Earlier this week, Facebook announced the launch of Facebook Deals in Canada, the UK and Europe.
The deals service, which has been running in the US since the last quarter of 2010, is attached to the place pages and allows businesses to offer a variety of promotions to Facebook members who check-in to venues using their Facebook mobile applications.
In the last 18 months, Facebook has continued to develop services around engaging businesses, a smart move, in my opinion.
How does a service like Facebook Deals affect social buying services like Groupon, LivingSocial, WagJag, and others?
For starters, Facebook has made it clear that it will not be charging for the deal platform, which is a fundamental difference from social buying services.
As I have pointed out in previous posts, trying to understand the true costs of running a Groupon is a hot button issue for many who have used a social buying service or are considering it.
The other key difference is the shear number of engaged members and the motivation of the members using their mobile devices.
Where services like Groupon and others are focused primarily on providing hugely discounted offers to deal seekers, the Deal platform allows businesses to tailor the deals to their audience, for example offering a free coffee, a discount, or a donation to a charity in exchange for checking into the location.
In a recent PhoCusWright special report (When They Get There & Why They Go), focusing on in-destination tours and activities, it was determined that location based services such as FourSquare and Gowalla are neither influential nor actionable for travelers because there is a lack of critical mass and an inability to target users based on preferences.
In essence, current location based services lack the smarts to be able to offer true value to travelers.
On the flip side, group buying sites like Groupon and LivingSocial are actionable but lack any influence because they tend to focus on locals and not travelers.
Bring in a service like Facebook Deals which combines location based service, deep profiling, and combine it with the ability to offer actionable deals and now you have something very interesting for both businesses and consumers.
It is this combination of elements that make me believe that Facebook Deals could score a big hit against the social buying sites.
The three elements of location awareness, access to preferences through member profiling, and the ability to offer actionable deals combined together make the Facebook Deals platform much more compelling for consumers than any one of the other competing platforms on their own.
For businesses, the ability to control the offers and the cost (or lack there of) will be important motivators to try the Deals platform. As we see more success stories, I wouldn't be surprised if we start to see more buzz and hype around the platform.
For now, the overall reaction for small businesses has been limited as most try to understand how to take advantage of the platform.
It is still early days for Facebook Deals, but with over 200 million Facebook users engaging with smartphones and the exponential growth in the number of businesses joining Facebook, it's not hard to see that a service like Deals could have a significant impact on competing services.
The biggest driver for small business engagement could very well be the access to a large user base at a fraction of the cost of running a social buying deal.
For small tourism businesses, this means being able to deliver offers and build brand and service awareness beyond rack cards and hotel concierges, both of which are still important drivers for local tour and activity operators.
Regardless of the effectiveness of the Deals service in the future, small tourism businesses should be claiming their place pages and, at the very least, ensuring that their businesses are available on Facebook.
Like any other social media channel, Facebook and, more specifically, Deals should be treated as only one part of a larger marketing plan.
NB: Here is a clip from Facebook regarding the Deals service: