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The Power Of A Facebook Store

April 8th, 2012

It’s a big announcement, and though you’re reading this here and now, it was first announced on our Facebook page.. Why you may ask? Well this announcement has to do with the power of SHARING and the persuasiveness and advocacy in brand marketing. It was only fair to divulge this first on Facebook.. For those of you who haven’t heard..

Our newly designed and SOCIALLY loaded Facebook store is now out!

The New Design
With the new Timeline for business pages, the area allows for more space, so we had to take advantage of this, and allow for more categories per page view. Add the search ability for easier browsing, as well as a clear layout for custom pages so you’re sure your offerings are clearly visible to help you sell on Facebook. We’re pretty proud of this new look, but this is just a little taste..

The Shopping Experience
In line with our mission to keep customers engaged within your website and brand, the new Facebook store, allows your customers to browse products for sale, share their favorites with friends, and complete a purchase within the Facebook shopping cart. Yes the entire process can be completed without leaving your Facebook page! Using payment gateways like PayPal Payments Pro and Authorize.net, the customer pays and is never directed elsewhere. And now the payment gateway PayPal Express, brings them back to your Facebook page to confirm the transaction. We hope this decreases the number of abandoned carts and gives you a boost in sales.. But wait that’s not all…

The Capitalization of Sharing
Facebook is all about sharing, and now your customer can become your advocate. After a purchase is made, customers can share their excitement with a single click and post their purchase to their own Timeline and share with friends. This is done without authorizing an app, just a simple share button that we’re all used to. Your customers can now become your own marketing tool. Yes this is all about REACH.. If you like the sound of reach and fcommerce advocacy, we’ve got more for you..

More features with the Facebook store include the ability to preview audio before purchase, allowing musicians and artists to showcase their tunes and sell music directly to fans within Facebook. They can sell songs, sell CD’s or even autographed prints! Looking for more? Well how about multiple language support, zoomed picture view, sharing to social platforms like Twitter and Want, and include related products for cross selling.

We mentioned it’s a big release, and we must say, we’re not finished yet! Stay tuned for more exciting releases from Wazala coming very soon!

Promoting Your Facebook Store

March 30th, 2012

Getting the word out about your Facebook store, or offers and specials you’re having is pretty easy! We promise that once you read through this, you’ll know what we mean by EASY!

Link to Your Facebook Store

Once you’ve added the store to Facebook, and positioned the store tab well for fans to see, you can link to your Facebook store from anywhere. This can be a post in Facebook to announce it, or even a newsletter or email you’re sending out. Your Facebook store URL would be as follows: https://www.facebook.com/Wazala/app_147605761926866 – Just replace the page name Wazala, with your own page name as it appears in your own Facebook URL.

Facebook Specific Offers

So let’s say you want to offer your Facebook fans a coupon code to entice them to buy. The Wazala’s social promoter engine, can help you get the word out. Whenever you add something newsworthy to your store, like a coupon code or place a product on sale, Wazala reminds you to post this on Facebook and/or Twitter. It will provide you with suggestions for your post that you can edit to your liking, and with a single click, this post can be posted to your Facebook page without you ever logging into Facebook! Go ahead try it, we know you’d love it and your fans would appreciate the love.

Happy Facebook Selling!

Getting Your Facebook Store Seen

March 23rd, 2012

In our last blog, we outlined some features about the Wazala Facebook store and how easy it is to sell on Facebook directly to your fans. With a few clicks, you’re done and open for Facebook business!
Now that you’ve added the store to your Facebook page, it’s important to make sure that people know it’s there. Positioning the Wazala store app for visibility on your Facebook page is as important as your “Come on in. We’re Open” sign on your brick and mortar store, it’s how people know they can come in and buy.

The tab section of your Facebook page is located under your cover photo, to the right of the About button, (just like our photo above). As a default, the photos tab will be in first position and this is not changeable at the moment, so we recommend placing the store tab next in line, just like we did.

To change the position of your tabs/apps:

Click the arrow on the right hand side of the app section
Place your mouse over the tab you want to change the position of
Click the pencil tool in the right hand corner of the app
Swap the tabs around until you get the order you desire

To change the picture of the tab and wording

Open your Page’s admin panel (top right-hand corner of your page)
From the Manage menu, select Edit Page
Select Apps from the left sidebar
Click Edit Settings under the Wazala app
Type in the Custom Tab Name and click save
Click Change next to Custom Tab Image
On the next screen, click Change next to the existing image
Follow the instructions that appear for uploading a new image

There you have it, your store is positioned well on your Facebook page, and others can’t miss it.

