Facebook Offers are a free and super easy way for brands to share special discounts and promotions to their fans directly from their Facebook page. Offers can be created directly from the page publisher and unlike check-in deals, do not require approval from Facebook before going live. For users, getting offers is seamless. One click (or tap from a mobile device) sends the offer to a user’s email account. From there, they can use the voucher at a physical location or enter a coupon code into an e-commerce site. When users get an offer, a story will be shown on Timeline and in their friends’ News Feeds, increasing the viral reach of the promotion.

Creating an offer is free for page owners, just like making any other post. Companies, however, can pay to boost the offer into a Sponsored Story by using Facebook’s ad tool.  Facebook Offers will be available in the coming weeks for all brand pages, but we are already celebrating over here!

1. Feeding America

Great looking landing page with direct links to donate to the cause. Also incorporates sharing functionality for users to easily share the page with their friends.

2. The Nature Conservancy

After landing on this page, you immediately want to head over to your nearest park for some fresh air. The beautiful graphics and photos inspire users to “Join The Cause”, “Donate” or share their own story with the community.

3. ASPCA
One of the best Facebook applications for non-profits is Facebook Causes and the ASPCA doesn’t miss a step asking for a donation to their Cause. The donation tracker is also a great visual tool for communicating fundraising benchmarks to fans.

4. The Humane Society
By constantly changing their default landing page to current news and topics, The Humane Society has created a page that keeps fans coming back for more. They take advantage of incorporating multi-media, including photos and videos, to keep their community engaged.

5. Tim Tebow Foundation
Not only does the Tim Tebow Foundation clearly state their mission on the eye-catching landing page, they also incorporate an easy email list-building strategy.

One of the bigger changes put into effect by Facebook last week is centered around the News Feed. Previously, when you visited your Facebook profile you would see posts and status updates from your friends in chronological order. Some posts you would find interesting, but others you would just skim by like your friend’s status update of “Captain Crunch for breakfast…mmmm” [full disclosure: I love Captain Crunch and probably would have ‘liked‘ that status update]. Facebook’s solution to this is with the creation of “Top Stories” so that the News Feed acts “more like your own personal newspaper. When you pick up a newspaper after not reading it for a week, the front page quickly clues you into the most interesting stories” according to Facebook. So if you haven’t checked your profile for a couple of days, you won’t have to worry about missing important posts and information shared by your friends. The first things you will see in your News Feed are the top stories, photos and status updates posted while you’ve been away which are marked with a blue corner. This kind of acts like the front page of the newspaper.

If you check Facebook several times a day, you’ll see the most recent stories first…

So how do you ensure posts from your Facebook Page are deemed important by Facebook and featured as a “Top Story”? The answer is Engagement. The more your fans interact with your page, via ‘likes’ and comments to your posts, the more prominence Facebook will give you. Here are a couple of ways to create engagement with your Facebook Fans:

• Share great information. Posts that gain comments and ‘likes’ will become must see news for your fan’s.

• Ask questions. The more responses garnered, the more weight Facebook will assign to the post.

• Create conversations with your fans. Having a conversation within the comment stream will create relationships and Facebook loves to see brands creating authentic relationships with their fans.

• Share photos. Facebook is giving more prominence to photos in the News Feed now to improve the look of the platform. Photos are a great way to showcase your business, but the way you present them will have a big impact on how your brand is perceived. Ensure your photos are great looking. This doesn’t mean you have to higher a professional photographer, but make sure the photos are consistent with your brand image.

Facebook will be announcing more changes over the next couple of weeks so check back in with us to get updates.

MasterCard is the only credit-card payment partner and Sprint is the exclusive wireless carrier on board for the launch.  Google plans to sync mobile payments with its version of localized deals, Google Offers, so that customers using an offer at the designated retail store will automatically receive the discount when paying.  Google is launching the service, which requires in-store hardware, with select retail brands including Subway, Foot Locker, Bloomingdale’s, Macy’s, Walgreens and Radio Shack.

Google released the following video to promote the Wallet with Seinfeld’s George Costanza as “Our First Google Wallet Customer”….

