I found the article, Facebook Offers Local Deals for Mobile Users, on the New York Times website and it's about how Facebook has recently introduced a new feature that allows retailers to offer coupons and special deals through a mobile application through the Places icon, Facebook's location feature. I think this new coupon/special deals feature is a great marketing idea, especially for smaller, local businesses that may not be large enough to benefit from having a website.
Although I do think that its a great idea for businesses, the only thing I wonder about is how many people really use the Places feature on Facebook that lets users "check in" at different locations. I know that I do not use the Places feature and not many of my friends use it either. Maybe since Facebook will start to offer coupons and special deals to users through the Places feature, people would be more inclined to use it and therefore the new local businesses will benefit from the new coupon/ special deals feature.
I wish Facebook would offer deals without the places feature. Personally, the Places feature seems extremely unsafe to me. With cyber stalking being as widespread as it is, no one should be "checking in" at 24 hour gym, etc. It's dangerous and I'm surprised Facebook provides this feature.
ReplyDeleteI agree that this is a great marketing tool and while I do not use the Places feature on Facebook I do see friends of mine that do. It would be interesting to see how the advertisements affect the companies and increase the number of Facebook users that use the Places tool.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Katy on this one. We already give out far too much information. I don't want a constant record of the places that a frequent the most. This is a lot like the knowledge management system ShareNet; great for the company but not so great for the individual.
ReplyDeleteCant agree more, the social networking age is getting a little ridiculous. To put information of where your going to be at all times is not only dangerous but quite ridiculous. To echo what Rachel said, this seems to be beneficial to the company rather than the individual.
ReplyDelete