What are Facebook Gifts

Today, Facebook announced another addition to their social networking site – Facebook Gifts. Now, instead of giving virtual gifts, you can give real gifts for real moments.

With this new feature tied in to Facebook Timeline, now whenever someone celebrates a milestone, a birth or a birthday, you’ll be ready to send them a gift – without leaving Facebook.

What I like about Facebook Gifts

One thing that I am looking forward to with Facebook Gifts is the ability to create a seamless social shopping environment.  Now, instead of having to go to different websites to do my online shopping or forgetting about a birthday, milestone or anniversary, I can now send Facebook gifts two ways – from the status update area or under the birthdays and Life Events section on the Facebook news feed.

From the looks of things, sending a Facebook Gift is very seamless too – with a few nice features thrown in.

How to send a Facebook Gift

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Instead of sending someone a virtual gift, send them a REAL gift with Facebook Gifts.
Instead of sending someone a virtual gift, send them a REAL gift with Facebook Gifts.

Facebook Gifts now allows you the opportunity to send someone a real gift instead of a virtual gift.

Gift a gift anytime!
Gift a gift anytime!

Under the “birthday and life events” section, you now have the option to give a gift.

Give a gift in your status updates
Give a gift in your status updates

On your Facebook Profile, you now have an additional option – gift. When you select this, you will be taken to the gifts page to select a gift for someone.

Buying Facebook Gifts
Buying Facebook Gifts

Once you’ve selected your gift, you can now pay for it using your credit card (which you have on-file with Facebook).

Posting on Timeline
Posting on Timeline

When you send a Facebook Gift, you now have the ability to notify the recipient by posting it to their Timeline.

Send a gift (and a card)
Send a gift (and a card)

Every gift you send through Facebook Gifts also includes a virtual card.

Shipping selection
Shipping selection

When your recipient is notified about their Facebook Gift, they have the option to decide where it gets shipped to. This way they don’t have to go through the hassle of tracking down their package.

 

Features of Facebook Gifts

Facebook Gifts isn’t just a platform to sell more stuff. There are quite a few neat features that they have added in. These features include:

  • Types of gifts: gift cards, physical goods
  • Send a gift from the status update bar
  • Send a gift from your news feed
  • Notify someone about a Facebook Gift via the Facebook Mobile app
  • Notify someone about a Facebook Gift in Timeline
  • Gifts include a virtual card
  • No more tracking gifts – gift recipients can choose where their gift is shipped

Where Facebook is headed

While I cannot predict the future, one thing I can tell you is that Facebook is now trying to make social shopping more readily available and more of an impulse buy. No longer will you have to worry about forgetting someones birthday – you can take care of it right there as soon as you’re notified within Facebook.

Do you plan to use Facebook Gifts or will you stick with other traditional shopping sites?

Have a question on sending Facebook Gifts? Leave a comment below or send me a Facebook Message.