Small businesses open storefronts on Facebook

Small businesses are looking to increase their marketing efforts through the popular social network Facebook, which has close to a billion active users who log onto the site daily. With the number of users on Facebook increasing daily, advertising and starting business pages on the popular site is becoming more appealing to aspiring business owners.

One instance of successful Facebook marketing is the story of Mandie Miller. She left her job as an on-air traffic reporter in Charlotte, North Carolina, when she had her first child and started a cake baking business for friends. Her friends enjoyed the cakes so much, she started to produce them for sale and came up with Got What It Cakes in April 2009, with cake orders starting at two or three a weekend.

After her sister started a Got What it Cakes Facebook page five months after the business was created, cake orders went from two or three a weekend to as many as 10 every weekend, boosting annual revenue at the end of her second year to a little more than $40,000.

The company is now part of a new wave of businesses that is increasing its small business marketing online through online commerce called F-commerce. The term was initiated in 2009 to describe the increasing number of businesses that sell through a Facebook page.

Payvment, a startup company that gives consumers support for Facebook shopping transactions, stated that it has 170,000 clients and is signing up an estimated 1,500 stores a week, with most having fewer than five employees.

Companies are also using Pinterest and Foursquare to expand their business' reach to consumers. The two recent additions to the market have sparked interest from consumers, making it a worthwhile avenue to consider if trying to increase a company's brand.