Setting Up Your Facebook Store

March 20th, 2012

Creating a Wazala store is easy, and when you’re done you should add your own store to your Facebook page. Just in case you’re not sure why here are some of the Great features of the Wazala Facebook Store.

Why Wazala to Sell on Facebook?

•    Customers are not directed elsewhere to pay or complete a purchase. The entire process can take place within the Facebook Page.
•    Customers can share what they bought with their friends, without authorizing a Facebook app, giving the store-owner (You), a brand advocate on Facebook.
•    With the Wazala Social Promoter (think of it as your own marketing guru), your news is automatically published out to the social sphere with a single click. Never forget to market out again!
•    Sell both shippable products and secure digital content, even preview audio before a purchase. Great for musicians to sell directly to their fans on Facebook.
•    Any changes you make to your store, like adding products, placing a product on sale, tweaking a description (really anything) will be automatically changed on your Facebook store as well!
•    It’s FREE! And it’s available in the FREE Wazala plan!

How to add your store to your Facebook Page

Now that we covered the why’s, here is how to add the store to your Facebook page and sell on Facebook directly.

Grab your unique Wazala key, and copy it to your clipboard. This can be found under the Facebook section in the “Account” tab, within the Wazala Store Manager.
Login to Facebook, and go to https://apps.facebook.com/wazalastore/. This will take you to the Wazala App page within Facebook.
Once on the Wazala application page in Facebook, you need to authorize the app.
Next you will need to add it to a page. Facebook will ask you to select a page to add it to, especially if you have several pages you admin. Select the page, and you will be automatically directed to your page.
Once on your page will see the Wazala tab within your tab section. Simply click on the tab and a new page will open up. Your next step is to paste your Wazala Store key. Once you do this, your store will appear.

That’s it! A simple copy and paste and you’re selling of Facebook!

NOTE: Like visuals? Checkout our step by step guide here: http://www.wazala.com/start/help/wazala-store-on-facebook/

Promoting Your Store With Love

January 15th, 2012

Ooooooh something is in the air! Can you smell it? I can’t, because I’m stuffed up as a turkey right now, but I’m sure it smells super romantic! Lovers and lonely hearts be warned, Valentine’s Day is quickly approaching! So how can your eccomerce site take advantage of the big day? Here are a few tips to help your business feel the love.

Email Your Customers Now
Get ahead of the ball. Give your customers the heads up that they better get something now before they’re significant other is left empty handed and broken hearted. Convince them that your store is the way to go. Let them know of any special promotions you might be having.

On That Note, Offer Promotions
Everyone wants to get a great Valentines day gift for their other half, but nobody wants to break the bank doing so. Offer special discounts on your products exclusively for Valentines day, especially those items that you think would make a fine V-day gift. Create a vDay coupon code and spread the word. Send it to your customers to send to their valentine’s as well. “Savings have never been sweeter”

If you really want to show your customers you <3 them, create a shipping coupon and send it out. Most people are not huge fans of shipping costs, so if you waive those fees, your bound to make your customers feel all warm inside.

Get Your Site In The Spirit
Making tweaks to your site to highlight V-day can go a long way in attracting customers. It could be as big an entire design overhaul, or as small as sticking a little heart in site header. Just do something to make sure people know your aware of the holiday.

Don’t Leave Out The Lone Wolves
Single people sort of get the shaft on Valentines day. So make sure you include them by offering products that they can get for themselves. Feb 14th is the day of love, but make sure not to alienate those who come to your site with the intention of gifting themselves.

Timing Is Everything
As with any holiday that involves the giving of gives, keeping your customers informed about shipping dates and times is a MUST. If they aren’t sure that you will be able to get a product to them on time, they are much less likely to take a chance on your product. Let them know the cut off day for V-day delivery.

Put A Bow On Top
Make your customers loves a little easier by offering to gift wrap their gifts for them. Also, let them know that you’ll be able to deliver the gifts straight to their loved ones on the big day. Valentines day is nerve-racking enough, and revealing some of that stress is a really loving gesture.

