Facebook is controlling more and more of users' time online and that doesn't look like it’s going to change anytime soon. To what extent Facebook will dominate our web use is yet to be seen with Facebook giving us more and more reasons to use it. Just look at the recent South Park episode for a good image of how Facebook continues to suck more people in.

Facebook is where people are online.

Facebook is now giving businesses a way to get people more interested in buying from them. For some time companies have been wondering how they can transform Facebook from a "soft" relationship and marketing tool to something that will actually have an effect on their company’s bottom line.

Payvment is a new incentive feature that means that retailers using Payvment can go in and simply set a certain percentage they want to offer as a discount in exchange for the user becoming a fan of the page. This means Facebook users who now come across retailers utilising Payvment, will be able to get discounts on merchandise for becoming a fan. This move hopes to drive interest in Facebook e-commerce and user engagement with retail brands.

First, it's important to understand how Payvment's Facebook storefront app works. Unlike some of the other Facebook e-commerce apps out there, Payvment:

•    Doesn't take users away from Facebook, and lets them pay via PayPal or credit card through PayPal (most likely Facebook credits as well before long)
•    Is completely free and always will be
•    Acts as a network of retailers from which customers can make multiple purchases across, all in one checkout process (money is then divided up among the retailers on the back-end)
•    Provides users with a way to discover additional retailers on Facebook as each retailer's page provides a gateway to additional brand pages for shopping.

Whether you are going to use an app like Payvment or not, it shows you that monetising Facebook fans can be done, and if social media ROI is one of your concerns, this is a good example to look at.