My thoughts on facebook coupons

A reader wrote last week regarding facebook coupons:

Here is what she said:

I'm disappointed that many of your items relate to Facebook deals. I tried Facebook and found I had neither the time nor the interest in it. I hope you will continue to offer insights and coupons for us 'regular' folks.

I thought my answer to her question might be beneficial to others too, so here are my thoughts…

Why am I posting so many facebook coupons?

First of all, it is not my intent to post exclusively or even more facebook printable coupons than other coupons.  I strive to post/promote any high value or good printable coupons.  BUT as more and more companies join facebook and start to promote their business on facebook, they are offering coupons on their facebook page to entice people to “like” their site!  (So that they can then use it for free advertising!)  So we will probably see more coupons, not less, being offered on facebook as social media continues to grow.

What if I don’t have facebook, do I just miss out on all those coupons?

Basically, yes you will.  Almost all coupons that are generated on a companies facebook page are only able to be printed from there.  I have seen a few that there is a separate link that I can post, and when there is one like that I will post the separate link.

There are still many people that don’t have facebook for many reasons – time, safety concerns, etc.  It is completely your choice to have it or not.  But if you don’t want to have a personal profile on facebook to interact with friends, but still want to be able to print the coupons, consider opening an account but keep it completely hidden to others.  There are ways to set your security settings on facebook so that no one can search for you or add you as a friend.  You would basically just be creating a login/account and solely use it for printing coupons.

I have facebook and want to print the coupons, but don’t want all their statuses/updates showing up in my newsfeed or don’t want my profile to say I have “liked” all these pages?

I am right there with you on this one!  I can’t stand all the unwanted updates/advertising in my newsfeed after I have “liked” a companies page just to print a coupon. 

Here are your options: 

-When you “like” a page on facebook to print a coupon, after you print the coupon immediately go to “unlike” on the left hand side of the companies page and unlike the page. 

-Or if you forget to do that, the first time that you see an update appear in your newsfeed from a company you don’t care to see updates from, hover on the right hand side of that post and an “x” will appear.  Click it and you have several options – you can unlike the page, you can choose to remove that one post, or you can continue to “like” the page but hide all updates from them.

There are several companies that I choose to still see updates from and continue to “like” their page.  Like the $5 Bounty coupon offer that is going on right now or CVS facebook page (which occasionally posts special deals, ad previews, etc.)

From now on, any coupon that I post that is a facebook printable coupon, I will add (facebook coupon) to the title of the post so you will know ahead of time that the link is going to send you to facebook.  

Hope this helps!

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And after all this talk about facebook, don’t forget to go “like” Centsible Savings facebook page!  (Even though I am not offering a coupon directly on my site, I do post lots of coupons and deals! :)  And no “un-liking” my page, ok! ;)