Making Money Marketing

Group buying site Groupon is growing so fast that its “deals of the day” are attracting the attention of big brand names like the Gap. One small business owner believes this growth is making Groupon “greedy,” so much so that it chose not to honor a signed contract because the agreed upon margins were too small. This is his story.

In January, small business owner Gregroy Yonke used Groupon to run a Featured Deal that gave buyers half off his Phoenix, Arizona Entrees to Go guided cooking sessions. Yonke couldn’t have been more pleased with the results — Groupon delivered new customers who became repeat customers, he says.

After taking the summer to explore working with a bevy of new Groupon clones, Yonke got a call from Groupon indicating that the company was interested in having him run another featured deal. And so, Yonke put off his other marketing plans for another go-around with Groupon, because in his mind, “Groupon is bigger than all the others combined.”

Talks progressed and eventually the terms of the new deal were decided. On September 7, Groupon e-mailed Yonke a merchant agreement and asked him to reply to the e-mail with “agree” in the subject line. Yonke did so on September 14, believing this meant there was now a contract in place guaranteeing him another featured deal within four to six weeks time. That time frame had been discussed in the e-mail exchanges, but was not, in fact, included in the agreement.

Then, on October 11, Yonke was notified that his deal had passed through the “vetting” stage, meaning it had been approved for scheduling. Yonke was anxious to view and approve the deal copy, but his Groupon representative wrote to inform him that the deal would be prepared after it had been scheduled.

This is when things started to go awry. On October 19, Yonke e-mailed his rep to once again press to find out the date on which his deal would run. Here’s the response he received, with confidential information redacted:

“After further deliberation, we have decided that we are not going to be moving forward with the rate confirmation for Entrees to Go. After running the numbers, we don’t feel it is the right move for us at this time. I appreciate your interest in running again, and unfortunately, we were not able to make it work on our end for a second feature. I wish you the best moving forward.”

Astonished, Yonke e-mailed back asking, “On what basis are you making this decision?”

Groupon’s response was as follows:

“With the margin in place, we will be at a loss running this feature. It simply is not in the best interest of Groupon to run Entrees to Go at this time. Per the rate confirmation, Section 1.3, ‘Groupon will offer the Vouchers for sale on dates in its discretion.’ We are choosing, with all due respect, not to move forward at this time. I appreciate your patience and apologize that it doesn’t work at this time.”

In a conversation with class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable, Yonke explained that he was quite taken aback by the response because he believed that there was a legal contract in place guaranteeing him a featured deal for Entrees to Go.

Yonke also shared that at one point Groupon pressured him to “sweeten the deal,” which he agreed to do, but only if Groupon agreed to take the same dollar amount — i.e. not the same percentage of sales — as agreed to in the initial deal. Groupon, however, wanted the same percentage, and that was just something “I couldn’t afford to do … I was already losing money on the other deal,” he said.

Earlier today, Yonke was again contacted by Groupon, but this time offering him a personalized deal, and not a featured deal. Personalized deals are only sent out to select, more targeted, audiences in the Groupon subscriber base, but Yonke was only interested in the featured deal, which would have gone out to all of Phoenix.

For Yonke, this Groupon deal represented the entirety of his marketing strategy, and it was the only way in which he was planning to attract new business at the Entrees to Go store he owns with his wife Dorothy.

Yonke believes he was overlooked because of the small stature of his business. He points to the fact that the featured deal running in Phoenix today is for Coldwater Creek, a national retailer with a much more prominent brand name. He says, “I get it … they can do a featured deal for the Gap and make $11 million in one day.”

The jilted small business owner reached out to Mashable to share his experience primarily because his marketing plans for bringing in end-of-year business have been stymied. He’s currently offering the deal through the FAQ portion of his own website, but admittedly does not have reach to a large audience.

Given Groupon’s immense growth this year, it follows that the startup will have disgruntled customers from time to time — and we’ve seen this before. While Mashable has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail communications between Yonke and Groupon, we caution the reader to remember that this is just one small business owner’s story.

Still, we felt this story to be of particular interest because it suggests that Groupon is shifting the focus of the featured deals away from the small business owners they once catered to. The smaller businesses, instead, seem to be destined for relegation to its personalized deals product or the do-it-yourself Groupon Stores.

Prior to publishing, Mashable reached out to Groupon for comment, and we’re told the company is now looking into the matter. We’ll update this post when there’s an official statement from the company.

