Sell to Facebook Users and to Regular Visitors Simultaneously with Avactis Storefront for Facebook

One of the most obvious rules of any business is to present products or services to your target audience where it is. And the the bigger the audience, the better.

On today's Internet, the second most crowded place, after Google, is Facebook. According to Amazon's web statistics company, Alexa, more than 40% of the worldwide Internet audience uses Facebook daily, and they spend more than half an hour on the site, which is significantly more time than on any other site in Alexa's Top 10. This makes Facebook a must for any e-commerce merchant who wants to expand their business.

Preparation

The first and most essential step to capture the Facebook audience with your products or services is to create a Page. Not a personal page for yourself (although that is also a plus), but a business Page (with a capital "P"). There's a huge difference between these two types of Facebook pages, and only the business Pages provide all the useful marketing tools. The most significant distinction of business Pages is the ability to add application tabs — additional links in the left column, besides the standard Info, Wall and Photos. Personal profiles do not have this extensibility.



If you've already created a personal page (profile) for your business before, you can convert it to a real business Page with Facebook's recently launched Profile to Page Migration Tool.

Listing the Products

As soon as you have a Page, you can showcase your Avactis store there with a solution from the Avactis team: Avactis Storefront for Facebook. Developed for version 2.1.1 of Avactis Shopping Cart, it consists of the two parts:

1. Facebook Application: Store Tab for Pages
   
   This application adds a Store tab to your Page that displays your Avactis store – right on Facebook.
   
   
   


2. Avactis Extension: Storefront for Facebook
   
   When installed on Avactis Shopping Cart 2.1.1 or later version, it detects if the store has been opened from the Store tab within the Facebook Page and if so, it activates a special Facebook skin. The skin matches the general Facebook look & feel to make your store look like a natural part of your Facebook Page.
   
   

You need to install this software in the following order: first install the Storefront for Facebook extension onto your Avactis store (NOTE: the store must be version 2.1.1 or higher) and then add the Store Tab for Pages application to your Facebook Page. There is a detailed installation guide in our online documentation.

What's Next?

When everything is up and running, it's time to market your new Page and its Avactis store. The goal of your marketing efforts should be to encourage your fans (people who liked your Page) to mention your Page on their Facebook profiles. This happens when they like or comment on something that's on your Page, so you need to post interesting content (news, photos, questions) on a regular basis. People will also post to your Page's Wall when they have questions about your business. Quick responses to these posts are essential.

Copyblogger recently did a great job putting together virtually all of the possible aspects of Facebook marketing in a single post: The Ultimate Guide to Facebook Marketing. It is available for free so be sure to study it and turn the knowledge to profit!

What is your Facebook success story? Please don't hesitate to post a comment below.