If a user purchases a coupon on Groupon, Living Social, or another one of the dozens of deal sites, the purchase remains largely isolated. A person using Facebook Deals, on the other hand, automatically broadcasts this decision to their friends, which could easily lead to more direct sales. But even if it doesn't lead to a sale, the simple endorsement of the service provides a great deal of value to the business. This social component is a significant value added for SMB and should not be underestimated.

Another benefit for SMB is customer data. Marshall Kirkpatrick at the ReadWriteWeb blog speculates that Facebook will be with businesses offering deals. Such data would be invaluable to an SMB attempting to market in an increasingly noisy marketplace. Kirkpatrick notes that Facebook did not rebuke his assertion through their e-mail correspondence.

The discount deals space has exploded in the last few years. Groupon, the largest deals provider, buyout offer by Google last year. The social coupon company plans to go public sometime in the second half of 2011, with an IPO around $25 billion, according to sources quoted at The New York Times and Reuters.

Google, apparently perturbed by its rejected bid, announced Google Offers earlier this year. Like Facebook, the company has a vast database of existing users and user data to leverage for the service.

And late last year, Web giant Amazon got in on the game by investing $175 million in Groupon competitor Living Social.