Social Media Icons for trust - have link land them on a social media page or have them stay on the page with like, tweet, +,etc?

[RobertFisher]

An interesting question arises out of a conversation with one of my team. We were talking about FB pages in particular regarding a client and I am for icons that allow for trust without leaving the client's site page (I am from a direct marketing background originally and am against sending them somewhere else). She was pointing out that we had a client who has a FB page and we were not sending them to that page.

I explained how I do not like to gain a bit of trust by sending them off site because it is the opportunity to lose a conversion by them becoming distracted. I also thought of a client who has over 100,000 likes, shares, etc. and who still is in the direct sales business at the end of the day; were they better off with a prospective client/customer to send them to their FB page/Twitter page, etc. or should they stay on the commercial site?

I still believe that in the bricks and mortar world, I would not have a customer who came in to buy/look at a TV first go down the street to a social club for people who liked my company and then hope they come back and buy. Also, is there an opportunity to close a sale that would not have been closed by virtue of sending them away or to increase the size of the sale (remember, this must be such a sale increase or probability of sale increase as to outweigh the risk of loss of a client who would have bought)?

I look forward to your assistance.

[EGOL]

I think that it all depends upon what you are offering and where they are going.

If you offer best product around at lowest price they can find then you should not mind them going out to tell people about it or ask if it is a good deal.  They might return with six friends.

Now, if you are sending them to a totally unrelated site with nobody to tell about your products/prices then that could be a bad move.

In a similar but different way.... I don't mind running adsense ads on my product pages if I have the lowest price, best product, great deal.  That way, I can show my product, take a piece of my competitors advertising budget and still have the visitor return to my site to make the purchase.

[Francisco_Meza]

I would keep people on the page ESPECIALLY if it's paid search. I also want people to go to our Facebook Fan page, but I don't send them there until the Thank You page (conversion page). On my conversion page, I put a video telling them to 1) Give me a Facebook URL Like 2) Visit our Facebook and become a fan 3) sign up for Newsletter.

The less steps between a conversion, the better.

Before you make a decision, check your Google Analytics to see how low your conversion rates are from the Facebook fan page. The reason is say "low" is no matter how I look at it (last click, assisted, 1st click) it still doesn't beat my paid advertising conversion ratio. Get the conversion 1st, then send them to the Facebook Fan Page.

[EGOL]

I agree with keeping them on the site if they are coming from paid search!

Sending them to FB from the "thank you" page is a GREAT idea.

[RobertFisher]

EGOL,

I typically am anti adsense, your idea is the first to make me think, hmmmm?

Thanks,

[EGOL]

Robert,

If you go to ebay and amazon you will see them running adsense (or equivalent) on their product pages.