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The Social Media Marketing Series is supported by Webtrends Apps, which lets you quickly create and publish Facebook, iPhone, iPad, and Android apps. Learn more about it here or keep up with all Webtrends Social products by following their blog.

Sadly there’s no magic rubric for deciding whether an in-house social media workforce, a social media consultant, or an agency will best be able to meet your particular business needs. Like almost every business decision, it depends on your business’s goals, budget and particular situation.

There are, however, definite pros and cons to each approach. We’ve highlighted some of the most important factors to consider for each style of social media team.

If your business has gone through the process of deciding which type of social media team to instate, let us know about the factors you considered and how you came to your final decision in the comments below.

In-House Team

Handling all social media efforts in-house is often the most affordable route for small business owners. Per hour, an agency’s time or a consultant’s time is going to be much more expensive than a full or part-time employee.

But it’s a big job. Jamie Turner, the coauthor of How To Make Money with Social Media recommends that businesses contribute no less than 25% of one full-time employee’s time to social media efforts. There are, however, benefits to making this time investment.

“People inside can move quicker and always have their finger on the pulse of the company, which makes it easier for them to respond [on social media],” Turner says.

Outsourcing your social media presence to an agency, in addition to costing more, can be slow on a day-to-day basis. An agency that is handling a Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter account might need to correspond with the company before it’s able to answer a question. Or it might need to ask for approval when unsure if an idea is in sync with the company’s overall business strategy.

Social Media Consultant

There isn’t really a narrow definition of “social media consultant.” Some have niche specialties and can help a company’s in-house team accomplish a specific social media task. Some help companies put an overall strategy in place and then leave the execution up to the company. And others are more like off-site community managers who execute the social media tasks for the company for an undetermined amount of time.

One advantage most consultants have over agencies is that they’re less expensive. “Typically you can pay [a consultant up to] $300 to $500 an hour,” says Jason Keath, the founder of social media education business Social Fresh. “If you put that same person inside of an agency, you’re adding a lot of overhead; you’re adding the corporate structure on top of it that has to be paid for as well.” Also on the cost front, consultants often require smaller time commitments than agencies.

Companies that are looking to fill in a specific aspect of their strategy often find hiring a consultant to be the best approach because they can seek a specific person that fits the niche they need help with. “If you have an in-house team, there may be a lot of knowledge there — and let’s say it’s digital PR knowledge,” says Keath, who has been consulting for the past two-and-a-half years. “But let’s say this team has never done blogger outreach before. Obviously bringing in somebody who has done blogger outreach is really going to speed up the process.”

Companies that plan to start their own in-house teams also may benefit from a consultant approach. Social media consultant Mirna Bard sees herself as an educator.

“Although an agency has results in mind, they are typically not the educators and they sometimes only look at the marketing aspect of social media,” she says. “They may also take a tactical instead of a strategic approach. Many times agencies or in-house teams are used mostly for development and execution; they are not meant to be business advisers who make overall business decisions.”

A consultant can help develop a social media strategy in line with your business objectives and play a role in teaching your in-house team how to execute it.

Agency

Most large PR agencies and many advertising agencies now have branches for handling a business’s entire social media presence. This kind of work differs from that of most consultants in that the agencies handle both strategy and execution. Jim Tobin, the president of Ignite Social Media, counts this among an agency’s advantages.

“Since we also execute for our clients, we have a good understanding of what’s realistic,” he says. “If we suggest things, chances are we’re also going to have to implement them.”

Another argument for using an agency is the wide range of experience that they generally have. In-house teams are typically isolated within their own companies and industries. Agencies have experience across multiple industries and may be able to spot a good idea that an in-house team would miss.

“Social media changes so rapidly that when you work with an agency, they’re typically more on the cutting edge of what’s coming down the pike because they’ve got 100 people out there looking around at the new stuff and thinking about the new stuff and sitting in meetings saying ‘hey, have you heard this new use of class='blippr-nobr'>Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">foursquare?’ ” explains Turner.

More people who interact with more clients have obvious benefits in keeping up to speed on the latest social media strategies. But many consultants would argue that it’s more important to have a deep understanding in a valuable niche. Both Keath and Bard have done consulting work for agencies that wanted to learn more about social media strategy.

Hybrid Approach

Most companies use some combination of the above three approaches. Turner says he often sees companies who have an in-house person “on the front line” who runs accounts and answers questions via social media, but turn to consultant or agencies for high-level social media strategy.

