Facebook is absolutely massive. More than 850 million consumers across the globe have an account on the social network, and approximately half of these potential customers use their mobile phones to stay connected 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

For retailers, Facebook has been an important tool to stimulate spending and bolster marketing efforts for a long time. Shortly after implementing the "Like" button a few years back, retailers immediately noted the benefits, with all the key metrics – sales, engagement, website visits – skyrocketing for those using the function. For example, the Gilt Group told The Wall Street Journal in 2010 that the Like button boosted sales by 50 percent.

Facebook has noted the success retailers have had with the Like button and has been rolling out new features over the course of the past year to further improve on the capabilities of these functions. The "Want" and "Own" buttons, for example, enable consumers to tell their friends and family which retail products they are interested in or have already purchased.

The action button

Now, the social network is enabling retailers to add action links to their Timeline pages, Internet Retailer reports. This function allows retailers to set other actions on their timelines. For example, foursquare rolled out a "Save this Place" action button that enables consumers to add a location on to their to-do list to check out at a later date. Fab.com similarly rolled out a "Fave this Product" that adds particular items to the shopper's favorites at the retailer's website.

"When a shopper clicks on the link, that action can appear in his Facebook connections’ news feed, the first page he sees when logging on to the site; the ticker, which features updates on what a Facebook user’s friends are doing at that moment; and on his timeline," the news source notes.

There are a variety of ways retail merchants can make use of Facebook, and the Like and action buttons are only a few of the tools at their disposal. A number of retailers also use the social network for customer service or for advertising via the paid display options.

This entry was posted by Retail Pro on Thursday, May 3rd, 2012 at 9:43 am .