Facebooking with eBay

You can now list your eBay auctions on Facebook.

If you haven’t already signed up to Facebook and have been wondering what all the fuss is about, it’s one of the most popular social networking sites on the Internet today.

Facebook members post information about what they’re doing or thinking, news, photos, their interests… just about anything really. You can also become "friends" with people you know, or people you meet through the website.

Your friends are automatically updated when you add information to your profile, which allows them keep an eye on what you’re up to.

If you’re already a Facebook user, you’ll be familiar with the News Feed that shows up on your Home page — this is where your friend updates appear. It looks a bit like this…

You can see that all sorts of information is posted in the News Feed, including advertisements. Most Facebook members check their Home page regularly, so they know what their friends are up to.

The News Feed is also interactive. If you notice a friend joining a group that appeals to you, for example, you can click the link and check it out for yourself. (The linked text is blue.)

So, what does this all have to do with eBay?

Well… now you can show your eBay listings in the Facebook News Feeds. That means all your Facebook friends will see your auctions when they appear… which instantly gives you a much larger audience.

Here’s how it works…

Go to your selling preferences in My eBay to link your Facebook profile to your eBay account, or use the link on the "Congratulations" page after you’ve listed an item through the Sell Your Item form.

After that, whenever you list a new item, it will automatically be included in Facebook News Feed.

If you’ve never shared a listing with Facebook before, you’ll get an invitation whenever you successfully list an item.

Once you start sharing, all the items you list for sale on eBay will continue to be sent to Facebook, until you turn off sharing in My eBay.

If you don’t want to share, click Cancel on the confirmation page rather than Confirm.

To stop or re-start sharing, you can go to My eBay and edit your sharing preferences whenever you want.

However…

There are a couple of things you need to remember, though. eBay’s shill bidding policy doesn’t allow bids from anyone who has more access to your item information than the general eBay Community.

This means your friends aren’t allowed to bid on an auction-style listing.

But if you want your Facebook friends to be able to buy your items, simply list them as Buy It Now or for a Fixed Price.

It’s still okay to offer auction-style bidding on your items, but your Facebook friends just won’t be able to bid. eBay recommends that you block bids from their eBay accounts.

Will this turn into more sales for you?

Well, as always we suggest you make sure all the basics are in place for your listings before you try anything else.

We’re talking about descriptive and vibrant item descriptions, great pictures, the right keywords in your title, and good Detailed Service Ratings at the very least! But it’s always good to remember that social networking sites like Facebook continue to rise in popularity… and that’s a market you can’t ignore forever.

In fact, Facebook’s members in the US alone increased by 98% from 2007 to 24.9 million unique users by the end of March. So in all likelihood, you already have a bunch of friends on Facebook, even if you haven’t used it yourself.

It looks like eBay will allow listings to be displayed on other social networking sites if the Facebook venture is successful, so this is definitely a strategy to keep an eye on for the future.

For more info, check out eBay’s Help page.

(No Ratings Yet)

 Loading ...