After nearly 18 months of promise and false dawns, Facebook Offers (originally developed as Facebook Deals) finally rolled out worldwide for business timelines everywhere this week. Here’s a quick cheat sheet of important facts for you to remember when organizing your first Facebook Offer.

Offers only works on selected timelines…

…at the moment. It will expand as Facebook iron out any issues. And deleting an offer may not necessarily void the offer. So make sure you get your terms and conditions right. See below for that!

Strong Headlines are important

You need to attract their attention, so make sure it’s clear what the offer is. You don’t have much space so make it count. It goes without saying that the image associated with the offer is equally important. square images 90px by 90px work best.

Limit the number of offers

If they claim an offer, they might not use it, so you need to bear that in mind too. There’s no obligation to redeem it. So think about how many you limit to. You’ll also understand through trial and error how good a deal you need to generate response. Facebook suggest at least 20% off your normal price.

Remember the Ts&Cs

If there are some restrictions on the offer, make sure you add these in here too. Don’t get caught out with competition and promotion laws that vary from state to state in Australia. If in doubt, ask an expert.

The offer is available on your mobile phone too

On your main business page, you can see and claim the business page. So if you’re a retail business and a customer claims this offer in your shop, it will show that they’ve done this to all their friends and they can claim the offer right away. That’s real social sharing as instantly the offer appears on their timeline and all their friends can claim it too. A good offer can easily go viral.

You can link an advert right back to your offer

When you set-up a Facebook advert, you can link it to both your page or to a particular post: in this case, the Facebook Offer post.

Pin Your Offer

Your Facebook Offer can be pinned to the top of your page so everyone sees it when they arrive.

Attracting and growing your fan base is now as important as ever; Facebook Offers give you the opportunity to develop Group-on-style deals direct to your customers. And for those non-retail business, utilizing Facebook Offers for training and resources will be just as important.