Blog: Turn your Facebook fans into brand ambassadors

This week Facebook held its first-ever retail summit in London, where speakers from the social network giant urged the assembled delegates from a number of retailers to use the platform to convert fans into brand ambassadors, thus creating a multiplier effect among their own friends and colleagues, in both the on and offline world.

Speaking to Facebook head of e-commerce, global vertical marketing Nicolas Franchet, he told me that the idea of the summit was to simplify the value proposition for retailers, with the network seeking to make it clearer both how to use the platform and ultimately how to use it to drive sales.

Franchet also revealed that 50% of the social network’s visits now come from mobile phones, while Carolyn Everson, vice president of global marketing solutions, described the business as “mobile-first” and said that “everything we’re doing is about developing for the mobile environment”.

Speaking to attendees she said that the social network gives businesses the opportunity to “make business personal again”, and urged brands to find a natural way to start conversations and engage with fans to turn them into brand advocates.

Turning your fans into key influencers is essential to a successful social media strategy. Kevin Taylor, from Facebook’s global audience research team, revealed that you can reach 68% of the UK’s online population through the platform, that one third of users see Facebook as a tool for finding information on the brands that they love, while the 38% that say product or brands influence them on Facebook is far outstripped by the 72% that say they are influenced by close friends. Further to that 84% of 18/34 year olds use it daily and 50% have used it to make recommendations, highlighting the wealth of potential there for peer-to-peer recommendations.

So while the social network is yet to become a strong direct sales channel for many, there is a significant opportunity there for retailers to drive sales by focusing on creating a community out of their best followers.