Lesson 15. The Facebook Marketplace
In this lesson, you learn how to sell stuff locally on Facebook. You’ll also learn how to use the Marketplace app to browse items for sale and create your own listing.
What Is the Marketplace?
The Facebook Marketplace is a mutual effort from Facebook and Oodle, a network for classified ads online. Hoping to capture the growing Facebook user base, Facebook’s Marketplace combines the social and interactive elements of its site with the growing popularity of online classifieds. Marketplace is another of Facebook’s default applications available to all users. You can sell stuff in the Marketplace or buy stuff others are selling. You can search for specific items, sell items for a charity, or just see what everyone else is buying and selling online. You can sell household items, vehicles, and even houses in the Marketplace. You can also advertise for roommates, search for jobs, or look for an apartment to rent. The service is free, and best of all, you can conceivably know who you’re buying from or selling to by checking out their profile pages when applicable. Listings are active for 30 days. Although the Marketplace app is integrated into Facebook, it’s managed by Oodle. The Marketplace feature has been available for awhile now, but it’s starting to pick up steam, particularly after the success of craigslist and the advent of another wave of new site upgrades to Facebook in the fall and winter of 2011/2012.
As with other online classified ad sites, in the Facebook Marketplace you can create listings for items you want to sell. Your listings can include a photo of the item, details about it, and why you’re selling it. Other Facebook users can come along and view your listing, ask questions, add comments, and make a deal. Because of Facebook’s viral nature, someone can come along and comment about a listing, such as “I have one of these and I love it,” or “I want to give away my couch to charity, too,” and spread the word quickly throughout their networks of friends. The sale or donation of an item can generate other interests, conversations, and so on. You may be surprised at the outcome, such as finding out that someone shares the same hobby or cause as you.
The Marketplace offers several categories for listings, including the following:
• Merchandise—This category is for items you want to sell, such as household items, furniture, baby clothes, books, and so on.
• Cars—This category is for listing cars, motorcycles, campers, vehicle parts, boats, and other motorized vehicles.
• Rentals—Use this category to find apartments to rent, roommates, and short-term housing situations.
• Real Estate—Use this category to look for houses and condos for sale.
• Jobs—Use this category to look for full and part-time job opportunities.
• Pets—Looking for a new pet? Check out this category to find your next cat, dog, or hamster.
• Tickets—Find tickets to the hottest show or concert.
• More—This category opens more categories, such as links to community and service listings.
You peruse each category to see what’s out there for sale. Each category features subcategories.
Caution
Anytime you enter into the realm of buying and selling on the Internet, fraud and scam artists lurk around, ready to thwart your efforts. Be cautious, especially about deals that are too good to be true. Scammers offer all kinds of transactions that ultimately are illegal or rob you of your money, such as bounced checks, scams to send money to another country, or scams to steal your personal information. If your gut tells you something’s wrong, it probably is. You can always report your suspicions; look for a Report This Listing link at the bottom of any ad. You can also alert Facebook when you encounter spam ads.
Navigating the Marketplace
To help you get a better idea of what you can do with the Marketplace, take a few moments to look around the pages. Figure 15.1 shows the Marketplace Home page, the “doorway,” so to speak, to the online classified ads. You can access this page by clicking the Marketplace link on the Home page. The app’s portal page displays featured sale items. You can start by browsing among the popular items, or jump right into browsing by category.
Figure 15.1 Facebook’s Marketplace gateway.
Note
If you’re a new Facebook user, you might not see the Marketplace app listed among your applications. If this is the case, you can conduct a search for it and authorize its use. Just type the keyword Marketplace in the Search box on the navigation bar, and then click the Marketplace App from the menu that appears. After you add the application, it will be available as a link on the Home page under the Apps category.
Figure 15.1 shows how easily you can browse around in the main categories and subcategories in the Marketplace. Across the top of the Marketplace Home page are tools for searching for listings and posting your own listings. For example, you can click the Browse button and choose a category to look through, or simply click a link in the left pane of the page.
