Groupon Phoenix - $15 for $30 worth of food and drink at Crust Pizza and Wine Cafe in Scottsdale, Arizona

This is brilliant on so many levels, I just had to tell you about it!

I am going to bullet point my thoughts here, but as I go along, be thinking about your business/organization, and how you might re-think your communication/community building strategies:

• I first learned about Groupon (Group + Coupon) reading an on-line newspaper, with a link to this site.  (Mental note #1 - go to large on-line communities such as newspapers, facebook, etc., to draw traffic to my social media channels)
• Groupon takes a proven societal desire (a good deal), and seeks to build a community of regional people who are after said desire.
• Then, I would guess, they approach the community of organizations looking for new patrons, and speak to them about this large community of "deal getters" that Groupon has built.
• The organization cuts a special deal with Groupon, those desiring the good deal put their money where their mouth is, pay up for the coupon up front, and receive said good deal. 
• The "good deal" is only available if enough people desire to receive the good deal.  In the example above, you can see that 196 people have bought into the good deal.  Therefore, "the deal is on!"
• Urgency is created because the good deal is only available for a very limited period of time.
• The buyer, after the deal is on, immediately receives a return on their investment.  Here, as you can see, you have doubled your buying power, up to a maximum of $30.
• The organization, as you can see, in this case, so far has 196 new customers walking in their doors.  The organization's job will be to convert these deal seekers into real, full paying customers.
• If you look at the top right corner, you can see social media brought to this brilliant idea.  First, you can log in with your Facebook credentials, and therefore easily refer this potential deal to your friends, thereby making it a live deal.  Furthermore, if you like, you can make a comment on the deal, and share about your experience getting $30 of fabulous pizza, for $15.
• You can't see it in my screen shot above, but on the real Groupon page, there is a link to the Crust Pizza website.  I was unfamiliar with Crust Pizza, so I clicked, and what to my wandering eyes did appear?  Three beautifully done, on-line YouTube videos, with the owners explaining to me why I would want to come experience their version of pizza.

Moral to the story?  I bought a coupon!

There is much for us to consider here, but I will restrain myself and keep it very brief:

1. If you are a local Phoenix organization/business, perhaps you should get your Groupon, and bring in a crowd of "deal getters" to convert to patrons.
2. Are you stuck in the mud of communication complacency?  This is a brilliant idea!  How can you completely re-think how you communicate with your patrons?  How can you re-think how you are going to attract new patrons?

The social media world is here.  Hundreds of millions of people are waiting.  Are you going to learn to attract your fair share?

Click here to learn how Blog Consulting, LLC can help your organization build, and manage your own social media site.