How do you solve this problem and get all of your friends and pages back into your News Feed?

• Log into Facebook and scroll all the way down to the bottom of your News Feed and click on “Edit Options”.
• On the “Show posts from” dropdown menu, you’ll see that the option “Friends and pages you have interacted with most” is selected by default.
• Select the option “All of your friends and Updates” and click “Save”. You’re all set!

Examples of these new Facebook Deals include “unlimited bowling with six friends for an evening for $60 (75% off)” or “luxury winery tour and 25% off all wine purchases for $50”.  Do these types of local deals sound familiar?  Welcome to the new turf war of the online local coupon market – “Groupon vs. Facebook”.

Facebook has launched this new service in 5 test cities: Atlanta, Austin, Dallas, San Diego and San Francisco. If your city is not on the list, you can still sign up today and Facebook will notify you when the service rolls out to your city.

Just to set the record straight, these deals are not the same as the checkin-based deals for mobile users via Facebook Places. Those deals were designed to compete with Foursquare; Facebook is directly attacking Groupon with this new service.

Below is a quick rundown of signing up for, finding, buying and sharing the new Facebook Deals (via Mashable):

Facebook Deals’ Landing Page

Example of a Facebook Deal

Buying a Facebook Deal

Sharing a Facebook Deal

Does this look familiar?  If you haven’t seen it before, take note because you will start to see these funny-looking boxes popping up everywhere – Subway signs, bus shelter signs, print ads in magazines, emails, websites, in businesses, and even t-shirts – almost everywhere!  But what, exactly, is this thing and why do we keep seeing it more often?

It is a QR Code (or quick response code).  It was developed in 1994 by Toyota and is a specific matrix bar-code (2-D bar-code) that is readable by a QR scanner or camera phone.  The code inside this box consists of black modules arranged on a white background and can be encoded (what is does for the user) with text, URL, video, or other data.

Brands are starting to get savvy with this technology and putting it in places where their customers are to further engage with them.

Think of the possibilities in two lenses:

1.) Brand/Marketing Lens

A business can generate a QR code for free online and use it in all of their marketing collateral materials to support their efforts.  Content that is encoded in the QR code is endless!  Offering people a text message to opt-in to their SMS program to receive offers or news, showcasing videos with content on your product/service in the form of demonstrations, new TV spot, testimonials, best practices, etc.  My favorite thing to do with a QR Code is to push users to a URL that is unique and special to only those people.  How cool would that be for the user?  A sneak peak of your brand that is only available to those that are “in the know”.

2.) Consumer Lens

Why would I download an app – or potentially a few apps to test which one works best – to scan a QR Code? This is question my colleague asked me when we were noodling around on some different blog topics.  My answer was simple – same reason you joined Facebook and Twitter.  It is a growing technology that is being adapted by mainstream brands and provides and opportunity for brands that you love to further connect with you.  Ask yourself this question….What is your favorite brand?  The brand that you aboslutely love/can’t get enough of/gets you excited thinking about it and you are in a good mood when you experience it.  Do you “like” this brand on Facebook?  Do you follow them on Twitter? Do you subscribe to their email list?  My guess is probably so.  If this brand offered exclusive sneak peaks at their product/service, would you like that?  Enter the QR Code.  A fast way, easy, cheap way to further connect with your favorite brand.

Has the QR Code been widely adopted yet by most companies? No, not yet.  However, tends are up on QR Code usage in America.  More and more people are using it and more and more brands are connecting with their consumers by this.  Download yours today and be on the lookout for your first scan!  My favorite is QR Code Reader for iPhone.

1.  The Original Facebook Homepage Featured Al Pacino’s Face

According to Kirkpatrick, the photo was created by a classmate and friend of Facebook Founder, Mark Zuckerberg. Referred to as “The Facebook Guy”, a few people speculated the image was of Zuckerberg himself although it didn’t really look him.  Pacino’s face disappeared from the Facebook logo after a redesign in 2007.

