Facebook Makes "Offers" Really Social

Facebook's "Offers" illustrates one more way offers can become more "viral," in ways that many of the competitors will not be able to match.

"Offers" are a free new way for businesses to share discounts and promotions directly from a Facebook Page. They can be distributed through the news feed or promoted as sponsored stories. People can redeem offers using email or on a mobile device.

In many ways, the Facebook approach presents discounts and inducements the same way Groupon and others do, but in a format that makes more likely a "viral" spread of the offers, as all users stay "inside the Facebook context." Users do not have to leave Facebook to redeem or share offers.

But "redemption" also are automatically added to a user's "timeline." In other words, the redemption action itself becomes a data point or "story" on a user's timeline display. That is a major "social" element Groupon right now has no easy way of replicating.

The significance for Facebook is a better platform for its "offer" customers. Some users might like the easier ability to actively share an offer. For some observers, there now is a risk that Facebook, which has claimed to want to protect user experience, will start to populate feeds with "somebody took an offer" that might have low to negative value.

That isn't to say Facebook can avoid monetizing its data; it has to, to create sustaining revenue. But it's a trade-off. Offers will be potentially highly viral in new ways. But offer redemption also is going to start further cluttering feeds with content some users might find is just clutter.