Facebook has launched their Offers product to a limited number of Business Pages, at first glance it looks like Facebook and the current approach may be just too powerful for this small business marketplace. 
Maybe it’s the sharing mechanic, maybe it’s just the fact that Offers are new and attracting curious clicks, either way, I’m not sure Huon Bush Retreat (accommodation for up to 60 guests!) expected 120k new customers! (interesting to see how many actual customers they have gained) – fingers crossed they are not being drowned by calls right now.
No doubting the power of the Facebook fire-hose, hopefully they tame it before the product is released. I am curious to hear from someone at Huon Bush Retreat to hear what they think of the Facebook product.
Facebook offers are described here.
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As an update to the post above, I went back to the Huon Bush Retreat Facebook page to get a sense of the impact the Facebook Offer had, the results are concerning.
The Good news is that lots of people are talking about Huon Bush retreat, according to Facebook, some 102k people are talking about the business, however, on the downside, you don’t have to look far to see what they are saying…
Sadly, the overwhelming sentiment is negative, through no fault of the Huon Bush Retreat. Their wall has been hijacked by unhappy Facebook members concerned that they are now being spammed by the Retreat.
Here’s a snapshot:
I hope they make it through this promotion with their reputation intact.
57 Signals 
G’day Billy,
Thanks for the rational discussion on this new Facebook feature and the way it has affected our business and reputation. Yes – We are being swamped by phone calls, emails and of course facebook flaming. It is difficult to know it this is good or bad. There is a saying that “all publicity is good publicity” but in the age of social media, maybe this is changing.
That said, on our wall, there are a lot of positive comments and a lot of people coming to our defense hosing down the flamers.
There is a sugestion that the number of sales is low compared to the number of criticisms. We are a boutoque eco-retreat and only have 7 rooms, so obviously we don’t stand to do gain thousands of sales, we just cant fit everyone in. But it has increased awareness of our product and hopefully this will stick in peoples minds over the next few years and people will keep us in mind when next visiting Tasmania.
Below is our standard response that we have been using to address the flames.
Cheers
Paul Dimmick
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Facebook has recently initiated a trial of “Facebook Offers”. Only a few businesses have been selected to
participate in the trial. This is probably why you have not experienced Offers on your timeline in the past.
Please be assured that Huon Bush Retreats has not hacked or spammed your account.
Read all about Facebook Offers at http://www.facebook.com/help/offers
Huon Bush Retreats has been caught in the fall out of this Facebook trial. We have received lots of favorable
comments, lots of Likes and website views and lots of actual purchases. We have also received a few complaints.
We apologise to anyone who finds our offer to be offensive. However there is nothing that we can do to change
this. Only Facebook has control of how Offers are distributed.
We have not ourselves, placed anything on your wall, timeline or anywhere except for creating our original offer.
Unfortunately we cannot remove it from your wall either. Only Facebook and yourself can do that. Similarly we do
not have you on any list that we control so we cannot remove you from any list.Again, only Facebook can do that.
This is how we understand that it works: We post an offer, Facebook distributes the offer to people who “Like”
our business page. Those people can then choose to claim the offer and also can choose to pass the offer on to
their friends, or not.
For you to have received the email that states that you have claimed the offer, at least 4 things had to happen:
One of your friends claimed the offer. Your friend chose to show that claim event on their time line. You read
that event on your feed. You clicked to claim the offer. Only then do Facebook send you the email.
You have not been charged anything. You can use that email as the coupon to claim the offer that we have made, or
not. No one except you can see your email address. We do not receive any of your personal details, unless you
choose to take up the offer and make a booking to stay with us.
You can choose to claim the offer, delete the offer, share the offer with your friends, or not. This is a genuine
offer: $99/night for 3 night stays in a studio cabin before 1st September.
Thanks the your note Paul, it looks like you guys are in a tricky spot. Hopefully you are getting some support from Facebook.