Happy Valentines day wishes from everyone here at Wazala! WE LOVE YOU!

Using Twitter as a Support Desk of Sorts

November 9th, 2011

Twitter users love to do two things most: gossip and air their complaints. More and more, people are are logging on to twitter every day to engage brands. This is really cool because it provides an open forum in which conversations can happen about your products. But what do you do if someone complains about your brand in a tweet? How do you respond? Do you respond at all?

The answer to this is actually pretty straightforward. Yes, you should try your very darndest to respond all the time, and you should respond in an extremely helpful manner. Most people expect you to respond, and if you don’t then you’re not meeting their expectations, and that’s just horribly unprofessional of you. According to Maritz Research, (some big customer experience research company), people view Brands who respond to tweeted complaints very positively. People are surprised and delighted to know that there is actually someone on the other side listening, someone that represents your brand who is concerned about their concerns.

And you should be genuinely concerned. Or at the very least, act concerned. These are your customers, and this is a public arena. All eyes are on you. We believe you should always try to be kind and understanding towards your clients, but even if you can’t stand your customers, your brands twitter page is not the place to show your true colors. Your business is your baby, and responding to a tweet that says “your products suck” with an expletive laden rant that mentions Ghandi and a Porto-potty in the same sentence won’t win you any points (unless it’s really, really funny!). Be the bigger man. Or at least direct them to customer support where your exchange will be (slightly) more private. Just remember, the customer is always right, especially on twitter. So treat them as such, and you may get a few treats in return. On a side note, we have a bunch of left over candy from a productive Halloween night that we’re looking to sell in bulk/trade for the 6th Harry Potter DVD. Hit up Wazala on twitter if you’re interested PEACE.

F-Commerce – Selling on Facebook

October 27th, 2011

We all knew it was only a matter of time. Facebook and ecommerce locked eyes, and it was love at first at sight. A whirlwind romance ensued, followed by an Elvis themed Vegas wedding. Not long after a romantic honeymoon spent almost entirely under the sheets, the happy couple welcomed a child, a darling baby they named fcommerce.

Though still in its infancy, fcommerce has the shown potential to change the way we buy things, the way we shop, and the way we use social media. Consumers can now buy things directly from a Facebook page, share their purchase with their friends, and see what their friends are buying. They can take advantage of special Facebook promotions just for fans of products, and even get deals when they “Check In” to retailers physical location. It has positioned itself as a convenient place to buy for 600+ million Facebook users. That’s a lot of potential. But how do you, a seller, utilize this potential effectively? While there’s no one way to the the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow, here are a few choice routes to get you on your way.

The biggest advantage for selling on Facebook, is that you’re integrating your store into a thriving community. So use your words. You want your page to be a place people flock to, like a Taco Bell after the bars close. To do this, you need give people incentive to visit and stay on your page. The easiest and least costly way to do this is to put out interesting and amusing content. Post links that you find interesting, that you would want to read. It doesn’t necessarily have to be directly related to your store. You just have to use discretion. That really funny video of babies dancing? Post it. Heartwarming marriage proposal? Post it. Drunk high school girls knife fighting during morning assembly? Probably not. Its okay to be a little edgy, just don’t go roaring off the cliff.

After you’ve gotten the hang of finding interesting links, you should start initiating conversations on your page. Pose a question that you think will open up a debate. The more activity on your page, the better. You could even post a link, then ask a question relevant to that link. For instance, if you posted a link about a cool new tablet computer, you could ask “Do you think it stands a chance against the iPad?” Post your answers below”. Sometimes people will respond, sometimes they won’t; its a numbers game. If they do, keep them engaged by posting follow up questions and acknowledging their points.

Offering promotions and contests exclusively to your Facebook fans is a sure-fire way to draw people to your page. People love free stuff like a fat kid loves cake. If you offer something exclusively to your Facebook fans, your fans will feel like they are in on some sort of secret.

So now your getting some traffic on your Facebook page. How do you convert that traffic into mucho mulah? That’s where Wazala comes in. Wazala has a powerhouse shopping cart widget that you can embed directly into your fan page, allowing you to sell anything from your Wazala store right on Facebook. It looks great, smells great, and is absolutely amazing in bed (or so I’ve heard). Plus, its crazy easy to use, both for the seller and the consumer, so once everyone is hanging out on your page, they will be able to buy your products without issue. Wazala makes you money, and saves you time, so you can get back to your true calling: making it rain at the club!!!!.