“It’s a collaborative approach, even if you go with an agency,” explains Tobin, whose agency handles the social media strategy for companies like Microsoft, Disney and Nike. “The client contributes the business objectives and knows what can and can’t be supported…the agency brings the expertise in the space [because it lives] in social media marketing all day. Together those can be really powerful.”

Series Supported by Webtrends/>

The Social Media Marketing Series is supported by Webtrends Apps, which lets you quickly create and publish class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, iPhone, iPad, and class='blippr-nobr'>Androidclass="blippr-nobr">Android apps. Learn more about it here or keep up with all Webtrends Social products by following their blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- Inside Group Buying: 7 Small Business Success Stories/> - How Social Search Will Transform the SEO Industry/> - 6 Tips on Starting a Digital Business from the Founder of Pandora/> - 5 Big Social Media Questions from Small Business Owners/> - 10 Essential Tips for Building Your Small Biz Team

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, disorderly

Image Credit: class='blippr-nobr'>Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr, Pieter Musterd

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

Group buying site Groupon is growing so fast that its “deals of the day” are attracting the attention of big brand names like the Gap. One small business owner believes this growth is making Groupon “greedy,” so much so that it chose not to honor a signed contract because the agreed upon margins were too small. This is his story.

In January, small business owner Gregroy Yonke used Groupon to run a Featured Deal that gave buyers half off his Phoenix, Arizona Entrees to Go guided cooking sessions. Yonke couldn’t have been more pleased with the results — Groupon delivered new customers who became repeat customers, he says.

After taking the summer to explore working with a bevy of new Groupon clones, Yonke got a call from Groupon indicating that the company was interested in having him run another featured deal. And so, Yonke put off his other marketing plans for another go-around with Groupon, because in his mind, “Groupon is bigger than all the others combined.”

Talks progressed and eventually the terms of the new deal were decided. On September 7, Groupon e-mailed Yonke a merchant agreement and asked him to reply to the e-mail with “agree” in the subject line. Yonke did so on September 14, believing this meant there was now a contract in place guaranteeing him another featured deal within four to six weeks time. That time frame had been discussed in the e-mail exchanges, but was not, in fact, included in the agreement.

Then, on October 11, Yonke was notified that his deal had passed through the “vetting” stage, meaning it had been approved for scheduling. Yonke was anxious to view and approve the deal copy, but his Groupon representative wrote to inform him that the deal would be prepared after it had been scheduled.

This is when things started to go awry. On October 19, Yonke e-mailed his rep to once again press to find out the date on which his deal would run. Here’s the response he received, with confidential information redacted:

“After further deliberation, we have decided that we are not going to be moving forward with the rate confirmation for Entrees to Go. After running the numbers, we don’t feel it is the right move for us at this time. I appreciate your interest in running again, and unfortunately, we were not able to make it work on our end for a second feature. I wish you the best moving forward.”

Astonished, Yonke e-mailed back asking, “On what basis are you making this decision?”

Groupon’s response was as follows:

“With the margin in place, we will be at a loss running this feature. It simply is not in the best interest of Groupon to run Entrees to Go at this time. Per the rate confirmation, Section 1.3, ‘Groupon will offer the Vouchers for sale on dates in its discretion.’ We are choosing, with all due respect, not to move forward at this time. I appreciate your patience and apologize that it doesn’t work at this time.”

In a conversation with class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable, Yonke explained that he was quite taken aback by the response because he believed that there was a legal contract in place guaranteeing him a featured deal for Entrees to Go.

Yonke also shared that at one point Groupon pressured him to “sweeten the deal,” which he agreed to do, but only if Groupon agreed to take the same dollar amount — i.e. not the same percentage of sales — as agreed to in the initial deal. Groupon, however, wanted the same percentage, and that was just something “I couldn’t afford to do … I was already losing money on the other deal,” he said.

Earlier today, Yonke was again contacted by Groupon, but this time offering him a personalized deal, and not a featured deal. Personalized deals are only sent out to select, more targeted, audiences in the Groupon subscriber base, but Yonke was only interested in the featured deal, which would have gone out to all of Phoenix.

For Yonke, this Groupon deal represented the entirety of his marketing strategy, and it was the only way in which he was planning to attract new business at the Entrees to Go store he owns with his wife Dorothy.

Yonke believes he was overlooked because of the small stature of his business. He points to the fact that the featured deal running in Phoenix today is for Coldwater Creek, a national retailer with a much more prominent brand name. He says, “I get it … they can do a featured deal for the Gap and make $11 million in one day.”

