Facebook Places – What it means for marketers

In our last post, we poised the question “why would Facebook change the page width of Facebook Pages to 520px?” There were several fantastic guesses, but the answer has become clear – and no, it’s not ads. Facebook will keep the left sidebar of a page visible no matter what tab on the Facebook Page is selected. This new, persistent space, will likely be the placement for many of Facebook’s new features launching in the next several months (as confirmed by Mark Zuckerberg to AllThingsD). The first feature to get placement in this sidebar is Facebook Places, if you decide to merge your Places Page and your Facebook Page.

The internet is atwitter (see what we did there?) with the new release of Facebook’s location service, Facebook Places. Yesterday, Chris Cox and Mark Zuckerberg announced the launch of Facebook Places, allowing Facebook users to tell their friends (via the newsfeed and the mobile apps) where they are. Facebook is rolling this feature out slowly to 500 Million users, an impressive step building on early success of companies like Foursquare and GoWalla. The opportunity to engage 500 Million users in a brand new way has marketers asking themselves: what’s the significance of Places?

First and foremost, Places is an aggressive and intelligent move to increase the value and relevance of Facebook’s primary asset, the social graph. Go to Facebook’s signup page and you’ll see the following description of Facebook: “Facebook helps you connect and share with the people in your life,” but Facebook allows you to connect with more than just the people in your life. For example, it also allows you to connect with a brand’s online presence, and share that affiliation with your friends.

Location is another meaningful connection that users are willing to share with their friends. If I check into my favorite local coffee shop, Epicenter, on Facebook Places, it will publish to my newsfeed and my friends can connect with me or the places I implicitly recommend.

Facebook is the uncontested leader in the collection and sharing of social information. Facebook is also the leader in the creation and maintenance of social relationships between brands and consumers. Places is a natural extension of these two leadership positions, allowing brands to create a relationship with their actual customers and allowing users to share more socially relevant data with their friends.

But what does it mean for brands?

There’s a ton of information out there for users about Facebook Places, if you’re interested in that here’s a list of all the reactions to Facebook Places from top technology news sources. Here at Involver, we’re interested in how this affects our brand and agency customers (all 80,000+ of them). So far, here’s what’s been made public that should be interesting to you:

What happens when a user checks in to a place?

• That check-in is sent to that user’s friends through the newsfeed, creating a powerful implicit recommendation for that place.
• That user is listed as having checked in on that Places Page in the left hand column of the page, creating valuable social proof for users who find your place on Facebook.
• Friends of the user who checked in will see their name and checked-in location on the Places section of their iPhone app or touch.facebook.com experience.
• Users can tag their friends so that only one person in a group has to create the check in on Facebook.
• Checking in does not create a persistent relationship for the user. The place owner can not publish messages to a user’s Newsfeed after they’ve checked in.
  • Users can “Like” a place, which does create a persistent relationship.

What’s different between a Facebook Place and a Facebook Page?

• Facebook Places have maps built in to show location
• Facebook Places can accept Check-ins
• Facebook Places have Friend Activity Feeds so that users can see when their friends have checked in at that place

How should I manage my Facebook Page and Facebook Place(s)?

• Before managing your Facebook Place, you must claim it. The easiest way to do this is to accept a phone call at the number saved for that place. If this is not viable, then you can submit a document verification request instead, but this will take longer.
• A Facebook Place can be merged with a Facebook Page. If you merge your Place and Page, it will add maps, Check-ins, and Friend Activity Feeds to your current Facebook Page.
• You can only attach one Facebook Place to a Facebook Page right now, it’s not advised to attach your Facebook Place to a page if you eventually want to attach multiple Places, as Facebook is working on a solution for this.
• Involver Customers, if you attach your Facebook Place to your Page, you’ll be able to mange both with the Involver Audience Management Platform.

Can I build a marketing experience that makes use of Places?

Facebook is currently in the process of rolling out API access for Facebook Places. Read data for a user’s location check-ins will be made available to developers looking to build unique experiences. Involver is already building products to support this new functionality available to to our brands — if you’re interested in making use of this new functionality to engage your audience, let us know at business@involver.com and we’ll let you know how we can help!

Interested in learning more about Places? Read the Help or Description for the new Places Product.

-Tyler

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As the Head of Brand Strategy at Involver, I spend a great deal of time thinking about how new technology announcements and capabilities in the social media space affect the marketers that make up our customer base. If you’d like to keep abreast of the tips and tricks our team discovers, please find us at http://fb.me/involver or @involver. I also write personal and professional updates at @tylerwillis and Tyler’s Toolbox.