Monday, June 22, 2009

Facebook for the Internet Retailer

This is a companion supplement to my June 26, 2009 ClickZ article

To-Do List for Facebook and E-Mail Integration


Recently, Facebook began to give individuals the ability to replace their regular Facebook URLs, which show a user number instead of a name, with a "vanity" URL of their choosing. (For example, I changed my URL on Facebook to http://www.facebook.com/ed.henrich .)

Few of the Internet's leading retailers have taken advantage this opportunity. In this post, I'll cover a quick survey of the top 20 Internet retailers Facebook presence and websites.

Of the top 20, I found that 17 had a presence on Facebook, but only 8 have adopted the new vanity URLs that make it easier for customers to find these pages.

Most of these "microsites" are still small. Only Apple and Victoria's Secret have attracted over one million fans.

Home PageVanity URLFacebook Landing Page # of Fans
Amazon
Wall 58
Stapleswww.facebook.com/StaplesApplication 7,943
Dellwww.facebook.com/DellWall 31,587
OfficeDepot
Wall 96
Apple
Wall 1,361,913
OfficeMax


Searswww.facebook.com/SearsBoxes 24,643
CDW
Wall 554
Newegg
Wall 2,056
BestBuywww.facebook.com/BestBuyWall 20,163
QVC
Wall 15,596
SonyStyle


Walmart
Wall 677
Costco
Wall 52,480
JCPenneywww.facebook.com/JCPenneyApplication 11,940
HPshopping.com


CircuitCity
Wall 4,559
Netflixwww.facebook.com/NetflixBoxes 36,765
Victoria's Secretwww.facebook.com/VictoriasSecretApplication 1,428,143
Targetwww.facebook.com/TargetWall 451,528

If you'd like to compare the Facebook pages to the Home Pages of the top internet retailers check out these two albums.

Facebook Fan Pages - Top Internet Retailers



Home Pages - Top Internet Retailers


Email Signups on Facebook

The top ad on the Sears Facebook landing page says “Become a fan today. Click here to get your free $10 Sears coupon now.” Clicking on this add leads you to another page where they collect email address.

{Click on any screen shot or slide show to enlarge.}





Lenovo has email address integrated into their Facebook landing page.

Here's a demo for how to create an Opt-In form for Facebook.


Links to Facebook Pages on Home Pages
Of the 20 sites I checked, only two had links to their Facebook pages on their website home page.
  • J.C. Penny in top nav
  • Circuit City bottom right




Circuit City also uses their email to send consumers to their Facebook page.



SWYN - Share With Your Network

Within the top 20, only J. C. Penney and HP asked consumers to share the email with their network. (J. C. Penney coded directly, HP used 3rd party Share This), which allows the company to reach out to all of the customer’s Facebook “friends”. This reaches a much larger group than the usual “share with a friend” button.

Thank you Chad White and the Retail Email blog for sharing several emails.



J. C. Penney



HP



I've included several additional examples in this Picasa album.



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