Facebook Is NOT The Sales Tool You’d Hoped For [CHART]
It's pretty well proven that Facebook is a great way to find fans and communicate with them. But is it also a great place to sell? Some music commerce services like Moontoast have made Facebook sales tools their lead products, but a new Goldman Sachs survey shows that social networks may not be a major driver of sales… at least not yet. The Chart:
According to the survey, social sites led by Facebook have very little influence over online shopping decisions. Fornow at least, search engines and recommendation engines (for music that might include mp3 blogs) have a far greater influence.
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A couple questions for everyone:
1) What makes up the 33% of “None of these has an influence”? I’m thinking things like price, convenience, and retailer credibility.
2) Who thinks Facebook Questions will make a difference, and why? I’m not sold on Facebook Questions yet. It’s a useful tool that integrates well into the site, but I haven’t seen it used in a meaningful, effective way so far. I think Facebook Questions information should be integrated into Google’s search. I’d rather see Questions data more than anything from Yahoo Answers (even though the format is different).
First, this is a chart on overall shopping activity, not specific to music, or how fans use/don’t use Facebook to purchase music.
Second, social media is not a sales tool. It’s a marketing and engagement tool, which if you do it right, will lead to sales (usually outside of the channel, and in the case of music typically iTunes).
I’m thinking that the shopping behavior of buying a sweater and buying an MP3 are very different. If I want to buy the next Iron Maiden record, I’m not going to search for it. If I’m most people, I’ll fire up the iPod, go to the iTunes store, and find and download it there.
If social is not a sales tool, why are marketers working so hard to put buy buttons there?
I like to think of Facebook as a way to build trust with the fans, so that when you do have something coming out they will feel more connected and more likely to hit the add to cart button.
I find that email still works the best for directly selling music.
– chris
Just because somebody does something, doesn’t mean they know what they’re doing. A band I used to work with hired a PR firm after they got signed to a small label. All this PR firm did was broadcast “Buy our record”, “come see our show”. They never engaged with the fan, they never asked what the fans wanted, nothing – just what amounted to a commercial 6 times a day. Needless to say, that didn’t work, but it’s the norm for most PR firms because they are living in the old world and don’t get it.
As Chris points out below, social media is a way to build trust, and meet people. It’s kind of like the old meet and greet after the show, except now you can do it all of the time. Fans feel invested. That’s what social media is- It’s being human, not selling.
With that said, you need to make it easy for fans to buy so all of your work doesn’t go to waste, so having an app on you FB Page that lets people listen and buy makes sense.
I agree with Phil. Social media is about real people creating authentic relationships and trust. That can not only lead to sales, but to lifelong relationships with customers and fans. Check out ‘The Thank You Economy’ by Gary Vaynerchuk. He is all about building lasting connections but the end goal is making money.
I think a lot of musicians and PR people still think of Web 2.0 as a broadcast channel but that is not what it does best.
So we’re still taking G$ numbers seriously, huh? Jesus Christ, y’all.
Don’t get me started on GS! :~)
Because, Bruce, their goal is to make money off the retailers via signup fees and service fees 😉 They could care less about how many items you sell to your customers long as you pay the monthly or annual fees for their service of providing buy buttons and ecommerce.
Other online communities are anonymous to some degree, Facebook is not. Would you rather add/friend a musical guilty pleasure anonymously or openly, especially when you know that your friends will get recommendations that are friends of your guilty pleasure? Go figure.
People think twice about such things and that’s likely why they are not buying either.
Not true.. you Like a band on FB because you either like it already or its a favor for a friend. I dont think that my friends will see it, even if they do, only few of them have same taste as me so it doesn’t matter. just because there is a link, doesnt mean people will click on it on FB..
Facebook sucks sweaty hairy ballz.
They do it for the same reasons they try to saturate every other aspect of our lives with their brand messages and sales pitches.
I use FB to communicate with my friends/fans and let them know about important updates. I don’t think I would ever click on in add within FB or expect my friends/fans to either.
Trying to sell on a Social Media site is like going to a friends house and trying to sell something to them every time. Eventually you will loose that friend.
http://www.andyobrienmusic.com
“Social media is about real people creating authentic relationships and trust. ”
hahahah!!! Are you out of your mind!?
If used properly Facebook has the potential to generate interest and fill the sales pipeline. There is definitely something to that building relationships with trust and using social media to do so. It is just like anything else you will get out of it what you put into it.
Google have just introduced the +1 button to add a social element/recommendation element to their searches.
Not sure whether factoring in Facebook Questions data to Google searches is the best idea because 1. it is always changing, 2. the participants are very skewed to the audience of who asked the questions and will not be representative of the general public (i.e. a rock magazine can ask a question about people’s favourite genre, and it would be unlikely that jazz or classical will do very well, pretty much because the people on that page are clearly into rock.)
Hi Bruce,
Thanks for the mention. We saw this chart pop up and new that it would mislead many about what is really happening in the very new world of online Social Commerce. The missed point here is, affinity based brands (ie. Musicians, Celebrities, etc.) stand to do WAY better marketing their commerce efforts directly to their fanbase than through Search.
That Goldman report is talking about good old fashioned e-commerce, where I have no connection to the retailer, and am simply looking for the best price. The motivation is totally different when buying from my favorite artist, or better yet, considering buying from my best friend’s favorite artist. In those scenarios, Social kicks Search’s ass.
We wrote a little blog post about it: http://www.moontoast.com/blog/the-biggest-social-commerce-mistake-you-can-make
Thanks again for recognizing us,
Marcus
Because they are still marketing. That’s the problem.