With a few marketing tools already in play, like Facebook ads and sponsored stories, Facebook recently launched Facebook Offers for Page Administrators. The feature enables you, as page administrator, to offer discounts or promotions from your page. These promotions potentially create more customers, drive traffic to your website or store and increase sales. Offers can be shared with the people who like your page, who can share them with their friends, who can share with their friends, and so on. Not only that, a news story is created just for offers, so when people claim your offer, it appears as a story on their news feeds and shared with their friends. These stories potentially create more claims, more stories, and generally more buzz. This feature, according to Facebook, is one of the most viral posts you can create from your page. Facebook is relying on research that has shown that you can get 3 times return on investment in your business when people refer their friends, so Facebook Offers has the potential to generate more sales. Let’s face it, we all love a good deal, and we all love to tell our friends how great a deal we got. Easy as 1 2 3 Creating an offer couldn’t be easier. All you have to do is go to your page and click Offer/Event and select Offer. You’ll have to decide if the offer can be redeemed in store (with a barcode), online (with a redemption code) or both. You’ll then be able to create a headline, determine the terms and conditions of your offer and limit the number of people who can claim it, should you choose to. You’ll also need to set a budget. In its presentation of this new feature, Facebook conveniently claims that the higher the budget you set, the more people you’ll be able to reach. When you set the budget for you offer, it will show you the estimated reach of that particular budget, for example, the estimated reach for a $5 budget is between 95 and 176 people. You can also determine who will your offer by gating the offer so only certain people can see it, or by adding news feed targeting to optimize your offer’s reach. How does it work from a customer’s point of view? When someone claims your offer, they’ll receive an email with your terms and conditions, the offer’s expiration’s date, an online redemption code or barcode. In other words, all the details you filled in when you created the offer. A few tips for creating a successful offer Obviously, you learn most from experience, so by all means, experiment with your offers and get creative. If, however, you don’t want to feel like you’re shooting in the dark, here are a few tips that might help get you started:

• Give exclusive offers.
• Make a substantial discount. Facebook recommends at least 20% off, or even better, offer something for free, like “buy one get one free”.
• Clearly describe your terms and conditions.
• Use clear and appealing photos, preferably of people using your product, which tend to perform better than images of the product by itself. Make sure the photo looks good when viewed in a thumbnail.
• Keep your headlines simple and informative. Lead with your offer rather than a marketing slogan.
• Set a reasonable expiration date. Give people at least a few days to claim your offer.
• Promote your offer by pinning it to the top of your page so people will notice it.
• Inform your staff about the offer and its terms and conditions.
• Set longer expiration date but spend most of ad budget in first 3 days to create a viral buzz.

Success Stories As new as this feature is, there is some data regarding its effectiveness. A Facebook case study of Auckland’s Big Little City, the consumer brand for Auckland’s central city Business Improvement, shows 10,000 people claimed offers, as well as 170% increase in fan base over a period of two months. Sweet Frog, a frozen yogurt store with multiple locations in the US, reported 9,200 people claimed its offer and 144 people redeemed it in store. According to Facebook case study, the offer generated 500 new likes for the brand’s page.