Aug
Facebook Ventures into Geo Location with Facebook Places
Facebook recently announced their newest addition, Facebook Places. Facebook Places is an application that allows users to tag their location or “check in” and create a trail of their locations throughout the day. This application will show users what their friends are doing and where they are. Facebook Places can be accessed from a cell phone and, as always, comments can be made on these location posts.
This new application will certainly be a hit with many Facebook users, but will also greatly benefit businesses. After claiming their locations, businesses can use Facebook Places as another form of word of mouth advertising. When Facebook users tag themselves at a particular business and even comment positively or negatively on that business, the opinions of other potential customers will be influenced. Businesses can even offer special deals to Facebook Places users as they do with users who become a fan of their company page. Companies that incorporate the Places application into their marketing plans will find themselves reaching their potential customers even better than before.
As always, some Facebook users are concerned about the effect that this new application will have on their privacy. However, this application requires users to tag themselves or “check in” at a particular location in order for the information to be revealed on Facebook. Users who do not want their information shared should check their privacy settings, but they can also choose not to participate in this new application.
But what effect will Facebook Places have on other location based sites like Foursquare? The Facebook network is much larger than the networks of location based services such as Foursquare, Yelp.com, Gowalla.com, and Whrrl.com, so some might think that these companies will be greatly threatened by the addition of Facebook Places. However, Facebook Places appears to be doing the opposite. Shortly after the announcement about Places, Foursquare experienced a huge peak in signups. Instead of crushing the smaller location based sites, Places appears to be attracting attention and getting people interested in location based applications of all sorts.
As Facebook continues to expand into other areas, smaller sites will have to keep on their toes in order to keep themselves unique and original, but they should not fear being squashed by the Facebook giant. The key for sites like Gowalla and Foursquare will be to differentiate themselves from Facebook Places. They will need to offer their users a different incentive for using their site in order to keep business thriving.
Will Facebook Places be something you utilize? Why or why not?
Justin McGill is a web marketing professional and runs a successful Small Business SEO Firm. He is the founder and CEO of SEORCHERS (read: [surch-ers]) - a local web marketing firm specializing in organic search engine optimization (SEO) with a focus on converting visitors into clients. He is available for SEO Consulting and now you can connect with him on Google+!.Related posts:
- How Location Based Marketing Works Today Apps like Foursquare, Gowalla, and now even Facebook’s check-in functionality...
- Location Based Services: The Future of Online Marketing Location based searches have changed the playing field for social...
- Shaping Your Mobile Marketing Strategy Mobile marketing has positioned itself as the advertising wave of...
- 3 Tips for Intelligent Web and Print Marketing This is a guest post from Sachin of Web Profits....
- How Google Places Uses Directory Listings to Determine Rankings How Google Places Uses Directory Listings Google Places has positioned...
It is really great news on this post with have a great thought….
Wow nice news, it is really nice t know that facebook develops more features that surely users will enjoy. There are lots of beautiful places especially in local areas and through facebook people who are faraways form their province can still view the unique scenery that they miss. I really love facebook since I can connect with my relatives and friends who are far.
Well, I see a lot of privacy issues with the Places feature in Facebook, like you have stated in your post. mention the fact that you have to check in, but I believe (but not 100% sure at this point) that others can check you in from their account. So there is still a little bit of a risk if you are concerned with this feature.
George@Dinosaur Costumes´s last [type] ..T Rex Dinosaur Costume
I have been with Facebook for long time and it help me get a lot of benefits from it traffic.
I really like facebook, but I don’t think the geo location thing is a good idea. We are just making ourselves easier to be stalked by weirdos.
I have been with Facebook for long time and it help me get a lot of benefits from it traffic.
)
I really like facebook, but I don’t think the geo location thing is a good idea
)
I have been with Facebook for long time and it help me get a lot of benefits.Thanks for the article. I liked reading it
This is great. I have yet to use Facebook as a marketing tool for the several websites I own. However, I know when I get to it, things will go great.
Agreed, facebook managed to be yet, another great source for traffic (After all, that was its main intention, have people share content in a more web 2.0 social way), if you, however, manage to create a popular facebook account, the rest should be easy
That’s exactly what I was thinking. Or when you post that you just checked into the movie theatre everyone knows you won’t be home for 2-3 hours and anyone could break into your house. Hopefully none of your ‘friends’ would do that but I think we all have a few Facebook friends that are just there to pad our numbers and aren’t really friends.
Cool! I have used facebook for my social networking campaigns and this additional feature will be of great advantage.
Good move on Facebook’s part. They should really try and get the most they can out of their large user database while they’re still on top of the game. Don’t see myself using Facebook Places though but I’ll check it out for sure.
I really like facebook
That is true. Facebook Places has become a big hit. Other sites should develop something that would differentiate them from Facebook Places. If not, users would prefer FP and would not even try other sites. Good info!
Trust me, Facebook is only doing this to help provide their advertisers with valuable visitor location information so they can increase their advertising rates.
You are probably right Craig, and really though…can you blame them?
I do not like all the invasions of privacy companies like this are offering with people seemingly wanting to tell the world their details. I feel it is a very unwise idea to tell people where you are all the time, it is a thieves dream!
With this new update from facebook, there would be a fierce battle between google+ and facebook. One thing they will take into consideration is the privacy of the users.
This is fab. I have yet to use Facebook as a marketing tool as linked in, for the several websites I own. However, I know when I get to it, things will take time to get going and create the content.
This is one of the Aces in facebook where they could get their revenue. This strategy may sound simple yet effective.