Have you run into a brick wall when it comes to growing your Facebook fan base? This week as I completed a purchase at Hayneedle, I encountered a great way to for e-commerce merchants to use the checkout process to get more Facebook fans.

Right after completing my order that I was really excited about because I got a fantastic price, this little pop-up appeared:

Yes, I had enjoyed shopping with them! How did they know?

Presenting a shopper with the option to “Like” your brand immediate after a purchase is a great idea. Try adding an incentive by offering a discount on their next purchase for “liking” your store to really encourage them.

Another nice surprise I had was related to shipping. They have a shipping method populator with delivery estimate and my estimated delivery date was Wednesday the 15^th. Yesterday I got the shipping confirmation with the tracking number and the delivery date is now scheduled for Saturday the 11^th! Am I happy? Yes! I’m such a satisfied customer that I’m sharing the story with you and I haven’t even received the order yet – the only thing better than your order being delivered on the scheduled date is getting your order before the scheduled date.

I know that the big companies may have more resources and the smaller stores, but that doesn’t mean than you can’t take some cues from them to stay competitive.

Personally, I think it is an improvement. I was never crazy about the landing pages that businesses would create in order to get you to “like” them, and with the Timeline feature, that is gone.

But, that isn’t the only reason I think it is superior.

>The Cover Photo is more striking and gives you a great opportunity to make an impact on visitors and fans.

>The ability to Pin posts to the top of the Timeline is extremely helpful for marketers. Any important announcement or event can be pinned to the top where it is one of the first things visitors will see and it will stay there until you unpin it.

>Similar to pinning, you have the option of Highlighting posts too. Visitors can choose how they want to browse through your content by selecting different viewing options, one of which is to view the highlighted content first.

>The new timeline feature also allows you to set Milestones, which businesses can use to share company history and build a connection with your fans.

Like it or not, the change to Facebook business pages is an opportunity to expand and develop a deeper connection with your fan base. What you do with it is up to you.

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