When it comes to local business marketing, location-based services are probably one of the hottest trends to come along in a great while. There are already startups such as Gowalla and Foursquare that have enjoyed an excellent reception when it comes to location based marketing. But there is another company that has seen the potential, and that is Facebook Places. So, you’re probably asking yourself, how a company would use Facebook for small business location based marketing.
Facebook Places will give the user an opportunity to ‘check in’ when they have arrived at an off-line location or a brick-and-mortar business. This check-in will then be displayed on the places page, on the user’s wall, and within newsfeeds of that person’s friends. This in turn will create popularity, visibility, and exposure for the business that the user has just had the opportunity to visit. And this is the kind of location based marketing any small business will need. It’s important to understand that this isn’t just any kind of promotion.
The reason for this is – a real person has generated the check-in, which makes this a very credible recommendation at the least. Now it’s important to understand that in order for anyone to take advantage of Facebook Places, they will need to have a Smartphone that is web enabled. It will also have to support Geo-location, and it will need to have the ability to access the Facebook mobile site on a continual basis. Now, there are a variety of different applications available for the Smartphone that will enable this process, but it will be important to understand the business side of this location based marketing opportunity.
Now that we know some of the advantages, businesses will need to encourage Facebook Places users to come in and visit their local businesses. You will discover that many of these business owners are entrepreneurs that provide freebies and discounts to potential clients to ensure that they come into their location and check-in. The power in this is not only to use location based marketing to create exposure for their business, but by giving away incentives, this will in turn help to encourage loyalty and create repeat customers.
So, by understanding more about how to use Facebook for small business location based marketing, you will have the opportunity to grow your business and take your marketing efforts to the next level.