An hour? Two hours? Or maybe even three? While the duration is subjective to each person, there is no doubt today that surfing on social media sites are taking up a good portion of our day. And now, both Facebook and Twitter are giving us more reasons to stay on them even longer.

In July, Facebook began testing out a new “Buy” button feature on ads and page posts, allowing users to purchase a product directly from a business without having to leave the social network. This month, Twitter also began publicly testing their own “Buy” button, which are embedded in tweets of the advertiser.

Image Source: Mashable

So why exactly are Facebook and Twitter dabbling in e-commerce? In the past three years, the two sites have rapidly transformed into indispensable platforms for marketing and advertising. Thinking simply, I believe it’s one more easy way for the social networks to generate revenue from businesses. But critically, I think the feature can help build even more organic user engagement, which is appealing to the social networks themselves, marketers, and advertisers alike. From personal experience, I know how online shopping alone can take away two hours of your day in an instant. Now that a platform like Facebook is combining social networking and shopping together, there’s a good chance I may never leave my desk!

At the end of the day though, users don’t exactly go on social networks to shop. Brian Solis has even mentioned in his book Engage! that “people do not create accounts on Facebook, Youtube, and Twitter … to hear from brands.” People go on social networks  to socialize with other people, to see what they’re doing, and to hear what they’re talking about. But who knows? Before, we didn’t think posting 140-character messages would mean much either!