Call to Action (CTA) Buttons: The Beginning of Social Commerce

Social media no longer remains just social- very fast its turning to be commercial too!

It has made easy for brands to engage with the target customers. Different social media channels offer different ways to connect with the consumers. The latest invention is the addition of several social media ‘Call to Action’ buttons for enticing people to indulge in online shopping.

It’s a great idea to add new and simple ways of easing the buying process and if you add those options on the social media channels that your consumers use the most, it’s even better. Both Facebook and Twitter have worked hard to make the whole online shopping process easier.

What’s this all about? Let’s discuss!

CTA buttons by Facebook

On October 12, Facebook first announced its initiative to enable people shop on the Facebook app itself. Its paid ‘Show Now’ tab will allow online business owners to display their products and services as ads on the Facebook news feed and customers can directly purchase by clicking on the ‘Shop Now’, Facebook call to action tab. 

Apart from that, Facebook also introduced CTA (Call to Action) buttons. According to Facebook, as a page admin you can select the required one from a group of CTA buttons to add to the top of your company page. 

From the side bar you will also get stats for how many people have really clicked on that. By clicking on this button, consumers will land up on a specific page. 

The available, Facebook call to action variations are mentioned below:

1. Book Now

2.  Call Now

3. Contact Us

4. Send Message

5. Use App

6. Play Game

7. Shop Now

8. Sign Up

9. Watch Video

10. Send Email

Twitter Call to Action button

Twitter came into eCommerce business in February 2013. Twitter’s call to action button allowed the customers to shop with a Twitter synced American Express card and using a specific hashtag like #BuyWDress. 

Here any retailer can add the ‘Buy’ button and mention the price of the specific product or service to his tweets. On the other side, the customer can buy that without even leaving Twitter. 

 Twitter’s Head of Commerce, Mr Nathan Hubbard said, “Our goal is to make it easy for all the business to directly connect with the customers and sell their products on Twitter itself”. 

CTA buttons by Pinterest

Pinterest also introduced ‘Buy’ buttons for its pins. As 93% of pinners have the intention to purchase, it’s a great platform for brands who wish to expand their online businesses. 

The buyable pins easily fit into the news feed, and enables the customers to purchase directly from the pin by clicking on it without leaving Pinterest. These buyable pins  are now compatible on with Apple devices in the US and the payment can be processed through any major credit cards or through Apple Pay and the great news is Pinterest will not take any portion of the sales.

As of now, online businesses need to use Bigcommerce, IBM Commerceor, Demandware, and Shopify to integrate the ‘Buy It’ button from Pinterest. 

Instagram Call to Action button

On the Instagram platform, one of the biggest problems for online business owners, was they could not insert clickable links in any photo caption. That time, Instagram’s main focus was to share visual content not any URL. 

But, advertisers and online marketers became really glad when Instagram introduced the ‘Call To Action’ (CTA) buttons on its official blog. Just like its previous ‘Sponsored’ tags, these Instagram call to action buttons also fit right in that very familiar interface. There are several types of CTA buttons like ‘Shop Now’, ‘Learn More’, Sign Up’ and many more for directing users to take the required action.  

Apart from that, Instagram has also introduced a new API, a software platform that helps companies to manage, track and measure all of their marketing campaigns.

For most of the brands, social media is a great platform to reach to the segmented audience. For increased brand awareness, try to use most of it. In today’s time, for any new brand, consumers search its social media profile, reviews, ratings and so on only to get an idea about that company. Social media marketing has become an integral part of any business. So if you want to experiment with these social media buttons, this is the best time to start.