ClaimYour Place

@danielord

Daniel Ord Rasmussen

Location based services are everywhere. Your business probably already has multiple profiles.

Services create them and users create them - you probably won’t need to.

But you should make these profiles yours!

Location based services include (but are not limited to)

- we will be looking at both of them here.

First, Google Places.

Say I’d like to find a hotel in London, England.

I Google “hotel london”.

I get these results.

These are “regular” organic search results.

These are Google Places results.

They include extra information, such as info about reviews, location and phone number.

They are also viewable on Google Maps.

Note the “Place page” link.

Let’s click a results “Place page” link.

Boss is paying, we’ll spring for the The Ritz.

This is a Google Places page.

It contains lots of information about this business.

- Location- Booking options- Prices and services- Review aggregation- Pictures and video

This is a great service you can offer your customers.

It allows them to get the most important info quickly.

It’s also a good idea from a Google perspective, since it means Google now “knows” all these things about your business.

You will notice, that this page is “Owner verified.”

That means the Ritz has claimed this profile and can edit it to make sure it is accurate and current. It also allows them to see statistics for visits, searches etc.

If you haven’t claimed you places page, it looks like this.

To claim you Place, click the link.

Select the right option - usually “Edit my business information”. Make sure you are signed in to your Google-profile.

Select the right option - usually “Edit my business information”.

Edit your details and submit. At this point, you wil be asked to verify that you actually are entitled to claim this Place. Follow the instructions and you should be set with Google Places.

Onwards to Facebook Places.

Facebook Places is a different, but equally important, sort of location based service.

It’s a “check in” service, meaning you can “check in” at physical locations with you GPS-enabled phone. It is heavily influenced by the likes of services such as Foursqure and Gowalla.

Facebook is far more mainstream though, so Facebook Places is a better starting point than either of those two.

Checking in updates your Facebook stream with your location, allowing your friends to see where you are (and vice versa).

It also allows you to see special offers called Facebook Deals, that are only available through Facebook Places.

You can check in using Facebook on most modern phones, iPhones, Android, Win Phone 7 etc.

Some older models can use the Facebook mobile website to check in, as long as it has access to GPS.

On an iPhone it looks like this. It’s showing me nearby locations. They all exist as Facebook Places.

Some are created by owners, others by users and a lot are created by Facebook, by pulling in data from various sources.

If any one them had Facebook Deals attached, they would be marked.

Let’s check-in at Lucca, a cafe. You can tag your Facebook friends you are there with - but only, if their privacy settings allow it.

You can also “like” the Places straight from the app.

Once you’ve completed the check-in you can add a photo.

Additionally you can see which of your friends are there now and who’s been there before.

On the Facebook website your check-in will feature in your friends’ stream like this.

Your friends can now click the “Lucca” link to see information about the Place.

This is valuable to you as a business, because people are vouching for you by letting their friends know, that they like this cafe enough to tell people they eat there.

According to Nielsen’s Trust Index recommendations from friends are the most trusted form of referal far above brand websites.

http://blog.nielsen.com/nielsenwire/consumer/global-advertising-consumers-trust-real-friends-and-virtual-strangers-the-most/

What people see when clicking that Facebook Places link is important.

Nobody from “Lucca” has not claimed their place. It doesn’t contain any much information, no visual identity and looks pretty dull and unprofessional.

The most prominent feature it “Nearby Places”. It shouldn’t be.

To claim your Facebook Places page follow the “Is this your business?” link under the profile picture.

Certify that you are in fact entitled to claim the place and continue.

If Facebook is able to find a phone number for your business, a machine will call you. It will give you a PIN-number, that tells Facebook you are actually situated within the business that you are claiming.

If there’s no phone number listed, you will be presented with alternative options.

Follow the instructions and you’re on you way to converting the anonymous, drab Facebook Places page into a fully functioning Facebook Page.

You now have access to all the regular features of Facebook Pages, such as this one.

When people click the link in a check-in post they will be taken to your page.

If you already have a non-Places Facebook Page, you can merge the two.

Note the “Friend activity” function

That just about wraps it up.

These services are here now and are changing the way we find things. Get onboard now and be ready for the rush.

Twitter: @danielord

Comments? Love to hear ‘em!

daniel@seismonaut.com

http://www.aoc.gov/cc/photo-gallery/images/70226_hr.jpg

http://www.flickr.com/photos/ari/4889439481/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anirudhkoul/3499471010/sizes/l/

http://www.flickr.com/photos/cpoyatos/4501340678/sizes/o/

Image Credit