Facebook is not only a place to connect with friends and family, it can also be a place to save money and score freebies. Rachel Gordon Singer, a Lombard mom and creator of the popular couponing blog, Mashupmom.com, shares her tips for finding freebies on Facebook.
What can people expect to find on Facebook?
Companies set up fan pages and they’ll give you a coupon or a freebie (often sample sizes of products sent to your home) in exchange for you becoming a fan or clicking “like” for their page on Facebook. When you log on to Facebook, they show up on your status update, so it’s like free advertising for them.
How do you find the freebies?
I find a lot through other blogs. Everyone shares information, so if I’m a fan and I see a freebie come through, I’ll post it (on mashupmom.com) and the info gets passed around that way. Two sites I follow are Freebies4mom.com and Heyitsfree.net.
Is it worth the effort?
It’s kind of fun. You get this free, random stuff in the mail. Walgreens has some good freebies sometimes-for example, free photo collages. So I’ll remain a fan. With others, sometimes I’ll like them on Facebook long enough to get a freebie and then I’ll unlike them so it doesn’t continue to clutter up my status page. It’s worth the minute it takes.
Do you have a separate Facebook account for freebies?
I don’t, but some people do this. It’s like setting up a separate e-mail account. It keeps things from getting cluttered up with stuff from marketers.
Other things to know?
Be careful if they ask you to install applications. Some sites will ask you to play a silly little game to get a freebie. There have been a lot of these lately to gather people’s information and they weren’t legitimate. So that’s one reason to set up a separate Facebook.
