By Pia Mara Finkell (@piamara)

Somewhere at Groupon headquarters, there is a fully functioning crisis room where someone is drawing devil horns on a picture of Mark Zuckerberg. With the recent wild fire rise of Flash Sales and Group Buying, it should come as no surprise that the social networking leader Facebook announced its intentions last week to launch a location-based, Groupon-style service to its 500 million-plus members. 

This move shows Facebook’s desire to attract new local businesses as customers and drive sales. According to Bloomberg, Facebook “raised $1.5 billion from investors led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., placing a $50 billion valuation on the entire company,” and “Facebook may have reached $2 billion in sales last year.” With 2 billion in sales, why is Facebook creeping on Groupon’s turf? As reported by Time’s online tech blog, Techland, “according to consulting firm BIA/Kelsey, daily deals will generate $3.93 billion by 2015.” Needless to say, there is some money to be had in showing some love to local and small business.

Facebook will roll out their new social offering in beta as part of their existing Deals program, starting in San Francisco, San Diego, Dallas, Atlanta and Austin. According to a recent statement from the Palo Alto-based company, “local businesses will be able to sign up to use this feature soon, and people will be able to find Deals in the coming weeks.” Facebook smartly extended discount offers beyond its own deals, offering users deals from partner group buying sites, such as Gilt City, PopSugar City, KGB Deals, HomeRun.com, ReachLocal, Tippr, Plum District and Zozi.

While this is an obvious next step for Facebook in developing their business model, this is good news for Facebook users looking for the next great deal, and great news for small businesses looking for new ways to reach their customers and generate loyalty via social media. As reported by Business Week, “’local is the last frontier that the Internet has not conquered, and everyone is going after it with a vengeance,’ said Lou Kerner, an analyst with Wedbush Securities Inc. in New York. ‘This news is just kind of an evolutionary moment in Facebook’s drive to be a major player in local.’”

Facebook has also done a fantastic job of working with U.S. and State authorities on drinking age restrictions to make sure their alcohol advertisers can effectively target the right consumers of legal drinking age. Even Twitter has cautiously opened Promoted Twitter Account options to bev alcohol brands and regional wine boards (upon individual approval). From restaurants to hotels, and (as it relates to the Booze Bin) from bars to wineries, small businesses and those in booze or other types of marketing have reason to pay attention to Facebook’s new offering.

Here is a great video from Facebook that explains their Deals Program. Cheers!

Photos and video courtesy of Nicholas Gill Bluurb, Guines Designs and Facebook/YouTube.