How To Use Facebook Places For Your Business

Oil spills,bad economy,lack of funds to advertise the are just a few of the things hurting businesses in the Tampa Bay area as well as in the rest of the country. Businesses need to be penny wise when it come to advertising. Facebook has just introduced Facebook Places which may help and best part it is for free. 

For companies that have a physical location it makes sense to have a Facebook Place in order to track the people who are stopping by and let them know whats going on there.It also helps during the tourist season as lots of people use their phones to help guide them  Here is a quick step by step guide to help get your place of business exposure.

1. Create Your Place: You’ll need to load up the Facebook iPhone application or go to Facebook for touch devices  site and check if your place exists already. You can do this by searching for the place. If it doesn’t exist, you can quickly create it by clicking on “Add” or the “+” sign depending on whether or not you are using Facebook for touch devices or Facebook for iPhone.
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3. Claim The Place As Yours: You’ll need to log in to Facebook and search for the Place that you’ve created. Once you find your business place you can click on the “Is this your business?” link at the bottom of the place and claim it. You will be prompted for information to confirm your business information such as physical address and other business related information. 
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5. Merge Your Place & Page: Finally merge the Place and your Facebook Business Page (if you have one and if you dont I suggest you get one it is Free and really helps you get more business) once you’ve completed the verification proces. The result is a combined Page which effectively serves as your local business page. The new merged design will be completely different from your existing Facebook Pages but will still have all the same content your current Facebook page has so you wont lose anything you have already done to it. 
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So there you have it all in all a very easy process. And it is a cheap and effective way to expose your business to the world. Now remember Facebook Places is only available in the US right now on your phone but is viewable to the entire world on Facebook (500 Million Users).

(Reprinted from my new column at Examiner.com and please feel free to subscribe to my daily column)