s page, but having a very active social timeline. The florist required more traffic towards its official website to promote the online sales. It was clear it needed new sales channels.

The solution was fair and simple – to take online sales a step further, the florist’s website was recreated as an app for the Facebook platform. This meant finding a solution to increase sales by minimising click-throughs and avoiding users exiting the friendly Facebook environment. With this app, Facebook users now easily shop for flowers and other gifts directly on Facebook just as though they were shopping on the website with the same safety and security features which are provided for e-commerce solutions, thanks to the PCI Certified payment processing solution.

Extending e-commerce solutions to Facebook has never been more rewarding. The combination of Facebook ads directed at target markets and a professional online presence combined with e-commerce functionality and a good service make a business successful and clients happy.

In this particular case, during such a busy period for florists, probably the busiest of all, the concept could not have worked better to enhance online sales, especially when seeing the professional images used by the florist to faithfully represent its products. Photos speak louder than words.

www.seasus.com

Alison Bone Casha is business development manager at local digital solutions company SEASUS.