Social Media Updates: Social Buying, Business Pages and Dislike Button

With the holiday shopping season on the horizon, there have been several social media updates focused on social buying and businesses. Coincidence? We think not!

Recently, Twitter opened up buyable tweets to everyone, thanks to a partnership with Stripe. Now anyone can sell products via tweets powered by Stripe’s new API, Relay, which enables instant purchases and a streamlined payment process in third-party mobile apps (like Twitter). Here’s how in-tweet purchases work. If you want to tweet buy buttons, you’ll need to follow these steps!

Twitter is not the only one following in the footsteps of Pinterest; other social media giants are also getting in on the social shopping action.

Facebook is giving businesses a simple digital storefront, optimized for mobile devices, through a partnership with Shopify. Merchants will be able to integrate a shop section on their Facebook page where users can browse and purchase directly within the mobile app, and can even get notified when their favorite stores add new products. The Buy Button can show up in Facebook page posts and promoted post ads run by Shopify merchants, as well.

This move is in line with Facebook’s push for the platform to become the go-to mobile solution for businesses. A variety of updates will make business pages more like websites. Social media updates include customizable sections, prominent call-to-action buttons and improved messaging features for better customer service. We’ve noticed company Facebook pages rank in Google search almost as high as company websites, which begs the question: will Facebook pages become the go-to destination for company searches?

There has also been a ton of buzz around Facebook’s plans to launch a “dislike button.” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg emphasized the complication of integrating this option and his hopes that it will become a feature to show empathy, rather than creating negativity voting up or down on a post. So, where do you stand: do you like the “dislike” button?

Let us know your thoughts in the comments!