The jilted small business owner reached out to Mashable to share his experience primarily because his marketing plans for bringing in end-of-year business have been stymied. He’s currently offering the deal through the FAQ portion of his own website, but admittedly does not have reach to a large audience.

Given Groupon’s immense growth this year, it follows that the startup will have disgruntled customers from time to time — and we’ve seen this before. While Mashable has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail communications between Yonke and Groupon, we caution the reader to remember that this is just one small business owner’s story.

Still, we felt this story to be of particular interest because it suggests that Groupon is shifting the focus of the featured deals away from the small business owners they once catered to. The smaller businesses, instead, seem to be destined for relegation to its personalized deals product or the do-it-yourself Groupon Stores.

Prior to publishing, Mashable reached out to Groupon for comment, and we’re told the company is now looking into the matter. We’ll update this post when there’s an official statement from the company.

For more Social Media coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Social Mediaclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Social Media channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

The Social Media Marketing Series is supported by Webtrends Apps, which lets you quickly create and publish Facebook, iPhone, iPad, and Android apps. Learn more about it here or keep up with all Webtrends Social products by following their blog.

Sadly there’s no magic rubric for deciding whether an in-house social media workforce, a social media consultant, or an agency will best be able to meet your particular business needs. Like almost every business decision, it depends on your business’s goals, budget and particular situation.

There are, however, definite pros and cons to each approach. We’ve highlighted some of the most important factors to consider for each style of social media team.

If your business has gone through the process of deciding which type of social media team to instate, let us know about the factors you considered and how you came to your final decision in the comments below.

In-House Team

Handling all social media efforts in-house is often the most affordable route for small business owners. Per hour, an agency’s time or a consultant’s time is going to be much more expensive than a full or part-time employee.

But it’s a big job. Jamie Turner, the coauthor of How To Make Money with Social Media recommends that businesses contribute no less than 25% of one full-time employee’s time to social media efforts. There are, however, benefits to making this time investment.

“People inside can move quicker and always have their finger on the pulse of the company, which makes it easier for them to respond [on social media],” Turner says.

Outsourcing your social media presence to an agency, in addition to costing more, can be slow on a day-to-day basis. An agency that is handling a Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter account might need to correspond with the company before it’s able to answer a question. Or it might need to ask for approval when unsure if an idea is in sync with the company’s overall business strategy.

Social Media Consultant

There isn’t really a narrow definition of “social media consultant.” Some have niche specialties and can help a company’s in-house team accomplish a specific social media task. Some help companies put an overall strategy in place and then leave the execution up to the company. And others are more like off-site community managers who execute the social media tasks for the company for an undetermined amount of time.

One advantage most consultants have over agencies is that they’re less expensive. “Typically you can pay [a consultant up to] $300 to $500 an hour,” says Jason Keath, the founder of social media education business Social Fresh. “If you put that same person inside of an agency, you’re adding a lot of overhead; you’re adding the corporate structure on top of it that has to be paid for as well.” Also on the cost front, consultants often require smaller time commitments than agencies.

Companies that are looking to fill in a specific aspect of their strategy often find hiring a consultant to be the best approach because they can seek a specific person that fits the niche they need help with. “If you have an in-house team, there may be a lot of knowledge there — and let’s say it’s digital PR knowledge,” says Keath, who has been consulting for the past two-and-a-half years. “But let’s say this team has never done blogger outreach before. Obviously bringing in somebody who has done blogger outreach is really going to speed up the process.”

Companies that plan to start their own in-house teams also may benefit from a consultant approach. Social media consultant Mirna Bard sees herself as an educator.

“Although an agency has results in mind, they are typically not the educators and they sometimes only look at the marketing aspect of social media,” she says. “They may also take a tactical instead of a strategic approach. Many times agencies or in-house teams are used mostly for development and execution; they are not meant to be business advisers who make overall business decisions.”

A consultant can help develop a social media strategy in line with your business objectives and play a role in teaching your in-house team how to execute it.

Agency

Most large PR agencies and many advertising agencies now have branches for handling a business’s entire social media presence. This kind of work differs from that of most consultants in that the agencies handle both strategy and execution. Jim Tobin, the president of Ignite Social Media, counts this among an agency’s advantages.

“Since we also execute for our clients, we have a good understanding of what’s realistic,” he says. “If we suggest things, chances are we’re also going to have to implement them.”

