Facebook Deals & Places As A Digital Marketing Tool

Feb. 18, 2011 - PRLog -- To get to grips with Deals you first need to understand Facebook Places. Facebook Places provide a presence for a businesses physical shop, store or outlet locations. The idea being to encourage your customers or clients to share the fact they’ve visited your business by “checking in” to your Place. When a Facebook user checks into your Place, these check-in stories can generate further exposure for your business by utlising the viral aspect and reach of the worlds largest social network. This is achieved by stories / updates appearing in friends’ News Feeds, extending your brand’s reach to new customers. Facebook Places are currently free to set up and are a great additional way to promote on Facebook.

Facebook Deals

Deals are an extension of Places and are essentially a marketing mechanism to reward customers for ‘checking-in’ and spreading the word about your location, brand and offer. Deals connect business with Facebook users and can increase physical traffic to your shop or outlet. Essentially, upon ‘checking-in’ a user would receive an offer on their handset that they would then show a member of staff/cashier to receive the benefits.

Deals can allow you to set up offers to acknowledge customer loyalty for visiting your business. There are currently four types of Deal available and best of all Facebook are currently allowing these to be setup for free. Deals can work for all sizes of enterprise from single boutique shops right through to multi-national brands with hundreds of locations. To summarise the advantages of Deals:

- Engage customers and grow your business
- Reward loyal customers with special offers
- Build valuable relationships with influential audiences
- The average Facebook user has 130 friends and when checking in and getting a deal the message is spread
- Over 200 million worldwide users use Facebook on their mobile devices

More detail on the four types of deal can be found below:

Individual Deals

For one off or single deals, this is the perfect option. This can be a tactic to reach both existing and new customers. It could be a product or service launch, a one of gift or a discount code for example.

Loyalty Deals

If your looking to reward customer loyalty or encourage return visits a loyalty deal would be more suitable. These deals may be claimed by customers after a certain number of check-ins. A bit like the stamped cards you get at coffee shops, upon visiting and checking a on a number of occasions (defined by you – between 2 and 20 times) the customer would receive their deal.

Friend Deals
If your looking to generate even further exposure for each check-in then Friend deals might be the best option. If your store or eatery is often frequented by groups of people then this could be ideal. The functionality of Friend deals is very similar to individual deals but to gain a reward a user must tag a number friends in the deal. For example, if you go out for a meal with 4 friends and you tag them in your check-in you could potentially receive a deal. These deals can build even more exposure for your business because in order to claim your deal, your customers need to introduce what you have to offer to their friends and family.

Charity Deals

Does your business have a charitable side? Why not make a donation when a Facebook user checks-in. it’s a great way for you to give back to the community but be aware that you will have to manage the donation process.

Clicky Media™ (http://www.clickymedia.co.uk) specialise in helping brands develop their presence on social networking sites, in particular through Facebook (http://www.clickymedia.co.uk/social-media-marketing/faceb...). To find out how Clicky Media™ could help develop your strategy or to find out more, contact us now: 0845 257 1225 or email sam@clickymedia.co.uk

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