Facebook Places To Replace Your Local Fan Page

Last week Facebook unveiled Facebook Places and it’s exactly what you’d assume it is if you’ve spent any time on the Web over the past six months. Like many sites/applications that have come before it, Facebook Places allows you to see where your friends are and to share your location with the real world. You can see which of your friends are nearby, tag the people you’re with and leave comments on their updates. There’s a lot of speculation about how Facebook Places may affect Google Places and what it means for applications like FourSquare or Gowalla, but I’m going to save all that for later. What I am interested in is what this means for small business owners, right now.

As a small business owner you need to be aware of Facebook Pages, and you need to be aware of it even if you have no intention of ever using it. Because some of Facebook’s 500 million users are your customers and, regardless of your feelings, they’ll be using it.

To access Facebook Places you’ll have to use the iPhone Facebook application or, if you don’t use an iPhone (hold out!), you can access touch.facebook.com from any mobile browser-supported phone. The Facebook Place Page listings I’m seeing right now are very reminiscent of a FourSquare business listing. They show your basic business information (address, phone number, directions, etc), a Bing map (read Bing’s announcement), the number of check-ins and any of your friends who have checked into the business.

Here’s a screenshot of an early Facebook Place listing for the Burbank Airport:

As you can see, these pages are still pretty bare. However, more is coming!

Right now Facebook Place Pages is existing completely independent of your company’s Facebook Fan page that you’re using to engage and connect with customers. That means you have to watch and monitor both to protect yourself from attack. However, Greg Sterling spoke to Facebook’s Chris Box and got the scoop that small business owners will be able to merge their Fan page listing with their Facebook Place Page at a later date. There’s quite a hefty claiming process to set the stage for the eventual merger, but once it’s done, the new Place Page will serve as your business’ identity on Facebook. You will have one page that users can interact with and check in at.

Having a fully integrated page will also open up different promotional opportunities for small business owners who can now tie calls to action with check in activity or run ads directing people to their page. It should be interesting to see how Google responds and what social components will be added to Google Place Pages as a way to compete. But that’s all in the future.

Right now, small business owners need to do their part to make sure that their information and brand are both protected. You can’t merge your Facebook Place page with your Fan page yet, but you can claim it. By claiming it you give yourself the ability to edit the information, complete your profile and authorize page admins. Getting this done ahead of time will help you take advantage of the merged profiles once they become available. Also, there’s no current way to edit the title of your Facebook Place Page, so if you want to make sure it gets inputted correctly, you may want to be pro-active and create it yourself.

About the Author

Lisa Barone Lisa Barone is Co-Founder and Chief Branding Officer at Outspoken Media, Inc., an Internet marketing company that specializes in providing clients with online reputation management, social media services, and other Internet services. She blogs daily over at the Outspoken Media blog.

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Locals Only: "More Is More": Why Info-Rich Ads Help Local Businesses Generate Leads

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Subject: Locals Only: "More Is More": Why Info-Rich Ads Help Local Businesses Generate Leads
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Search Engine Land Columns Newsletter

Locals Only

"More Is More:” Why Info-Rich Ads Help Local Businesses Generate Leads

by Larry Small

In today's changing media environment, local businesses are looking for new ways to reach the consumer. In addition to placing ads in traditional outlets like the print Yellow Pages—which still have significant consumer reach—local businesses are increasingly adding websites and social networking pages, online videos, iPhone and iPad apps and other popular advertising tools to their marketing strategies. Their hope is that by taking advantage of new digital and mobile offerings, they'll be able to reach new customers, generate leads and stay ahead of competitors who are slower to adapt.

While implementing an integrated, multi-platform advertising approach is an important aspect of the local business search experience, so is making sure that the advertisements businesses employ contain the types of information that consumers need. Local businesses risk missing out on potential leads they've worked so hard to attain if their ads don't include basic background information on the operation and its offerings.

Released in March, the first annual "Local Media Tracking Study," conducted by Burke and commissioned by the Yellow Pages Association, includes some interesting findings about consumer ad satisfaction. The survey found that 21% of print Yellow Pages users and 18% of Internet Yellow Pages users said that the amount of information in the ads they found was too little.

Of those who said there was too little info, the following percentage of respondents pointed to these information points as missing:

  • Hours of operation: 19% in print Yellow Pages; 17% in Internet Yellow Pages.
  • Details about projects: 16% in print Yellow Pages; 19% in Internet Yellow Pages
  • Details about services: 16% in print Yellow Pages; 9% in Internet Yellow Pages
  • Prices: 15% in print Yellow Pages; 20% in Internet Yellow Pages
  • Not enough info/too vague: 9% in print Yellow Pages; 11% in Internet Yellow Pages
  • Locations/area of the city: 6% in print Yellow Pages; 9% in Internet Yellow Pages
  • Website: 4% in print Yellow Pages; 12% in Internet Yellow Pages

So what does this mean for the local business advertiser? The key takeaway is that a "less is more" approach when it comes to the types of information included in local ads does not satisfy consumers' needs. A "more is more" approach—in essence, creating an info-rich ad—ensures that the consumer is fully informed about the local business, its services, and the nature of the products and services they offer.

A great-looking ad in a heavily used directory can fail to maximize the level of leads one expects if it doesn't include all of the information that consumers want when making decisions. To satisfy the consumer decision process, local businesses should recognize the value of info-rich ads and work to implement them into their marketing strategies. And they need not worry that too much information in an ad will overwhelm consumers. According to the study, just 2% of print Yellow Pages users and 5% of Internet Yellow pages users said the amount of information in ads was too much.

Opinions expressed in the article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land.


Larry Small brings nearly three decades of Yellow Pages and local search experience, as Director of Research for the Yellow Pages Association (YPA). Larry spearheads and advises on all association-driven research activities for the industry, as well as blogs about the industry on the InsideYP blog.

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