Another argument for using an agency is the wide range of experience that they generally have. In-house teams are typically isolated within their own companies and industries. Agencies have experience across multiple industries and may be able to spot a good idea that an in-house team would miss.

“Social media changes so rapidly that when you work with an agency, they’re typically more on the cutting edge of what’s coming down the pike because they’ve got 100 people out there looking around at the new stuff and thinking about the new stuff and sitting in meetings saying ‘hey, have you heard this new use of class='blippr-nobr'>Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">foursquare?’ ” explains Turner.

More people who interact with more clients have obvious benefits in keeping up to speed on the latest social media strategies. But many consultants would argue that it’s more important to have a deep understanding in a valuable niche. Both Keath and Bard have done consulting work for agencies that wanted to learn more about social media strategy.

Hybrid Approach

Most companies use some combination of the above three approaches. Turner says he often sees companies who have an in-house person “on the front line” who runs accounts and answers questions via social media, but turn to consultant or agencies for high-level social media strategy.

“It’s a collaborative approach, even if you go with an agency,” explains Tobin, whose agency handles the social media strategy for companies like Microsoft, Disney and Nike. “The client contributes the business objectives and knows what can and can’t be supported…the agency brings the expertise in the space [because it lives] in social media marketing all day. Together those can be really powerful.”

Series Supported by Webtrends/>

The Social Media Marketing Series is supported by Webtrends Apps, which lets you quickly create and publish class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, iPhone, iPad, and class='blippr-nobr'>Androidclass="blippr-nobr">Android apps. Learn more about it here or keep up with all Webtrends Social products by following their blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- Inside Group Buying: 7 Small Business Success Stories/> - How Social Search Will Transform the SEO Industry/> - 6 Tips on Starting a Digital Business from the Founder of Pandora/> - 5 Big Social Media Questions from Small Business Owners/> - 10 Essential Tips for Building Your Small Biz Team

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, disorderly

Image Credit: class='blippr-nobr'>Flickrclass="blippr-nobr">Flickr, Pieter Musterd

For more Business coverage:

class="f-el">class="cov-twit">Follow Mashable Businessclass="s-el">class="cov-rss">Subscribe to the Business channelclass="f-el">class="cov-fb">Become a Fan on Facebookclass="s-el">class="cov-apple">Download our free apps for iPhone and iPad

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

eric seiger

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

Group buying site Groupon is growing so fast that its “deals of the day” are attracting the attention of big brand names like the Gap. One small business owner believes this growth is making Groupon “greedy,” so much so that it chose not to honor a signed contract because the agreed upon margins were too small. This is his story.

In January, small business owner Gregroy Yonke used Groupon to run a Featured Deal that gave buyers half off his Phoenix, Arizona Entrees to Go guided cooking sessions. Yonke couldn’t have been more pleased with the results — Groupon delivered new customers who became repeat customers, he says.

After taking the summer to explore working with a bevy of new Groupon clones, Yonke got a call from Groupon indicating that the company was interested in having him run another featured deal. And so, Yonke put off his other marketing plans for another go-around with Groupon, because in his mind, “Groupon is bigger than all the others combined.”

Talks progressed and eventually the terms of the new deal were decided. On September 7, Groupon e-mailed Yonke a merchant agreement and asked him to reply to the e-mail with “agree” in the subject line. Yonke did so on September 14, believing this meant there was now a contract in place guaranteeing him another featured deal within four to six weeks time. That time frame had been discussed in the e-mail exchanges, but was not, in fact, included in the agreement.

Then, on October 11, Yonke was notified that his deal had passed through the “vetting” stage, meaning it had been approved for scheduling. Yonke was anxious to view and approve the deal copy, but his Groupon representative wrote to inform him that the deal would be prepared after it had been scheduled.

This is when things started to go awry. On October 19, Yonke e-mailed his rep to once again press to find out the date on which his deal would run. Here’s the response he received, with confidential information redacted:

“After further deliberation, we have decided that we are not going to be moving forward with the rate confirmation for Entrees to Go. After running the numbers, we don’t feel it is the right move for us at this time. I appreciate your interest in running again, and unfortunately, we were not able to make it work on our end for a second feature. I wish you the best moving forward.”

Astonished, Yonke e-mailed back asking, “On what basis are you making this decision?”

