Location based services are becoming more and more important. Simples ones like Facebook Places and Google Places are easy to get under control, and can add significant value to your business. This is a quick guide on how to claim you Google Places and Facebook Plages profiles.

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@danielord
Daniel Ord Rasmussen

2. 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!

3. Location based services include (but are not limited to)
- we will be looking at both of them here.

4. First, Google Places.
Say I’d like to find a
hotel in London,
England.
I Google “hotel
london”.

5. I get these results.

6. These are “regular”
organic search results.

7. These are Google
Places results.

8. 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.

9. Let’s click a results “Place page” link.
Boss is paying, we’ll spring for the The Ritz.

10. 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

11. 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.

12. 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.

13. If you haven’t claimed you places page, it looks like this.
To claim you Place, click the link.

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

15. 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.

16. 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.

17. 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.

18. 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.

19. 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.

20. 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.

21. 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.

22. 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.

23. 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/

24. 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.

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

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

27. 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.

28. 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.

29. Note the “Friend You now have access to all the
activity” function 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.

30. 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.
Comments? Love to hear ‘em!
Twitter: @danielord
daniel@seismonaut.com

32. Image Credit
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/