Could Facebook be the Daily Deal Killer?

The Web's largest social network is taking a jab at the Daily Deal industry with its newest launch of Facebook Offers, which is a tool for engaging with and driving new customers to businesses.

Offers are free for administrators to create and share, however only a small number of local business Pages are currently able to take advantage of this new feature, with Facebook claiming that it plans to "launch Offers more broadly soon."

The offers are created from the sharing tool at the top of a Page's timeline. Users must click on the Offer, Event + button, and then create an offer headline, upload a photo, choose a limit for the number of claims, add terms and conditions, preview and post the promotion. Although Offers is a free service, Facebook suggests that businesses run an ad or Sponsored Story so that the offers receive more visibility.

Consumers can redeem offers from brands that they have liked. The "liked" brand's offer will show up in the consumer's news feed, which is where the consumer can click "Get Offer" to receive the promotion. Then Facebook sends a follow-up email to the consumer, which needs to be shown to the business in order to receive the discount.

It seems as though Facebook is the perfect platform to launch a service like this, especially since small businesses tend to be hesitant to sign up with daily deal services. Not only is Facebook a familiar platform, but the offers are completely free to run, and business owners are given complete control over their promotions. Match made in virtual heaven? - only time will tell.