By Matt Schoenman

If you’re a good Campus Socialite, then you already know what group buying is, and have probably started to become adept at it. For those of you who are out of the know, I’ll let you in on the secret: group buying is a new internet trend that promises dirt cheap deals for consumers and massive amounts of sales for businesses. And the key to it all is social networking, a human practice that has become even easier with the advent of the Internet. You see, the deals are amazing (sometimes 50% or even 75% off) and offer anything from food to clothes to activities, but they only work after a select amount of people purchase them. Sites like Groupon, LivingSocial, Tippr, and GrubLife run off of this principle, and it’s a tricky system. I’ll explain why…

As I said before, the sites promise big deals and equally big business. These promises are riding on the hopes that people will spread the word, and the deals will actually activate. So on each site there is potential for lots of commerce, or for none at all. Think about it: If not enough people buy the deal, then you don’t spend that money that you were willing to invest. If you do go out and buy whatever was being advertised anyway, then you’re spending more than twice what you would have if that the coupon had activated. On the other end of the spectrum, the business that was offering the deal is no longer guaranteed the mass traffic, which was the only reason they signed up in the first place. Yes, they still got the advertising, which is a plus, but it’s not a surefire way to draw customers.

So obviously, it isn’t enough to just press BUY and wait faithfully for others to see the same value in the deal as you do. There’s a counter for each deal, so if no one else jumps on it in the allotted time, then you’re back where you started. You need to put those connections to work, Socialites! You’ve got hundreds, if not thousands of Facebook friends (whether they’re actually your friends or not), Twitter followers, relatives, classmates, co-workers, other registered users (from whichever group buying site you prefer, or multiple if you’re really digging those values) and potentially an endless stream of other Internet users out there in cyberspace. You need to strategize and plan if you find a deal you really like, but that doesn’t seem like it has the strength to attract other random buyers.

So think about who to market your favorite deals to. Can you sell your boss on taking the whole office out to a boat trip for half price? Got a bunch of friends who all have a taste for sweets? Blast the deal for half price baked goods over to them via Facebook. Can’t find anyone willing to back you up and attack that deal? Well, if you’re desperate there’s many places to turn. I’m sure you have a good amount of random Twitter followers, so maybe a few tweets will help add some mass onto that list of buyers. And each group buying site has thousands of users, some of who are die-hard value-lovers who are willing to spend money for things that they might never even need. If you can find a way to enlist these people to one cause, then you’ve basically just gotten them on for all of your others as well. They might start expecting you to do the same for them, which is the price to pay for getting something you want for half price. You could even get sucked into their world and start buying up crap just because it’s so cheap. Be careful though, it’s a slippery slope. But at the same time, you just opened yourself up to a whole new social network that is specifically geared around group buying. These people will become the most useful to your plans because you know they’re already down to buy up some deals.

So, if you haven’t checked out any of the sites listed at the beginning of this article, then I suggest you go to them immediately. You could save lots of money on any type of product or service imaginable. In the end, group buying definitely makes splurging easier on your wallet, while at the same time overwhelming businesses nationwide with the massive amounts of customers that they desire.

Related Posts