How to Drive Traffic to eBay Listings Using Facebook

Facebook for eBay
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Facebook is a great place to hang out, see what your friends are up to, or catch up on trending news. It can also be a huge time suck if you spend too much time there. One smart use of Facebook for business is to use the site to promote your eBay items.​

But you have to be careful. People may unfriend or unfollow you if you promote too often, or seem pushy or obsessed with promoting eBay listings. Here are a few tips for using Facebook wisely to give your eBay listings a little boost on the world's largest social media site. 

Use the Facebook Widget on eBay Listings

On every eBay listing, on the right-hand side just above the seller information, are the social media icons for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and email. After listing an item, you can use these buttons to post items directly to your social media. Just use these with caution. There is nothing more annoying than a Facebook friend who is an eBay seller and constantly posts their listings. Limit how much you post.

Friends don't like to constantly see all your junk for sale. The Facebook widget is best used when you have something unusual, unique, or that has a great story. For example, one seller I know had some Christmas ornaments from her father-in-law.

It was a crate of Russian blown glass ornaments. Very interesting and a beautiful set of vintage ornaments. This is the kind of item that may be hard to find, nostalgic, or collectible and your Facebook friends may be interested in purchasing them.

Try Facebook Buy/Sell Groups

Facebook buy sell groups are local groups where people can transact business with each other. They are a bit safer than Craigslist as the groups are self-monitored and if a transaction goes badly or someone is swindled, they are reported to the moderators and kicked out of the group.

Also, most people have their photo on their Facebook profile so you can see what the person looks like before meeting them. (Always meet in a safe, well-lit, busy public place like a Starbucks, a police station, or the lobby of a grocery store where there are security cameras.) 

These groups are great for selling items that are too large to ship. Items like furniture, bicycles, sporting goods, car parts, musical instruments, lamps - anything bulky or heavy. You can list the item on eBay but with local pickup, and promote it on Facebook.

Always read the rules before posting an actual eBay listing on a Facebook Buy Sell Group. Many don't allow eBay listings because members historically have taken advantage of the platform and spam the members with a bunch of eBay listings all the time.

You may just want to try to sell the item outright on a Facebook Buy/Sell Group. Just copy and paste all the info from eBay, and the photos, on to the Facebook group. If you list directly on the group, you can get away with selling the item for a little less because there won't be eBay or Paypal fees. 

Set Up a Facebook Business Page

One place on Facebook you can have total control of the content of the page is if you set up your own business page. You will have to do the work to get followers, but once you get them, your posts will show up in their feed. To set up a Facebook business page:

  • Decide what kind of business you want to show up as - local business, brand or product, organization, etc.
  •  Enter the details about your business - give a little blurb about what you do.
  • Create and upload an engaging profile photo and the header banner.
  • Choose a call to action for your visitors - what do you want them to do? (Visit your store, like your page, etc.)
  • Start promoting your new business page to your friends, email contacts, past customers Once You set up your Facebook Business Page, you can even run ads there. This is where you can really target buyers on Facebook because you can target them based on their likes. For example, if you sell cheerleading hair bows, you can create ads to target women who have likes related to cheerleading.

Facebook can be an efficient and successful way to promote your eBay store or listings. Just do it the smart way. If you just blast out your listings to your friends all the time, you will probably end up with fewer friends and your marketing will have the opposite desired effect.