In the recent years Facebook has frown to become one of the biggest social network ever and millions of people especially youth, spend tons and tons of time on Facebook. Of course because this trend is becoming so popular and large, many people/firms are using Facebook to advertise, sell products, promote products and events, and many other things by creating fan pages for people to “like” or creating groups etc. Today, when I check my own Facebook, I found the weirdest friend request:
For those who don’t know, Rilakkuma is not a person, it is just a Japanese fictional character. When I clicked on it, I found out that it was a group of people who created a Facebook page for this character and uses this page to sell Rilakkuma and other San-X (Rilakkuma’s company) cartoon products like stuffed animals, pencil cases, etc. Basically they put photos up of all their products and they give out information about where to meet (within Richmond) to purchase these products from them.
I think the reason they promote this way through Facebook is because they can save costs of opening an actual store or perhaps they don’t have enough funding to open their own store. I’ve also seen similar people sell asian accessories and nail polish that are usually hard to find in Vancouver through Facebook. It is such an effective way to create a Facebook profile because loyal customers can become “friends” with the page and this would spread to the customers other friends. Also, it tells you how many mutual friends you have with the page, so it shows you how all these friends you have are actually purchasing their products -in this case, it seems like 2 of my friends buy stuff there.
I think using Facebook is a great way to promote new products especially if one if thinking of starting a business.