Facebook Offers Start Popping Up as Sugarloaf Tests the Waters

While the adoption hasn’t been widespread, a few resorts have begun testing the waters of Facebook offers. I’ve heard of more dropping than this, but I’ve only seen two come across my news feed from Liberty Mountain Resort and Sugarloaf.

Liberty’s was the first I saw. The offer was a “2-for-1 Father’s Day Weekend Golf Special” valid June 16th and 17th. Here are a few numbers from the promotion:

• Total fans: 13,293
• Offers claimed: 14
• Fans/claimed offer: 950

While we don’t know the total number of offers that were redeemed, remember that this promotion cost nothing to run and the only way to redeem it would be to make a purchase at the resort. Still not the strongest numbers in favor of Facebook Offers, but it’s a start.

Sugarloaf
Sugarloaf took a different route with their offer. Instead of a 50% discount, they gave away completely free chairlift rides. The limit was 1,000 which they hit after about two days.

• Total fans: 35,878
• Offers claimed: 1,000
• Fans/claimed offer: 36

The initial offer was also shared 60 times and received 24 likes. While Sugarloaf didn’t make any direct revenue from this offer (though visitors may spend some cash on other things while they are there), it does illustrate that Facebook users know how to use the system and are willing to give it a try.

Brad Larsen was kind enough to share the results as well: 66 offers were redeemed from the 1,000 claimed – 6.6% redemption rate. Whether that is high or low for the typical Facebook promotion remains a big question.

What I Like
What I do like is that Facebook has created a place for offers. Social media isn’t where fans want to be sold to, but this system let’s you put the occasional offer out in a way that feels separate from your main content which I like. Normal posts for the usual content, offers for promotions. If there is a post type for marketing-specific content, I think fans will have fewer gripes about those salesy messages.