Most important, you’ll notice a location link. When clicked, it opens a Set Your Location box. You can click this box and specify an area where you want to shop. To set your Marketplace location, follow these steps:
1. Click in the Location link to display the Set Your Location dialog box shown in Figure 15.2.
Figure 15.2 You can specify a Marketplace location.
2. Click the Country box and type in or select a country.
3. Click the Location box and type in a city and state, preferably a city near you.
4. Click the Make this my Home Location check box to make this your default location setting.
5. Click Set Location.
Facebook changes the Marketplace page to reflect the new location setting. You can now peruse listings in your area.
Browsing the Listings
You can search for a specific item in the Marketplace, or browse the listings to see what people are selling in your area. For example, to look for items being offered for sale, look among the Merchandise category. To browse, just click a subcategory under any main category area. Facebook opens a results page, similar to Figure 15.3.
Figure 15.3 You can leisurely browse through the various subcategories to see what items are listed in your area.
As you peruse the listings, you can click a listing title to open its page. The listing page opens, as shown in Figure 15.4. It includes the seller’s profile picture, details about the item for sale, a place for a photo of the item, recent or similar listings, and an area to ask a question or leave a comment. If you’re interested in the item, click the I’m Interested button and send the seller a message. You can also use the listing’s Comments area to ask a question.
Figure 15.4 A typical ad listing on the Marketplace.
You can click the Share button to open the Share dialog box and post a link to the ad on your profile page, or send a link to a friend to check out.
To search for a specific item, click in the Search box at the top of any Marketplace page and type in the keyword or words you want to look up. Press Enter or Return, and Facebook displays any matching results. Facebook keeps track of your typed searches and lists them on the results page in case you want to use them again at a later time; just click the text to conduct a search.
In previous versions of the Marketplace app, you could easily return to Facebook using a button at the top of the screen. As of this writing, such a link doesn’t exist. They might change this as they continue to work on the app, but for now, you’ll need to type in the www.facebook.com address in your browser to get back to your Facebook account.
Adding Your Own Listing
You can easily create your own ads in the Marketplace. To start a listing, click the Post button at the top of the Marketplace page. This opens the Post a Listing box, as shown in Figure 15.5. You may be prompted to allow Marketplace access to your profile first, but just okay the procedure and continue.
Figure 15.5 Use the Post a Listing box to start your ad.
Begin filling out the required fields in the form. As soon as you choose a category, the box expands to reveal more form fields, as shown in Figure 15.6.
Figure 15.6 The Post a Listing form expands as you fill it out to reveal more details you can add.
Fill in the rest of the information as applicable. Explain why you’re selling the item and add any detailed information about it. You can use the Photo field to upload a photo of the item. You can also choose to post the item to friends only or to everyone on Facebook. When you’ve finished filling out the details, click the Post button. Facebook then asks whether you want to publish the ad on your news feed.
Finally, if this is your first time selling an item, the Marketplace app displays a Request for Permission page; click Allow.
After you post an ad, monitoring it, answering any questions that arise, and figuring out how a buyer pays you when you reach an agreed-upon price are all up to you. Because the Marketplace is designed to be local in nature, you can expect buyers to pick up the item at an arranged time and place, and pay with cash. Facebook’s Marketplace does not offer a money service, such as eBay’s PayPal, so you’re really left to your own devices.
To view your listings, click the My Account link. This opens a page where you can view active listings, expired listings, responses, and so on.
To end a listing, after it’s sold or when you give up on selling it, you can revisit the My Account page, open the listing page, and click the Close link.
Summary
In this lesson, you learned how to use Facebook’s Marketplace to buy and sell items. You learned how to browse for items, search for specific items, and view items for sale. You also learned how to create and post your own listing. In the next lesson, you’ll learn how to take Facebook on the road with you using the mobile features.