Plink has just announced a Facebook Credits loyalty program in partnership with fast-food chains Dunkin’ Donuts, Quiznos, Red Robin and Taco Bell. Users earn Facebook Credits by joining Plink and logging on with their Facebook credentials and credit or debit cards. Like any loyalty program, the more people purchase, the more Facebook Credits they’ll rack up.
Members will be able to accumulate Facebook Credits at 25,000 locations nationwide, including Quiznos, Dunkin’ Donuts and Taco Bell. They can use those Facebook Credits for Facebook virtual games, movies or music.
There is no point-of-sale (POS) integration, which means Plink users don’t have to whip out a card or their phones when they purchase items. Plink works through credit or debit cards that users have pre-registered. Restaurants and offline retailers pay Plink a percentage of the sales that come directly from those members. From what we can tell, Plink will not integrate as a frictionless sharing app, so a user’s entire Facebook network will not know about the Big Mac or coffee that they snuck on lunch break.
Plink operates differently from digital customer loyalty program Belly, which depends on members swiping their mobile devices or using their Belly cards.
Facebook Credits are currently associated with buying virtual goods to advance in games like FarmVille and The Sims Social. Facebook has been edging out of that virtual territory, however, allowing people to use Facebook Credits to pay to download music, and watch movies and TV on Facebook.
Facebook is also working on social commerce, essentially making the social network into a mall. It recently launched 60 new social sharing apps, only five of which aren’t super creepy.
