Present The Deals Where The Customer Is

I got 3 emails from Groupon yesterday and one from Groupalia. Honestly it's just too much. Love the service but 4 emails in one day, with offers that I only found half interesting... I'm not sold, I will unsubscribe tomorrow morning or at least see if I can limit them to send me one weekly email with the latest offers.

This all comes back to what I have been saying before. The Facebook newsfeed is the best thing ever invented. Will Groupon make me visit their site? I doubt it, so their only way to present me the deals is through emails.
Will a check-in Location Based Service such as Foursquare make me visit them, yes. Why? Because it's easy through their mobile app. Why doesn't Groupon have an app?
Isn't all tech services and products about making life easier for the customer these days? Camera, MP3 player and phone in one, home cinemas with internet connections, GPS in the mobile...
The thought of not having to leave Facebook is pretty comfortable to me. If I can get my deals straight from there, why spend 10 minutes going through emails with offers from Groupon, Gowalla or any other service for that matter?
Facebook seems to focus on social experiences. Maybe this is what will differentiate them from other deal services. Maybe I will go to Groupon for a discount on a new iMac, or a discount on a restaurant but will stay on Facebook to know the latest deals on the new movie that opens next week or what's the exclusive barbeque party all about.
It's not clear though, almost all the deals I have received from Groupon so far have been experiences too. Even though some of them did sound interesting, the adventure rafting for examples, Groupon misses out on the interaction part. I can't see if any of my friends are talking about this experience, I can't discuss is easily just by clicking share and instantaneously have ALL of my network right there.

This interview is with Emily White, Senior of Local at Facebook. She explains the concept well and it's worth reading.

Two things she said:

“Let’s create something that really takes advantage of normal human behavior, and at the same time is really good for businesses”

“We’re really going for ease of use,” White said. “You’re able to discover a deal in your News Feed rather than go through 10 new daily deal emails. We’re adding value or actually your friends are adding value. Credits are the same way. It’s not about pushing Credits.”

To read the full interview Click here!Tweet

ThruSocial Facilitates Page Creation

Location Based Services, Social Deals and Mobile Marketing are probably the 3 things that interest me the most at the moment in the social media world.

Facebook Deals and Groupon offer companies the creation and mega distribution of deals. Deals that make people buy, that eventually increases sales.
Location Based Services also work well to increase sales but more I would locate this one in the Increase Brand Awareness bucket.

In the past I´ve looked to Wildfire when it comes to promotion apps. But they now also offers Group Deals.

Thrusocial is a new company that offers pre-paid coupons and a drag and drop page tab creation service,  all of this seems great. Please watch the video below and this article that includes more info.

Facebook Page Admins Can Offer Pre-Paid Deals Directly With ThruSocial and FaceItPages

However I must still say that the single most powerful thing of Facebook still is the newsfeed and the access to that makes a world of difference.  Groupon offers a massive distribution.

From a first look at this it seems like a good option for smaller businesses wanting to try out the world of group deals.

Further more I must mention that Thrusocial offers a kind of a promotion center called Thrupons where a company´s promotion can live and get updated automatically to the brand´s facebook page. NOTE! Seems this is U.S based so far cus when I entered my Barcelona zipcode I was asked if I wanted deals from New York. 

Anyway, this is something to keep your eyes on for sure...

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Facebook Deals! It´s Live!

LBS and Deals. Am I repeating myself too much? Perhaps. But it´s easy to do that when you speak (or write) about something you´re passionate about.
This morning my man called me and the first thing he said was "With who are you having drinks at 10 in the morning?" Um..drinks? The only drinks I had today was a coffee at home and a glass of water in the office. I was confused for 5 seconds until I remembered I helped him install Foursquare yesterday.
He was obviously referring to the random test check-ins I did this morning while walking to the office discovering loyalty specials just while walking. I apparently checked into  Coppala Bar where you get a free tequila on your 3rd checkin. My twisted sense of humor thought that was funny.

Location is fun. Deals are great. Now Facebook is rolling out their Groupon/LivingSocial version and this is gonna be big. Perhaps even pushing the two already established giants off the market who knows.
The advantage Facebook obviously has is the market share and the already savvy 7hours per month user who prefers to stay at one place instead of moving around too much.

In my opinion one crucial thing for Facebook now is to make the deals relevant to each person. The newsfeed is a sensitive place, we unsubscribe and unfriend people more than ever before. We are getting more and more selective. You clog up my newsfeed either with too many updates or with stuff that is not fun or relevant to me? Bye-bye.
I´m into music and sports. So give me concert deals, download coupons and discounts on sports events.
It has great potential and I´m sure Facebook will kick this off in europe too before we know it.
Read more here: New York Times Facebook Deals

Have a good day and remember to check in :-)Tweet