What is Places on Facebook?

Places on Facebook is a powerful and highly interactive feature on Facebook for mobile users. This feature can be used exclusively as a very effective mobile marketing tool for small businesses or anyone who has a physical business location that they would like to drive customers to.

How to use Places on Facebook for users

Using the Places on Facebook feature of the Facebook mobile app is easy. A user simply needs to open the Facebook app or Facebook mobile website when at a specific Physical location (e.g. A store or retail location) that exists on Facebook and “check in”.

Here are the steps to do so:

1. Open the Facebook mobile app and go to “Nearby”



2. Go to the “CheckIn” Button



3. Select a place from those available GPS must be On



4. Add Who you are with or Message or Photo in the Check in Screen



5. Choose who to Share it With and hit Post

Now you have shared your location and post with the world or whomever you desired.

The post will show up in their status stream and potentially drive business to that store or physical location that you “Checked In” at.

How to use Places on Facebook for Business

Facebook places is ideal for retail businesses who want to generate foot traffic in their stores. People who see status updates from their friends saying they are at your location can drive business and act as a form of social proof that your business is worth their time. This is also good because friends generally trust friends more than advertising and we generally surround ourselves with people of similar tastes.

How do you get people to Check In at your location for Places on Facebook?

The simplest way to get people to check in at your location is to Create an incentive. Place a message at the counter asking them to check in and offering a free treat or discount to do so.

Have them show you the CheckIn on their phone and you will take 15% off the purchase price for doing so. Th immediate incentive will be automatic and you will get a much higher ROI this way. Here is a Places on Facebook Guide from my friends at Mashable

For more tips on how to create and implement a places on Facebook campaign, signup for the blog below.