Groupon’s response was as follows:

“With the margin in place, we will be at a loss running this feature. It simply is not in the best interest of Groupon to run Entrees to Go at this time. Per the rate confirmation, Section 1.3, ‘Groupon will offer the Vouchers for sale on dates in its discretion.’ We are choosing, with all due respect, not to move forward at this time. I appreciate your patience and apologize that it doesn’t work at this time.”

In a conversation with class='blippr-nobr'>Mashableclass="blippr-nobr">Mashable, Yonke explained that he was quite taken aback by the response because he believed that there was a legal contract in place guaranteeing him a featured deal for Entrees to Go.

Yonke also shared that at one point Groupon pressured him to “sweeten the deal,” which he agreed to do, but only if Groupon agreed to take the same dollar amount — i.e. not the same percentage of sales — as agreed to in the initial deal. Groupon, however, wanted the same percentage, and that was just something “I couldn’t afford to do … I was already losing money on the other deal,” he said.

Earlier today, Yonke was again contacted by Groupon, but this time offering him a personalized deal, and not a featured deal. Personalized deals are only sent out to select, more targeted, audiences in the Groupon subscriber base, but Yonke was only interested in the featured deal, which would have gone out to all of Phoenix.

For Yonke, this Groupon deal represented the entirety of his marketing strategy, and it was the only way in which he was planning to attract new business at the Entrees to Go store he owns with his wife Dorothy.

Yonke believes he was overlooked because of the small stature of his business. He points to the fact that the featured deal running in Phoenix today is for Coldwater Creek, a national retailer with a much more prominent brand name. He says, “I get it … they can do a featured deal for the Gap and make $11 million in one day.”

The jilted small business owner reached out to Mashable to share his experience primarily because his marketing plans for bringing in end-of-year business have been stymied. He’s currently offering the deal through the FAQ portion of his own website, but admittedly does not have reach to a large audience.

Given Groupon’s immense growth this year, it follows that the startup will have disgruntled customers from time to time — and we’ve seen this before. While Mashable has confirmed the legitimacy of the e-mail communications between Yonke and Groupon, we caution the reader to remember that this is just one small business owner’s story.

Still, we felt this story to be of particular interest because it suggests that Groupon is shifting the focus of the featured deals away from the small business owners they once catered to. The smaller businesses, instead, seem to be destined for relegation to its personalized deals product or the do-it-yourself Groupon Stores.

Prior to publishing, Mashable reached out to Groupon for comment, and we’re told the company is now looking into the matter. We’ll update this post when there’s an official statement from the company.

For more Social Media coverage:

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The Social Media Marketing Series is supported by Webtrends Apps, which lets you quickly create and publish Facebook, iPhone, iPad, and Android apps. Learn more about it here or keep up with all Webtrends Social products by following their blog.

Sadly there’s no magic rubric for deciding whether an in-house social media workforce, a social media consultant, or an agency will best be able to meet your particular business needs. Like almost every business decision, it depends on your business’s goals, budget and particular situation.

There are, however, definite pros and cons to each approach. We’ve highlighted some of the most important factors to consider for each style of social media team.

If your business has gone through the process of deciding which type of social media team to instate, let us know about the factors you considered and how you came to your final decision in the comments below.

In-House Team

Handling all social media efforts in-house is often the most affordable route for small business owners. Per hour, an agency’s time or a consultant’s time is going to be much more expensive than a full or part-time employee.

But it’s a big job. Jamie Turner, the coauthor of How To Make Money with Social Media recommends that businesses contribute no less than 25% of one full-time employee’s time to social media efforts. There are, however, benefits to making this time investment.

“People inside can move quicker and always have their finger on the pulse of the company, which makes it easier for them to respond [on social media],” Turner says.

Outsourcing your social media presence to an agency, in addition to costing more, can be slow on a day-to-day basis. An agency that is handling a Twitterclass="blippr-nobr">Twitter account might need to correspond with the company before it’s able to answer a question. Or it might need to ask for approval when unsure if an idea is in sync with the company’s overall business strategy.

Social Media Consultant

There isn’t really a narrow definition of “social media consultant.” Some have niche specialties and can help a company’s in-house team accomplish a specific social media task. Some help companies put an overall strategy in place and then leave the execution up to the company. And others are more like off-site community managers who execute the social media tasks for the company for an undetermined amount of time.

