Social Media and Coupons: Everything Retailers Need to Know

Once synonymous with newspapers, magazines, and postcards, coupons are now frequently shared and accessed via social networking sites like Twitter, Facebook, and Pinterest. As a business owner, it’s important that you recognize this fundamental shift and study the rise of social coupons if you want your business to stay on the forefront of progressive marketing and advertising.

 The Social Media-Coupon Relationship

 When you look at where digital coupons have come from and where we are today, it’s clear that social media had – and continues to have – a major impact on how coupons are accessed, shared, and used.

Think back to a time before social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest ruled the internet. Websites such as RetailMeNot.com were kings of digital coupons. They controlled the curation and distribution of coupons. If a company – physical retail or ecommerce – wanted to share an online coupon, they needed to either partner with one of these websites or post the deal on their own website in the hopes that it would generate enough traffic to be successful.

Now, fast-forward to the proliferation of social networking and you begin to see just how quickly and significantly the digital coupon industry has changed. Now, all businesses have to do is share a coupon with their followers, ask their customers to do the same, and their deal is in front of thousands, or even millions of savvy consumers. This viral nature of social media means digital coupons are more powerful than ever.

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