We have all heard of E-Marketing and E-Commerce, but the term F-Commerce was new to me until I stumbled upon a blog post written by Mitch Joel in his blog “Six Pixels of Separation”. The post was titled “F-Commerce- Rise of the Facebook Consumer”. So yes… F-Commerce refers to Facebook Commerce. I know that pretty much every marketing related blog mentions Facebook in at least one post, and I really didn’t want to fall into that category, but what was written in this article was new and interesting to me.
Along with gift cards for restaurant, clothing stores, music stores etc, it is now possible to purchase Facebook gift cards which translate into Facebook Credits which then can be used to buy (useless) things such as machines for Farmville and other online games. As the article mentions, these are the early days of the virtual goods economy. Never mind the fact that some people don’t even have enough money to buy necessities, we are spending money on virtual goods to better our virtual farms in a virtual world.
Of course, it is not only virtual goods that Facebook is good at selling. A recent survey of digital media habits reported that 75% of Facebook users have “liked” a brand. It is a well known fact that people like to display the brands they enjoy and use, and they rely heavily on their friends’ opinions when it comes to making purchasing decisions. At the end of last year, Facebook allowed its now infamous “like” button to be placed on anything online – from products to services to brands. Through this, they are collecting all kinds of invaluable information about consumers. Smart move.
Best Buy’s Fan Page let’s you “Shop + Share”; you can buy products, read reviews and share your experience with your online social network without ever leaving Facebook.
The virtual economy of Facebook (aka “the third largest country on Earth”) is in fact rapidly growing, and it is showing no sign of slowing down.