To check out an example of the Wazala Facebook store, checkout the demo store here:

http://www.facebook.com/Wazala?sk=app_147605761926866

Creating An Online Holiday Pop Up Store

October 23rd, 2011

With the Holiday season just around the corner, more businesses are catching onto the idea of a Holiday Pop Up Shop. These little businesses open around the Holidays spreading their marketing hard, then simply disappearing once the season is over. Halloween shops are found in strip malls, while Christmas gifts and gift wrapping businesses take advantage of this in small mall carts and little huts. They pop up out of nowhere, make a quick profit during the holidays then close shop.

Lately the same idea is becoming popular online. Ecommerce sites, and businesses are also taking advantage of this by creating limited time holiday pop up stores for specific merchandise of the season, or even marketing there goods as featured gift ideas in a separate Holiday store.

Thinking of creating one this season? Well Wazala would be a perfect fit!

Easiest Holiday Ecommerce Setup
The simple and easy to use store manager of Wazala allows you to add products easily for sale. Whether you wish to offer digital products with digital delivery or shippable products, it is effortless to create a product, upload a few pictures, set shipping rates (as well as express shipping to meet the holiday deadline) and list your products for sale. We truly mean it when we say easy!

Spread The Joy Of Shopping
A quick way to market your new store is to publish it on your site immediately. Wazala’s viral features allows you to add your store to multiple websites, social profiles and especially Facebook for added marketing and sales push. You can create the store with the true functionality of a pop up light box. The Wazala red button, looks great with a Christmas theme (you can also create your own), and you can customize it to be clear with a title of “Holiday Gifts”. Add it to your Holiday specials page on your website, as well as our Facebook business page for a fully functional Facebook store, and you’re ready to take orders anywhere your customer is.

Holiday Discounts & Special Offers
Coupons, sales and special discounts are also easy to create with Wazala. Your ecommerce platform comes pre-configured to give out discount codes on specific products or store wide deals, and customers are always on the look out to save more during the Holidays. Place your on sale products in a category, offer coupon codes on social networks or for returning customers via email marketing. A proven way to close deals is to also offer free shipping, or at least discounted shipping. While some care to get their shipment on a discount, many also look for express shipping that you can set up with Wazala for an extra fee that your customer can pay.

Socially Drive Your Pop Up Store
The purpose is to attract those looking for deals and special promotions, and using the Wazala social promoter with discount codes, this time of year would prove helpful in gaining new customers. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter can be configured to your Wazala store to post out your special deals, Holiday products and shipping rates. With a simple password configuration, you will be ready to ring those bells and shout out your offerings.

With only a few weeks left for the Holidays starting early is important. Many try to finish their shopping early enough to relax and enjoy the season, while marketing may take time to work, putting in your efforts early will prove big. A big tip we hope you would take advantage of is to send out a coupon code to all your customers, allow them to redeem and also send it out to a friend.

Share a little this Holiday season and reap the rewards on the New Year.

Selling Your Music Online

September 5th, 2011

If your reading this, you’re probably a musician, a band manager, or something in between, and you want to make money selling music online. This article will give you a few ideas on how to make that happen.
The first thing you have to know about selling your music online is that its VERY COMPETITIVE and you need to be vocally smarter not loader!
Ready to put some BASS into your sales? Read on..

Be Everywhere
Don’t be shy. If you want to actually sell your songs online, your going to have to get your butt out of your cozy cocoon of solitude and become an annoyingly social butterfly. Sign up for every music service, forum and blog in existence. Create awesome profiles with pictures of your band in badass poses. If the regular band profile is a shy, acne ridden nerd sulking in the back of class, your profile should be the popular jock with a heart of gold and perfect SAT scores. Not every profile you make is going to be a home run. Some of them will get no attention whatsoever. The key is to be in front of every pitch, swinging like a freaking madman.

