In my previous articles I have shown you some pretty shocking ecommerce behaviours, How to write descriptions that sell, How to use powerful images to maximise conversions and also how video is taking the ecommerce world by storm, Now I’m going to share with you a tactic to get FREE ADVERTISING using social media, to make sure your message is seen by as many potential consumers as possible.

Here’s the boring bit first, a little theory on what this is and why it works. Read any business marketing book and they will all emphasise the importance of “word of mouth advertising” or “cheerleaders of your business” – That golden nugget, nothing is more powerful than word of mouth recommendations, someone shouting about your business, product or service from the roof tops.

Social media allows you to leverage this with very little effort, its actually pretty simple for your consumers to spread the word about your product by simply clicking a button.

I feel Facebook do this best (as with most things!). It started off with their “Like” button, you could add a simple button to the top of your product or service web page and if your consumers wanted to, they clicked like, it then showed up on their Facebook wall and was there for all of their friends to see, a pretty cool feature which is very powerful and offers some potentially great results, but it’s getting your consumers to “like” you – it wasn’t very engaging and often over looked… Until now!

Look at the way Debs shops have integrated it into their eCommerce website above, notice the actions “I want” and “ask a friend“. For me this is absolutely brilliant and ever so powerful. What a way to get your products shared amongst your target audience without actually doing anything! Facebooks open graph system is a relatively new tool that allows you to create custom buttons, instead of the boring “like” button, it works in the same way – Your consumer clicks it and it shows on their wall for others to see – But it’s much more engaging.

Imagine this, your consumer goes to your website and sees your product, they cant make up their mind and so they click a button saying “Ask a friend” that then shows up on their wall and a discussion about your product can begin, with one click your consumer has opened up the possibility of showing your product to all their Facebook friends – POWERFUL!

Another good example is the “I want” button, it allows your consumer to show their friends what they want – If it’s close to the festive period or maybe your consumers’ birthday, their friends will know this and it increases the chance of your product being brought as a gift for the person who clicked “I want” – VERY POWERFUL!

Why not create a button titled “own”? People are competitive and like to show off, let them show off to their friends that they own your product and brought it from you…. Maybe their friends will have to have the same item…..

 

Remember:

Use this wisely, think of the options it opens especially with the “I want” button, this is a great way to get people seeing and discussing your product without doing any of the hard work!

You can read crash course 4 here.