Thinking of starting a Facebook Shop? Is it really worth it?

I attended a talk yesterday organised through Dublin City Enterprise Board on the topic of selling through Ebay. It was quite a basic talk on the topic but it would seem that some of those present found it pretty beneficial all the same.

What annoyed me somewhat is when one of the speakers encouraged people to open a Facebook shop! Over the last 18 months I have done quite a lot of research on Facebook shops. Many of the so-called “social media experts”  are encouraging this practice and I have asked many of them to name one Irish business which is successfully selling through this channel. 18 Months on I’m still waiting for someone to give me even one example of a success story. I genuinely hope there is one out there but I suspect there is none.

Unlike Ebay you got to remember people don’t tend to log on to their Facebook account with a view to buying. They generally go there to catch up with friends or let the world know what they are doing at that particular moment in time.

Founder of Hunch.com, Chris Dixon sums it up quite well “Facebook is like Starbucks everyone hangs out there for hours but they buy nothing” Incidentally Hunch.com was recently acquired by ebay which I guess elevates the value of his opinion.

Now I’m not for a second suggesting that having a Facebook page for your business is not of value as it certainly has merit but why bother wasting time and effort on installing a shop and adding all your products and working out the right shipping prices for all the different countries? If it doesn’t work out it will just leave you deflated so avoid it useless you feel you got absolutely no other route to the online market.

Follow the Leaders with your Facebook Strategy

Macy’s in New York is the world’s largest store. At the time of writing they got 5.6 Million fans of their facebook page and its quite a busy place. They don’t have a shop though instead they use their facebook page to direct traffic to macys.com website.

On a more local level one of my favourite Irish facebook pages is that of Hairybaby.com. These guys really know how to interact with their audience. Currently they have over 27,500 fans but no shop. They tend to post links with a brief message on facebook informing fans of latest T-Shirt designs, special offers and so on. This gives the visitor the option to click through and read more if they so wish or ignore completely if it is not of interest to them

Conclusions on the Facebook Shop

If the big boys have decided not to implement it then it’s unlikely that there is much merit in you doing it either.

Hey but it would be nice if you give our facebook page a like all the same!

Jargon Free Training to help Increase Sales!

If you are interested in learning how to increase your online presence and ultimately get more sales this course is for you.

Restricted to a maximum of 6 people this engaging and jargon free half day course is all about you and your needs.

Who Should Attend this online marketing course?

If you already have a website but are struggling to get sales or leads from your online presence this course will help you.

If you don’t yet have a site up and running the course should help you avoid making some fundamental mistakes from the outset many of which I made myself when I started my online business 2 and a half years ago.

If you want to have a strong online presence but you don’t have a big marketing budget this course should assist you hugely as long as you are willing to put the work in after attending.

When and Where does the Course take place?

The course takes place on Friday May 25th at the Metro Hotel, Santry Cross, Ballymun Road, Dublin 9.

Commencing at 9.30am the course will run until 1pm with a 15 minute break for tea, coffee and light refreshments.

Watch Presentation on What this Online Marketing Course is About

What do I need to bring with me for the course?

All you need to bring with you is a pen and some paper to take your own notes. Slides presented to you on the day  will be emailed on to you at the end of the course.

What’s Different Between this and other online marketing courses?

During the course of the day I will show you a report with a breakdown of the visitors to my own online retail site, www.purchase.ie. I will then go through the different ways people arrived to my site and show you how I managed to get people to visit the site through these different channels.

Basically everything will be laid on the line here and ultimately this course is being run my someone that actually owns and runs an online business which depends on online sales to survive.

Its not being run by so called  “social media experts” or people that tell you what to do but have never actually been there and done it themselves.

Over the course of the session you should learn

1: How to improve how your site ranks in google for key terms relevant to your business sector.

2: How to avoid spending silly money on pay per click advertising.

3: How to create and build your online contact database and measure how people engage with you.

4: How to use google analytics to measure your online success and more importantly how to make changes to what you are doing.

5: How to share your way to success. Using social media (and not just facebook, twitter and linkedin)

6: How to use content marketing to increase your online presence. A look at blogging and video marketing.

7: How to give your business the best chance of media coverage.

Who am I?

My name is Colm Griffin and for the past 2 and a half years I have been running my own online retail business www.purchase.ie. To date Purchase.ie has been selected as a finalist for a Dublin Living Award as best retailer in the Green Awards in 2012.

Purchase.ie has received extensive media coverage including on the Pat Kenny Show on RTE Radio One, the Breakfast with Hector Show on 2FM, the Sunday Business Post, the Irish Independent, the Irish Examiner, the Sunday Times, Silicon Republic and many other local radio stations and newspapers.

I hold an honours degree in Human Resource Management from the National College of Ireland and recently completed a FETAC approved train the trainer course.

I worked in newspaper and TV advertising for over 10 years most of which was spent with the Sunday Tribune and Setanta Sports.

Purchase.ie was started on a tiny budget and to date has received no funding or investment from outside parties.

How to book your place on the course?

Simply click on the buy now button and pay your 99 Euro. This price is VAT inclusive and we will email you back booking confirmation and a VAT invoice. When the course is booked out a sold out message will appear on this screen.

Welcome to Socialme.ie

Socialme.ie is an online learning resource to help business owners and sales and marketing professionals to learn how to communicate more effectively in the ever changing world we live in today.

Through technology advances and the dawn of social media communicating effectively has because quite a complex area over the past few years. Socialme.ie endeavours to provide you with extensive free blog and video tutorials which will help you to reach the right target audience with the right message.

From structuring a press release to designing your own website to learning how to use facebook for business effectively socialme.ie will empower you with the knowledge to communicate effectively whilst spending wisely on your marketing efforts.

Socialme.ie can also custom design in-house training programmes for your business and staff and provide you with expert trainers specific to your needs.

Socialme.ie also provides a online directory where you can source the relevant professionals your business needs.

The website is in development at present but please feel free to contact us if you got any questions on 01 8428187 or send an email to colm@socialme.ie. Alternatively fill in the contact form below and we will be back to your promptly.