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10 Things About Facebook Places

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Facebook has just rolled out a new location-based social (LBS) option called Facebook Places. Here are 10 things you need to know about the new social service.

Today, 10 things you need to know about Facebook Places.  What it means for the travel industry, what you should do today and the future of geosocial networking.

Well, in our opinion anyway.

10 Things You Need To Know About Facebook Places

1. Facebook Places will help geosocial networking go mainstream.

For those of you who read the Travel 2.0 Blog daily, you already know all about geosocial networking (Word of the Week – Geosocial Networking).  But Joe Consumer does not.  Nor does he care to learn what the phrase 'geosocial' means.  Like Oprah on Twitter, Facebook brings geosocial networking into the mainstream for about 500 million people.  And for those consumers, 'check-in' is the definition of geosocial.

2. Facebook should now be at the center of your marketing strategy.

Trust me, no one has been a bigger hold out on the value of Facebook...although we are still not convinced your fan page is the best use of the service...but the time has come to include Facebook in your advertising plan discussions.  And not just as a sidebar or afterthought.  Nope.  The agenda should read: Goals, Strategy, Facebook, TV, Print, etc, etc.

3. How to claim your Place page.

Do it now. Claim your Facebook Place page. (.PDF)

4. How to turn off Facebook Places.

For those of you who are still resisting the inevitable.  And I, for one, welcome our new Facebook overlords.  How to turn off Facebook Places.

5. Travelers can now associate content with your physical location.

An entire wave of information, data and content is about to be attached to your location on Facebook.  Sure, that content had existed previously, but now it is easier to find.  The sheer scale of information that could be shared via the service is immense, which will give an established service like TripAdvisor either a huge partner or strong competitor in the travel review space.  For more travel impact, we recommend 'Two sides to the Facebook Places story for travel' from Tnooz.

6. Facebook Places is now a critical piece of your customer service strategy.

For the travel industry, add Facebook Places to your 'must monitor' list.  If you have limited resources to actively communicate online, TripAdvisor and Facebook Places should now be your top priority.

7. Facebook Places helps complete the social reporting puzzle.

Let's connect the dots and envision a possible future for social ROI...and an answer to our riddle of the tripecho effect.

  • Bill posts a status update that he is in Washington D.C. at the Hyatt and had a great time.
  • The Hyatt is using a (to be developed) tracking system that records the message, keywords, the user and their social graph.
  • Jill sees the message and begins to plan a trip to D.C. in two months.
  • Jill books a room at the Hyatt.
  • Jill checks into the Hyatt and updates her Facebook Places status.
  • The Hyatt receives a report that one of their guests, Jill, was part of Bill's social graph.  And Bill sent a message two months ago about the Hyatt.
  • The Hyatt can now associate Jill's stay with Bill's status update.

8. Facebook Places is another step towards sharing your entire social graph.

Looking into our crystal ball once more, Facebook Places is a first step in establishing a much larger and much more open social graph.  Mashable defined the trend as 'passive' status updates, sharing your location automatically with your network.  And, not only your location, but thousands of data points that produce a clear picture of your social and consumer preferences.  Hi big brother, great to see you again.

9. Privacy concerns will be a story for the media, but not a (real) concern for most users.

What about privacy?  Or security?  People will know you are not at home and rob your house!  Sorry, but this is a media story to fill up some of the wasted hours of news programming.  Sure, the nerds among us realize the privacy implications, but the general public...Joe Consumer...does not understand or really care.

And you know what?  20 years ago, if I had your business card and a fake mustache, I could have robbed your house.  I call you at the office, pretend to want to sell you toner, confirm you are away from your house and head on over to the homestead.

So stop it with the whole, 'bad guys will know your not at home' argument!

10. Facebook Places builds our dependence on Facebook.

You know what, it does.  Facebook, along with Google, is now the central hub in our digital life.  What will happen next?  Will Facebook ever fail?  We just don't know.  But, I can tell you this, never before have so many people been connected via a social service.  We have never seen a social connection point this large, so predicting the future of Facebook is, at best, a educated guess.

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Troy Thompson

Troy Thompson is a respected consultant, speaker and thought-leader in the tourism industry. Principal at the Travel 2.0 Consulting Group and Founder of mark, Troy provides destinations, DMOs and CVBs with answers to difficult digital marketing questions.

