Chapter 74
Places and Deals
Is your business on Facebook Places?
The hottest trend on today's social Internet is local check-in. It all started with Foursquare, a mobile application allowing users to “check-in” at local businesses. Anyway, it was so successful that Yelp jumped on board with the same functionality. Google was next to express interest (although not yet released) and now Facebook has joined the party as well. What makes this so significant? Facebook is the most popular social network on the Internet and already has an active established user base. So their introduction of Facebook Places—offering the same check-in functionality to Facebook users—sent shockwaves. Better yet, the platform is built on Facebook pages, providing all local businesses a powerful incentive to create pages for themselves.
In order to fully take advantage of Facebook Places, you'll have to claim your Place and verify that you're the business owner. If you're unsure if your business is already on Facebook (it may have been added by someone else), search for your business name in the standard search bar. If you're already there, visit the page and click “Is this your business?” If you're not included yet, click “check-in” and then “add” on the left-hand side.
Facebook Places is pretty cool but they went a step further. They introduced Facebook “Deals” so businesses can offer discounts, promotions, and bonuses to people who check-in at their establishments. I'm not suggesting similar ...
