16 Jan 2011
Facebook Places Marketing Campaigns
Ok, ok so maybe Facebook Places is kinda sorta alright. As a loyal Foursquarer, I wasn’t impressed when Facebook first launched their Places platform. I didn’t see the value or relevance, and was likely blinded by simple close mindedness because nothing beat Foursquare in my books. (Still doesn’t).
There was no incentive, no specials, NO BADGES!! *gasp* How would this fly? Who would use Facebook Places over Foursquare? I asked. As it turns out, everybody. I saw my aunts and my cousins and people who I knew for a fact hadn’t tried Foursquare checking in to locations in their hometowns. Places meets people where they’re at, and millions of folks happen to be on Facebook every day. No wonder they clicked to learn more.
Mashable posted an article recently highlighting some creative Facebook Places marketing campaigns that have gone live since it’s launch in August. I won’t walk you through each campaign, you can do that for yourself. I will however highlight the one I liked best and ‘sold’ me on the benefit, if you will:
VisitBritain launched a Facebook Places program that uses a leader board (among other tactics) to promote various UK landmarks while promoting Britain as a whole.
The program encourages people to check in every time they visit an important British location and write a review of what they find. With each check in, the “Top 50 UK Places” leader board on VisitBritain’s LoveUK Facebook Page is automatically updated.
The program has more than 250,000 visits to the Top 50 Places page. VisitBritain’s fan numbers have also spiked by 34% since the start of the campaign.
Mind you, I’m still not a fan of the application. I use an Android phone and the Facebook for Android app refuses to let me check-in using Places, I have to re-direct to the touch.facebook.com url in order to post an update. I also don’t like that although Facebook says you can merge your brand page with your place location, I’ve had nothing but issues trying to execute that very task for my company page.
In any case. As a former hater, and semi-believer - I’m starting to see the potential of what Facebook Places could do.
(Source: Mashable)