Make It Easy to Find
There’s no point being crazy cool if people have no clue where to go to witness your awesomeness. In order to make your presence known, you should tag your music with specific keywords that are relevant to the music your putting out. Just to give an example, my brother is in a band. I would best describe what him and his band “play” as a highly delicate mix of jazz fusion, electro-acoustic pop, and horrifyingly awful garbage. So if he wanted to make sure that people found his music (I don’t know why he would), he would tag his music with the words “indie, jazz fusion, electro acoustic pop, horrifyingly, awful, garbage. That way, if someone was in the mood to take a dive into the musical equivalent of a dumpster, the incomprehensible heap of noise that his band calls music would be right there to aptly accommodate them. (sorry brother!)

Sell Anywhere
So your a pretty big deal, and easier to find than an senior citizen in miami. Now its time to start printing the money. Wazala and the Benjamins go way back, and we’re always down to arrange an introduction. We make it scary easy to start selling your music online, so that making bank doesn’t make you crazy. Another great feature that makes Wazala so incredibly amazing is that it allows you embed your store everywhere. Your Facebook, your blogs, your tumblr, your website, your mom’s website, it doesn’t matter. Long story short, anywhere you show your “I live to rock” mug, people will be able to buy your “I live to rock” mugs.

Stay Social
Talk with your fans. Engage them. Let them know whats going on with your band. This goes hand in hand in hand with being everywhere. A social media presence online is imperative in spreading the word about your band, as well as retaining fans and keeping them informed. Basically, people expect to hear from you. With Wazala’s social promoter, this is a breeze. The social promoter recommends and publishes messages to your twitter and facebook account, making it much more simple and efficient

Offer Something Different
Don’t be boring. Offer more than just music. Selling your merch is a great way to make extra money and raise awareness about your band. You can sell posters, CD covers, t-shirts, unreleased songs, tickets to shows…..the list goes on and on. You could also sell signed merch for your hardcore supporters. Wazala allows makes selling all these things easy. You can also sell the physical version of your album, in addition to the digital version.

Cut The Middle Man
Cut out the middle man! Make sure that everything you sell is revenue to you! Wazala does not take a transaction fee. Just a minimum subscription, & there is also a free store where you can sell up to five products to start with until you can afford more.

Show Your Best
Make great music. Music that gets a reaction. When it comes down to it, if your music isn’t good, no amount of marketing is going to be able to sell it. Remember you may only get one chance to make an impression on a listener, so you better make it count.

Interview – The Taylor’s Gift Foundation

August 28th, 2011

Are you an organ donor? 90% of Americans say they would donate an organ, but a few really do. In an effort to raise awareness, The Taylor’s Storch Foundation helps you ReGift Life.

The story of Taylor Storch caught our hearts and more importantly the positive empowerment that her Foundation creates! We got in touch with Todd Storch, Taylor’s father and one of the founders of Taylor’s Gift and we wanted you to hear their story..

Tell us about Taylor’s Gift and what it is you do?
Taylor’s Gift Foundation’s purpose and mission is increasing organ donation to regift life, renew health and restore families. We work every day to accomplish a number of items: Increase each state’s official organ donation registration database.
Be a resource to those that need information about organ donation.
Help support and bring help to those that are waiting to receive a donation.
And soon to provide resources to those families that have lost a child suddenly.

How easy is it to become a donor?
Easier and quicker than typing most emails! In almost every state in the USA, you can become a donor. If you spend 90 seconds at www.TaylorsGift.org and click “Become a Donor”, you can register with your state’s official registry.

What programs or opportunities do you offer for others that want to get involved?
Our Foundation is built on amazing volunteers that support us in a number of ways. We have opportunities and need that stretch from computer work to developing and running specific programs. Anyone can learn more and reach us at http://www.taylorsgift.org/get-involved

How does the sales of your online store help in expanding your mission?
We have a number of items available on our online store. The dollars we raise helps us with our Mission, develop programs and keep our Foundation running. Thank you Wazala for making this easy!

Any upcoming events that you wish to spread the word about?
We have a number of upcoming events from golf and sporting clay tournaments, to speaking engagements and fundraising events. Check out www.TaylorsGift.org/events for everything upcoming! A number of our events are in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area as well as the New York City area. We also have a number of people that help our Mission with Grassroots events across the country. Please contact us at getinvolved@taylorsgift.org for more information.

We urge you all to visit the Taylor’s Gift website – www.TaylorsGift.org – and get involved, become a donor or simply support this cause with a purchase from their online store.

Archive for the ‘Social Media’ Category

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