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I recently attended a Groupon careers information on campus at Carnegie Mellon. Upon finding the correct room, I was greeted by five smiling Groupon-t-shirt-wearing recruiters. With a packed classroom of over 30 students from computer science, engineering and design backgrounds, the Groupon-ers gave their spiel. They emphasized the company's rapid growth since 2009 and all the opportunities for even more growth in the future (presumably being their reason for the Pittsburgh visit). They went over highly technical details of the job to appeal to the engineering and computer science majors in the room. However, I was particularly interested in how they sold themselves as a "social innovation" without ever saying the phrase.

Groupon, for those that are not familiar, is a service that gets local merchants to offer one-time discount deals to consumers. Merchants like Groupon because it puts their business on the map and provides a large amount of advertising via daily direct emailing. Consumers like Groupon because they can get half-off or more on everything from spas to bistros. And Groupon likes all of this because merchants are willing to pay them to provide this wide-reaching service.

So why is Groupon a social innovation? With such a wide reach, Groupon serves as a key marketing tool for small businesses. Merchants know that even if the customers don't redeem their deal for months, they will still act as valuable word-of-mouth marketers. And once customers try the spa or bistro for the first time because of the deal, they will more than likely make multiple return visits to the business. Providing the slashed deal on tuna tartare suddenly seems worth it to local merchants. This increase in word-of-mouth marketing and return visits also helps local small businesses compete with national chains in close proximity to them. A customer with a Groupon deal for half off at the family owned Italian restaurant in the Strip District is probably not going to choose to have a meal at the Olive Garden a few miles away. And this is good, right? Helping out the little guy. The underdog. Groupon is helping steer customers to small businesses rather than giving deals for the Red Robins and P.F. Chang's of the world who don't need any help driving hungry customers through their doors.

Groupon is still in its early years. And, like the recruiters said many times, they are growing! To maintain their position as a sort of social innovation, Groupon will need to be cautious. They have local merchants in the palms of their hands. If they raise the price of using Groupon too much, they could end up hurting local merchants more than helping them. Their scaling strategy will determine whether they continue to be the good guys. Keeping their mission focussed on helping local consumers AND merchants will be the key to propelling themselves as an even greater social innovation.