One advantage most consultants have over agencies is that they’re less expensive. “Typically you can pay [a consultant up to] $300 to $500 an hour,” says Jason Keath, the founder of social media education business Social Fresh. “If you put that same person inside of an agency, you’re adding a lot of overhead; you’re adding the corporate structure on top of it that has to be paid for as well.” Also on the cost front, consultants often require smaller time commitments than agencies.

Companies that are looking to fill in a specific aspect of their strategy often find hiring a consultant to be the best approach because they can seek a specific person that fits the niche they need help with. “If you have an in-house team, there may be a lot of knowledge there — and let’s say it’s digital PR knowledge,” says Keath, who has been consulting for the past two-and-a-half years. “But let’s say this team has never done blogger outreach before. Obviously bringing in somebody who has done blogger outreach is really going to speed up the process.”

Companies that plan to start their own in-house teams also may benefit from a consultant approach. Social media consultant Mirna Bard sees herself as an educator.

“Although an agency has results in mind, they are typically not the educators and they sometimes only look at the marketing aspect of social media,” she says. “They may also take a tactical instead of a strategic approach. Many times agencies or in-house teams are used mostly for development and execution; they are not meant to be business advisers who make overall business decisions.”

A consultant can help develop a social media strategy in line with your business objectives and play a role in teaching your in-house team how to execute it.

Agency

Most large PR agencies and many advertising agencies now have branches for handling a business’s entire social media presence. This kind of work differs from that of most consultants in that the agencies handle both strategy and execution. Jim Tobin, the president of Ignite Social Media, counts this among an agency’s advantages.

“Since we also execute for our clients, we have a good understanding of what’s realistic,” he says. “If we suggest things, chances are we’re also going to have to implement them.”

Another argument for using an agency is the wide range of experience that they generally have. In-house teams are typically isolated within their own companies and industries. Agencies have experience across multiple industries and may be able to spot a good idea that an in-house team would miss.

“Social media changes so rapidly that when you work with an agency, they’re typically more on the cutting edge of what’s coming down the pike because they’ve got 100 people out there looking around at the new stuff and thinking about the new stuff and sitting in meetings saying ‘hey, have you heard this new use of class='blippr-nobr'>Foursquareclass="blippr-nobr">foursquare?’ ” explains Turner.

More people who interact with more clients have obvious benefits in keeping up to speed on the latest social media strategies. But many consultants would argue that it’s more important to have a deep understanding in a valuable niche. Both Keath and Bard have done consulting work for agencies that wanted to learn more about social media strategy.

Hybrid Approach

Most companies use some combination of the above three approaches. Turner says he often sees companies who have an in-house person “on the front line” who runs accounts and answers questions via social media, but turn to consultant or agencies for high-level social media strategy.

“It’s a collaborative approach, even if you go with an agency,” explains Tobin, whose agency handles the social media strategy for companies like Microsoft, Disney and Nike. “The client contributes the business objectives and knows what can and can’t be supported…the agency brings the expertise in the space [because it lives] in social media marketing all day. Together those can be really powerful.”

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The Social Media Marketing Series is supported by Webtrends Apps, which lets you quickly create and publish class='blippr-nobr'>Facebookclass="blippr-nobr">Facebook, iPhone, iPad, and class='blippr-nobr'>Androidclass="blippr-nobr">Android apps. Learn more about it here or keep up with all Webtrends Social products by following their blogclass="blippr-nobr">blog.

More Business Resources from Mashable:

- Inside Group Buying: 7 Small Business Success Stories/> - How Social Search Will Transform the SEO Industry/> - 6 Tips on Starting a Digital Business from the Founder of Pandora/> - 5 Big Social Media Questions from Small Business Owners/> - 10 Essential Tips for Building Your Small Biz Team

Image courtesy of iStockphotoclass="blippr-nobr">iStockphoto, disorderly

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eric seiger

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger eric seiger
eric seiger

eric seiger
eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger

Breaking <b>News</b>: Humanities in Decline! Film at 11. — Crooked Timber

But I just don't know of any realm of human endeavor in which a precipitous decline from 1967 to 1987, followed by a couple of decades of stability, counts as breaking news. It's the equivalent of saying “sales of Sgt. Pepper posters ...

Great <b>news</b>: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session <b>...</b>

Great news: Dems ready to push amnesty during lame duck session.

Celebrities Looking Older Than Their Age Can Be Good, Bad &amp; Really <b>...</b>

Commonly all the plastic surgery that celebrities undergo to preserve their age backfires and makes them look as though they have tacked years onto their plastic bodies. Other times, celebrities ar...

eric seiger