Half of top online retailers have no meaningful Facebook presence [STUDY]

Posted on Feb 9, 2010 in Facebook, Social Media

Half of top online retailers have no meaningful Facebook presence [STUDY]

According to a study by ForeSee Results, only 25% of the top 100 online retailers have a Facebook page and another 25% have less than 10,000 fans. These statistics are shocking, especially since the recent news that Facebook now has grown to over 400 million users. Where else do you have the opportunity to engage millions of potential customers?

In a related study, Razorfish surveyed visitors to some of the biggest US retail websites and found that majority of shoppers “friend,” “follow” or “subscribe” to a retailer on a social networking site like Facebook, Twitter, etc. For example, I’m a fan of Best Buy on Facebook and I follow them on Twitter. I read almost every update that Best Buy posts within Facebook and it’s driven me to their website on several occasions where I’ve made a few purchases. If they weren’t on Facebook I honestly don’t know if I would have ever made my way to their website as often.

Brands that haven’t established a significant presence in Facebook are truly missing out on the opportunity to serve their customers and to reach new ones. As Facebook continues to enhance Fan Pages, I would hope to see more retailers embracing social (particularly Facebook) and taking it to new levels.

[via MediaPost]

Just noticed a comment on the Engauge blog from Greg (who is a member of The Digitalists) who made a very good counterpoint (which I agree) that Facebook could be doing more to help brands:

Agree that brands should be doing more on Facebook. But that goes the other way, too: Facebook should be doing more for brands. It boggles my mind that they don’t have a business-services team, or offer tiered fan pages. You’re telling me that a major consumer brand wouldn’t pay an annual fee for a fan page with all of the bells and whistles, or that Facebook couldn’t set up a consulting team that would share best practices with companies willing to pay them a hefty fee? But no, they’d prefer to make their money by selling low-rent CPC ads and ignore the goldmine they’re sitting on.

Greg actually blogged about this a while back, check it out: Social Networks’ Missed Opportunity.

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  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    Should retailers be pushing people to their Facebook page if they have a large e-commerce operation? If you had one link to get in front of people on a TV spot (for example) and you're Best Buy, do you try to drive them to bestbuy.com or to Facebook.com/bestbuy, where they can't buy something?

  • Josh Martin

    Good point, but let's say that 30 second TV spot drives a few thousand people to bestbuy.com and maybe it drives some sales, but what happens after that? Are you going to be able to communicate to them in the future? If you drive them to Facebook.com/bestbuy, you've got a platform where you can message them about a variety of deals/specials/products etc. going forward and you give them the ability to share to others.

  • http://www.jeffhilimire.com Jeff Hilimire

    So the question is, is there more value in pushing people to a conversion site vs. sending them to a longer-term relationship site, is that your point? If so, it's a great debate to have…

  • http://find-attract.com JoshuaKahn

    Hey Josh,

    I'm responsible for Best Buy's facebook page(s). So first, thanks for being a fan! Second, nice blog design, you've clearly put some thought into it.

    To add to the conversation here, I think the question is about contextual relevance. By and large what we see is that most people either aren't interested, or aren't ready to actually purchase something from within Facebook or even click through to buy something. There are exceptions of course (as you mention) but the majority of people on Facebook, based at least on what we see, are there for other things not as pointed as buying something at that moment. Of course it'll depend on the 'something'. Complex purchases like plasma or lcd TV's, probably not. Perhaps the story is different for products with less complexity – gift cards, coffee, etc. We do see a great deal of interest in deal hunting and sharing, browsing activity, and socializing gadgets to get advice.

    Our thought is, we already have an e-commerce site, why duplicate it on Facebook? To your point, we're feeling that the value of it really lies in the opportunity to learn, with incredible immediacy, what our fans like, and what they don't. Speed in learning gets us to greater relevance more quickly.

    As for where do we direct people in an ad, I think it's going to depend on context. Our job then is really to understand the context, understand our fans, and be emotionally intelligent in how we do things.

    Of course our understanding is being shaped on a daily basis based on what we're observing from our fans, competitors, and facebook at large.

  • Josh Martin

    Thanks for the comment and the great insights, Joshua. In my opinion, Best Buy is one of the few companies that truly “get” social. Kudos on the work with the Facebook pages!

    The point I was trying to stress in the blog post was that with so many people using Facebook, if brands aren't at least doing something I think they are missing a great opportunity. Not just with potential sales, but there are so many other ways to interact (as Best Buy is doing with customer service, giving advice, facilitating with the shopping experience, etc.). The key is how to balance all of these activities.

  • Josh Martin

    Thanks for the comment and the great insights, Joshua. In my opinion, Best Buy is one of the few companies that truly “get” social. Kudos on the work with the Facebook pages!

    The point I was trying to stress in the blog post was that with so many people using Facebook, if brands aren't at least doing something I think they are missing a great opportunity. Not just with potential sales, but there are so many other ways to interact (as Best Buy is doing with customer service, giving advice, facilitating with the shopping experience, etc.). The key is how to balance all of these activities.

  • http://find-attract.com JoshuaKahn

    True enough. I think you make a good point about balance. I suppose the larger the org, the more challenging the balancing act becomes. Thanks for the kind words.

  • kevinertell

    Hi, I actually authored the study mentioned in Josh's initial article. I added some more thoughts on it in a post on my blog called “3 steps to a more effective retail Facebook presence. (http://www.retailshakennotstirred.com/retail-sh…).

    To Jeff's question, I think retailers should use mass media to drive traffic to their websites, not Facebook. It looks like the best use of a retail Facebook page might be to focus it on the retailer's best customers. I go into more detail on my blog post about why this is. I'd love to know your thoughts.

  • http://ilikebigputts.com Josh Martin

    Hey Joshua, I'm giving a Lunch n' Learn presentation to a group of folks next Friday on Facebook. I'll be featuring some of what brands are doing within Facebook. Wanted to see if you'd be interested in doing some sort of 15 minute Skype interview with me during the presentation? Where you could talk briefly about what Best Buy's doing within Facebook and if the audience wanted to ask you a few questions. If you're busy I understand, but thought it would be an interesting way to showcase what Best Buy's doing on Facebook.

  • http://ilikebigputts.com Josh Martin

    Hey Joshua, I'm giving a Lunch n' Learn presentation to a group of folks next Friday on Facebook. I'll be featuring some of what brands are doing within Facebook. Wanted to see if you'd be interested in doing some sort of 15 minute Skype interview with me during the presentation? Where you could talk briefly about what Best Buy's doing within Facebook and if the audience wanted to ask you a few questions. If you're busy I understand, but thought it would be an interesting way to showcase what Best Buy's doing on Facebook.