Last week, Facebook unveiled another attempt to suck market share from location-based apps like FourSquare. It’s called Facebook Deals and integrates with the Facebook Places that was released earlier. Facebook posted a video on how it works.

It’s obvious the benefits that are available for businesses with this app. However, some questions were posted by Facebook users regarding the new system.

Is it available for Blackberry?
What about those who don’t have an iPhone or Android phone?

More importantly – How can a business collect customer data for future targeted marketing?

Here is where text/SMS marketing shines.  No apps or phone dependencies and the business collects cell numbers for future marketing.  One could potentially run a text marketing campaign even if they didn’tt have a brick-and-mortar business.  Granted, you don’t get to check-in and let your stalkers know where you are, but that is besides the point…

The internet, especially social media, and mobile platforms offer many different low-cost ways to market.  There is no silver bullet, and businesses would do well to utilize every legitimate marketing channel if it makes sense for their business.  That said, it would be interesting to see in a head-to-head run which would deliver more foot traffic to businesses – Facebook Deals or SMS/text marketing?