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  • Joe Buhler

    Great post. I'm right with you on this. With the FB user base, and even if it would stagnate, which is unlikely, the mainstream will now become aware of the concept of check-in, combined with recommendation, evaluation. The insights to be gained from actively monitoring this are enormous. What marketers need to be be careful about is that this is part of peoples social graph and personal network where in your face irrelevant messages are counterproductive. So, tread carefully and listen before you engage!

    P.S. Troy, why not use Disqus for comments? Would make it easy to auto-login and track my comments. Just a thought.

  • Troy Thompson

    Thanks Joe!

    Great comments and insight, always appreciated.

    Thanks for the note on Disqus. We actually have it installed, just not active yet...need to find time to port over all of the old comments. Coming soon.

    Thanks!
    Troy

  • http://www.travel2dot0.com/ Troy Thompson

    Hey Joe,nnThere you go, Disqus comments activated.nnAsk and you shall receive.nn- Troy

  • Becca

    Great article, thanks for the Places Advertisers PDF. I noticed an issue with Facebook's instructions for claiming your Place (log into http://www.facebook.com and search for and select the name of your Place). I was unable to pull any Places, any suggestions? nnAlso, do you have an recommendations on how destinations should be creating their Place, ie. should they try to create a generic location for the destination/city or stick with their actual visitor bureau or chamber location?nnThanks!nnBecca

  • http://www.travel2dot0.com/ Troy Thompson

    Hi Becca,nnFirst, thanks for the comments. No worries on the .PDF.nnAs far as pulling places, it appears that the primary interface is via a mobile device or http://touch.facebook.com/ (the tab at the right).nnI would also refer to some of the FAQs about Places: http://www.facebook.com/...s/#!/help/?topic=placesnnHere are some helpful Q's:nn1. Can I edit a Place?nAt this time, it is not possible to edit a Place on the mobile site or the web.nn2. I am a business owner. How do I take ownership of the Place where my business is located?nIf you are the official representative of your business, please take the following verification steps to claim the Place on Facebook:nn- Search for the Place on Facebook you wish to claim as your business. If no Place exists for your business, you can create a new Place.n- Once you locate the Place for your business, click the "Is this your business?" link at the bottom of the Place.n- Complete the step-by-step verification process to claim your Place.nnPlease keep in mind that only official representatives of a business can claim the Place on Facebook. Click here to learn more about the benefits of using Facebook Places for your business.nn3. How do I create a new Place?nTo create a new place, follow these steps:n- Access the Places application on your supported device.n- Click "Check In."n- Click the "Add" button to the left of the Places Names search box.n- Enter a name for the new Place as well as an optional description of it. Then, click the "Add" button at the bottom right of the page. You will then have the option to both write a description of what you are doing at the new Place, and/or tag your friends theren- Click the "Check In" button to share your visit.nKeep in mind that any Place that you create is public. This means that other people may see your created Place while browsing Facebook or the Places application.nnAs for how CVBs / DMOs should use Places, I would recommend creating a 'place' for an actual visitor center or location.nnThink of it this way, what information would be most helpful to a visitor when they are in my destination?nnA pin that simply states 'Anytown, USA' is not that valuable...the visitor (hopefully) already knows what city they are in. Instead, provide useful info, such as VIC info, that will not only provide background on the destination, but also a way to take this mobile interaction to an in-person visit.nnHope that helps!nn- Troy

  • http://buhlerworks.com/wordpress JEBworks

    wow! Now that was fast. Appreciate it and I don't think I am alone....

  • http://www.travel2dot0.com/ Troy Thompson

    No worries. Like we said, something we have been meaning to do for a while. Did not realize how easy the set-up / import was to disqus. Happy to have the integration for our readers...hopefully this makes commenting that much easier.nnHave a good one.nn- Troy

  • http://SocialMediarology.com Jeremy A Williams

    Another solid post Troy. I'm going to feature this one on my weekly update on SocialMediarology.com

  • http://www.travel2dot0.com/ Troy Thompson

    Thanks Jeremy, glad you liked the post. Excited that we made the must read list this week!

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