eMarketer recently published a report entitled Facebook Commerce: Reaching Shoppers Where They Socialize. There are a number of interesting insights to come from this report, but we think one of the most interesting is their look at why Facebook users like business pages on Facebook. We thought Valentine’s Day was an appropriate time to take a look at why users are ‘falling in like’ with businesses around the world. As you can see from the graph below, nearly 80% of respondents are using social media to take advantage of special offers and discounts. In addition, eMarketer makes the following observations about shopper behaviour on Facebook in particular:

• The leading reason for liking a business on Facebook is to get access to sales and special promotions.
• One user liking your page does have an influence on the purchase behaviour of that users friends.

This is exactly why we were motivated to build our new application, GoSocial Deals. This application lets you create and run special offers within Facebook. It is designed to take advantage of the shopper behaviour highlighted in this eMarketer report. Firstly, it gives your existing fans what they came for – access to a special promotion. Secondly, because of the way it spreads as people participate you end up with a whole lot more Facebook likes, which influences an even wider audience than just those who participate. If you want to give it a go for yourself, head over and request an invite to give GoSocial Deals a try. Being the day of love we are in a pretty good mood, so will be handing them out like heart shaped candy. Also, if you are interested in reading more insights from the eMarketer report you should head over and read their article, where you can also purchase the full report by subscription.