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2.  In 2006, thousands of Facebook profiles were hacked into and made to look like MySpace profiles

The “hacker” was a guy named Chris Putnam.  What was Facebook’s reaction to Putnam’s work? They hired him.

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3.  Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Gap, Intel and Pepsi were among 10 brands hand-picked by Facebook to be the first “corporate social networkers”

According to InsideFacebook.com, this was Facebook’s attempt at a “staggered rollout” beyond the IVY League schools and the university system.  The list also featured one non-profit organization: Teach for America.

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4. California LOVES Their Facebook

The Eureka! state leads the U.S. with nearly 16.5 million Facebook users and a 44% penetration rate – meaning almost HALF of the state’s population is on Facebook.  No wonder traffic is so bad there, everyone is updating their Facebook status during their commutes.

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5. The Term “Poke” Has Never Been Defined

Once, when asked to explain what exactly a “poke” was Zuckerberg responded: “We thought it would be fun to make a feature that has no specific purpose… So mess around with it, because you’re not getting an explanation from us.”  But if you want to attempt to define it, join “The Official Definition of the Facebook Poke” Group on Facebook.  No seriously, it is a REAL group – check it out here.

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6. A Facebook Employee Hoodie Sold on Ebay for $4,000

According to Mashable, “a Facebook employee standard-issue hoodie sold on eBay for a whopping $4,050 with nearly 50 bidders battling it out to win the auction.” Spread the word – Facebook gear is the new collectible rage.

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6.  Steve Chen was an early employee at Facebook but left after a couple of months to create his own startup called…YouTube

A graduate of the University of Illinois, Chen also had a brief stint at PayPal before launching YouTube. In 2006, Chen and co-founder Chad Hurley sold YouTube to Google, Inc. for $1.65 billion. Chen received 625,366 shares of Google and an additional 68,721 in a trust as part of the sale. Not bad for a 31 year old.

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7.  Asia Has An Official “Facebook Phone”

Crazy huh? Makes sense though since one in four Facebook users now come from Asia or the Middle East.

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9.  The PEOPLE of Facebook:

• There are more than 500 MILLION active users = 7% of of world’s population
• 50% of active users log on to Facebook EVERY DAY
• Average user has 150 friends
• People spend over 700 BILLION minutes per month on Facebook

Which perfectly explains the final Facebook Fact:

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10.  Are You Suffering From “Facebook Addiction Disorder”?

Oh yes, Facebook has it’s own Psycho-Physiological disorder:  The Facebook Addiction Disorder or (FAD) for texting purposes. The term was introduced by U.S. phychologists for “those who are addicted to facebook and their life is really effected by their uncontrolled activities on Facebook.”  I swear, I can’t make this stuff up.  For more information and symptons of FAD, read this article by The Huffington Post.

1.  Establish sales building processes

How are you going to grow your sales?  Who are you going to target?  Once you have your clients or customers, how can you increase profit margin?  How are you going to keep your clients?  How can you, as a business owner create value to your clients and motivate them to continue to use your business in the future?  Create a blueprint for this process.  This is an invaluable and often overlooked step.  If you plan for success, you can’t miss!

2.  Know your core

What is the core of your business?  What do you know the most, more than anyone else, and makes you an expert in your field?  Product or service line extensions can be quite a powerful way to drive incremental sales and reach new clients within various demographics.  However, should you be contemplating a product line extension, remember what made your product or service special.  The more line extensions a company has, the greater the potential for less focus on your core.  The more focus that you provide to your core and educating your customers on why your product/service is superior to your competition, the greater chance for increased sales and brand loyalty.  Give your clients a reason to love you!

3.  Work on your business more than in your business.

The above statement has been quoted a millions times.  Why?  Because truer words have never been spoken.  The more systems and processes a company can develop, the more successful a business is as it will allow that entrepreneur an opportunity to work on the business and focus on growth and overall health of the company.  Is it painful?  Yes.  It is always easier to work in your business then on it.  Is it absolutely imperative to work on your business?  Yes.

There they are.  3 quick practices to ponder over this long weekend.  Read ‘em, Love ‘em, and Implement ‘em!  Happy Labor Day everyone!