Facebook Offers - FB has another crack at daily deals
It was over a year ago now that we announced that Facebook was getting into the daily deals market. Facebook offers was an initiative that Facebook launched in 2011– mainly in the USA. The venture didn’t really go anywhere and in August 2011, Facebook pulled the plug on the venture.
Now Facebook have announced that they are trying again, this time with a refined, simpler way to run daily deals via Facebook business pages.
The first facebook offers was more of an offer syndication service. They would post links of deals running on established deal sites like Living Social. Facebook weren't involved in the deals in anyway, the simply acted as the advertiser of the offer, and took a commission. The deals weren't even transacted thru facebook, this happened on 3rd party websites.
Well that didn’t go to well. It was just more advertising, and there was no real value for customers. They just saw more ads. The new system uses a different business model, which is more suited to Facebook. Businesses with Facebook pages can create an offer thru the facebook website, purely for their facebook members. This keeps the deal within facebook, not going to another external site.
The new offers system looks nice clean, and simple to use. When you like the page of a business you will see their updates in your timeline. When a business chooses to post a their own deal, it will show in your timeline. From there simply click on the “Get Offer” link on the post, and the Facebook will email you the offer.
From their check your inbox, and review the deal. If you wish to redeem it, you can do so on the spot. Then simply show the merchant your printed voucher, or your mobile phone with the online voucher showing.
Facebook offers is still in beta stage meaning that only a limited number of businesses are currently offering deals. This is limited to businesses globally, but does include some businesses in New Zealand according to SGEntrepreneurs.com.
As time goes on, offering deals will open to all business pages. A business will be able to create their own deal by clicking the OFFER button on their Facebook Page timeline. This means that a business can run a deal themselves, saving deal site commissions. Your offer goes out to all the people that have liked your facebook page. My opinion is that this will become a popular method for purchasing daily deals.
Watch this video to get a good grasp on the new service. We think it’s a great improvement on their first attempt at daily deals. The service is free for now, but we envisage that they will charge a commission in the future.
If you have a business page on Facebook, you can read more about offers here:
