Posts Tagged ‘Facebook Places’

Facebook Places: Are You Using the New Check-In Deals Feature?

Monday, April 11th, 2011

Separate from the Facebok Deals feature that we wrote about previously, Facebook has also recently rolled out a new Deals feature for Facebook Places. Businesses who claim their Facebook Places page can now create a “Check-in Deal” to promote your business. Similar to Foursquare Specials, Facebook Places now offers a variety of specials (or Check-in Deals) to reward customers for checking in at a business. By offering Check-in Deals, Facebook is positioning itself as a major player in the location-based gaming arena. Business owners can now use the largest social network on the planet to offer deals to their customers while in-store… Can you say, lots of potential?

What Types of Check-In Deals Can I Create for My Business?

Facebook Check In Deals for Small Business

According to Facebook, “Check-in Deals can help you engage with your customers and grow your business. Check-in Deals allow you to reward loyal customers with discounts and other special offers, so you can build valuable relationships with this influential audience. In addition, Facebook users have 130 friends on average, which means that if someone checks in to your business and you’re offering a deal, their friends have the opportunity to hear about it through word of mouth marketing that is generated naturally on Facebook. Lastly, over 200 million people use Facebook on their mobile devices and they are looking to discover what’s happening nearby. By offering a check-in deal, you give these new potential customers great reasons to stop by your business.”

Currently in the U.S., the Facebook Check-in Deals feature is available to all business owners. Facebook is working on providing business owners with a self-setup option, but for the time being businesses need to contact Facebook. At this time, only one special is allowed per business. How much does a valuable feature like this cost? Try FREE. Also, consumers checking in at your business using Facebook Places will be alerted of your Check-in Deal, potentially further increasing sales.

If you’re considering using foursquare to promote your small business, definitely check out what Facebook has to offer before making any decisions. Over the past few months Facebook has added Facebook Deals to compete with Groupon and Facebook Check-In Deals to compete with foursquare. It seems that Facebook is really putting a lot of energy behind transforming its platform into an even more powerful business tool. Although still in its infancy, this mix of tools may prove to be the most powerful weapon in a small business’s social media arsenal.

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Posted in Facebook Marketing | No Comments »

Claim Your Small Business on Facebook Places

Monday, January 31st, 2011

After giving Facebook Places plenty of time to prove itself as a viable competitor to location-based giants like foursquare and SCVNGR, we now know that Facebook Places is definitely a tool that all small business owners who have a physical storefront should be taking advantage of. Due to the sheer size of the Facebook community, small businesses should use Facebook Places as a viable marketing channel. Hopefully most of you reading this article have added your small business to Facebook Places. Once your business has been added to Facebook Places you can go ahead and claim your Place on Facebook.

There are a number of benefits to claiming your business on Facebook Places. Once you claim your small business you can then update your Place. Small Business owners can post updates to anyone who ‘Likes’ your Place page, which means you can use Facebook Places to build relationships with customers and prospects. You can also ensure all of the business information is correct and even run promotions through your Place page on Facebook.

Claim my Facebook PlaceNow that you’re convinced that claiming your small business on Facebook Places is the way to go, let’s go ahead and walk you through how to claim your business on Facebook Places.

Find Your Place Page on Facebook

The first step is definitely the easiest of all the steps. Simply navigate to your Facebook Places page. Find the “Is this your business?” link on the left sidebar.

Claim Your Place Page on Facebook

Click the “Is this your business?” link on the left sidebar. A pop-up message will appear. Read the message and when you’re ready, check the box next to “I certify that I am an official representative of your business name“.

Verify Your Place Page on Facebook

So step 1 was the easiest part and this last step is the most difficult. With that said, it’s not terribly time consuming, but it is a little more tedious than claiming your business on foursquare. In order to verify that you’re an official representative of the business, Facebook requires you to provide an official document, like your local business license. Once that’s been reviewed and approved you’re now the proud owner of your Place page on Facebook!

Use Facebook Places to Promote Your Small Business

Now that you’re officially in control of your business’s Place page on Facebook you can start using it to engage customers and prospects. Location Marketing is a growing trend and with 500+ million people on Facebook, it’s a good thing that you took the time to claim your small business on Facebook Places.

Leave a comment below to let us know what you think of Facebook’s “claiming process”.

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Posted in Facebook Marketing, location marketing | 19 Comments »

Facebook Places Is a Valuable Small Business Marketing Channel

Tuesday, January 11th, 2011

After months of hearing about foursquare and the rise of location-based social applications, Facebook decided to join the party. Back in August of 2010 Facebook released Facebook Places and the rest might well be history. Subscribers of this blog know how much we love location-based game foursquare, so before jumping in with our thoughts on Facebook Places, we wanted to give the new tool some time to show how effective it can be for small business owners. 5 months later, we are ready to say that Facebook Places will be a viable small business marketing channel. If you own a small business, it’s time to start really taking advantage of location-based marketing tools like foursquare, SCVNGR, and now Facebook Places.

Facebook: The Power of the Community

Facebook Places Small BusinessAfter the first 5 months, Facebook Places doesn’t really offer any new earth-shattering technology or features when compared with foursquare, and you could say that SCVNGR’s features blow both tools away. With that said, what Facebook Places currently lacks in WOW factor features is made up for by being backed by the biggest online community on the planet. Although foursquare is continuing to add new users faster, Facebook’s numbers are staggering. With so many small businesses already using their Facebook Business Page to connect & engage their prospects and customers, Facebook Places is a natural progression for those small businesses who see the power of Location Marketing.

Check-In at My Small Business on Facebook Places

Facebook Places allows prospects and customers to check-in at your business on Facebook. When a customer or prospect checks-in to your Place page that activity will end up in their friends’ News Feed. This is pretty powerful especially when many Facebook users have hundreds of Friends and some have thousands. That’s a lot of relevant eyeballs for your business. Oh and by the way, your business may already have a Facebook Places page, as users can add a Place if it’s not listed when they go to check-in. You should probably look into that. ;)

Small business owners should encourage customers and prospects to check-in on Facebook Places to capture the eyeballs that we discussed above, but also as a way to start getting to know the people who visit your store. When someone checks-in at your Place you can see who that person is, which means you can start engaging him or her around relevant topics about your business and industry.

There are a lot of other great features for small business owners to take advantage of with Facebook Places, but first you must claim your Facebook Place. This is a topic for another day. For now, hopefully this post has convinced you to start using Facebook Places to promote your small business. That doesn’t mean you should stop using foursquare and SCVNGR, it simply means that until we find out who the winner of this location marketing race will be, you should be using all of the tools that make sense for your business and your customers. At this point we are ready to say that Facebook Places deserves a spot alongside of the traditional location-based social tools like foursquare & SCVNGR.

We will discuss claiming your Facebook Place in a future post. When you claim your Facebook Place you will get access to even more features geared towards helping you promote your small business on Facebook.

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Posted in Facebook Marketing, location marketing | 5 Comments »