Social media has become a very important component of marketing efforts of top companies worldwide. With hundreds of millions of people around the world connected through various social media sites like Facebook (400million+ subscribers) , Linkedin
(65+ million subscribers) , Youtube, Twitter and a host of other sites, it is only natural that companies would like to convert the visitors on these sites to their customers. Many brands have already taken the social media route to promote their brands. With new tools being provided by the social networking sites, it is becoming easier for various companies to develop a community around their products – which helps the companies to get sales through peer recommendation.
Facebook has introduced new social plugins which can be easily incorporated in the websites to create user experiece which is more personalised and social. Levi’s has announced that it will be using the Facebook plugins , specially the ‘Like Functionality’ to provide innovative shopping experience to their buyers on their site Levi.com . They are also building a ‘Friend Store’ which would be visible to the logged in users of Facebook.
How does these Social Plugin Work On Levi’s Store
Levi’s has paired the ‘Like’ button alongwith their products. As a result , visitors can see how many facebook users actually like that particular product. One can add one’s like to this list by just clicking on the button and logging in with the facebook login details.
As in the example above, this particular jeans has been liked by 138 facebook users. And if you click on the ‘Like’ button, you will be able to login to facebook and add your liking to this jeans. And once you click on the button, there will be a pop-up message poster to facebook from where you can add comments to this liking which your friends can see those comments on your facebook page . 
Not only this, you would be able to see the images of your friends who have liked this particular product on the Levi’s Friend Store. So , it becomes a nice recommendation tool where facebook users can see which of the Levi’s jeans their friends like and (maybe) why ! . Its like meeting friends in college cafetaria and discussing ones favourite jeans .
How is Levi’s Going To Benefit From This
Levi’s , with its substantial customer base around the world will get great benefits from this Facebook tool.
- They will get more sales since peer recommendation is a powerful incentive to purchase a product.
- They will get great feedback on all their products and will be able to generate seasonwise, productwise liking report which will help them to forecast their sales better and to build more customised products for their users.
- They will be able to know region wise liking of their products – which will again be a great customer input for future marketing campaigns and product directions.
- For the customers, there is the comfort of knowing that their friends have already used or liked a particular Levi’s product and they will be more at ease buying the same.
With all these benefits, it is not surprising that Levi’s has gone with the Facebook ‘Like’ functionality plugin and taken it a level up by creating their ‘Friends Store’. They may adapt some of the more social plugins which are coming up if they find it useful to promote their products on the net.
Some of the other early adopters of this Facebook application include CNN and movie site IMDB. And there is no reason why other denim brands , or for that matter any apparel brand, should not follow suit. Already major retailers have their own facebook accounts. However, for this particular functionality to be useful ,an important requirement would be that the brand needs to have a respectable online store which gets sizeable traffic . Without a sizeable traffic, the advantages of these plugins would be minimal.
