Today Facebook launched yet another social media tool to help businesses communicate with customers – and in fashion that’s sure to continue success, it’s a free service. Facebook Places looks to boot Foursquare as the top geo-location service by offering four types of location-based deals – that kind of variety already has us excited over here about how we can use it with our clients.
Individual Deals: These include discounts, free products, or other rewards
Friend Deals: If you check in at the same time as a friend, you can claim a joint deal
Loyalty Deals: These deals are for regular, returning customers
Charity Deals: This function allows you to donate to a cause upon check-in.
The downside? The Facebook Places application is only useable on iPhone and Android phones via touch.facebook.com. We’ve already seen some complaints from customers who are left out of special deals due to types of phone used or inability to afford a data plan – for example, this offer from the Gap that will give away 10,000 pairs of new jeans has many customers upset over eligibility.
You can be sure we’ll be looking into this great new functionality for the Facebook pages we manage here at Matter. I think some fun promotions are on the way!