So what is this Facebook places? At the moment, it’s a fairly limited addition to the Facebook empire that lets users “check-in” to real world places from their mobile phones. When you’re physically in the vicinity of some sort of business, park, national monument –anything really- you can “check-in.” Your Facebook page will be updated with the info that you’re at this place. It’ll appear on your profile and in your friends’ newsfeeds so people can keep tabs of your moves around town. Additionally, you can see if friends have checked-in nearby you … essentially, it opens a whole new level of obstacles when trying to avoid people you don’t want to see at bars and restaurants (kidding).
Places is pretty spartan at the moment, but expect WAY more features coming within the year, from location based advertisements to coupons and suggestions of places to visit. It opens massive new arenas to Facebook that are already being explored by many locations based social networks. However, Foursquare, Loopt, Gowalla, etc. etc. suffered from a major stumbling block –it’s only fun if people you know use it. Luckily, every person you’ve ever met in your time on earth has a Facebook profile. As penetration of smart phones steadily increases here in the U.S., I expect places to be absolutely massive.
In typical Facebook fashion, all users have already been opted into places. Anytime I check myself into a place, I can also tag friends that are there as well. This information will appear on their profile. They can opt out of it in the infamously impenetrable privacy settings, but I’m going to guess that only a fraction of Facebook users realize this (I’ve already checked friends into nearby aquariums and juice bars unbeknownst to them, unfortunately there weren’t any gentleman’s clubs on the way to work). I expect there will be a privacy backlash as people begin to understand the privacy implications, but that it will eventually blow over as Farhad Manjoo of Slate argues it always does.
Brands’ role in places will need to expand as the service is further embraced, and the possibilities are expanded. They’ll need to keep an eye on reviews and tips that people leave at their businesses, take advantage of promotions and of course reward customers who check-in frequently as savvy businesses like Starbucks has already begun to do with Foursquare. This is a very exciting opportunity for us as marketers, as places opens the door for so many cool marketing initiatives. Interactive online scavenger hunts, social applications that tailor your use of products to your location, contests that involve location components … so much room for creativity.
In any case, I predict 2011 will be the year location finally goes mainstream, and it’ll be a fun ride.
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