Facebook made some changes to fan pages last week and I thought I’d let you know how this might impact your business.

The changes go into effect for all Facebook Pages on March 10, which gives you four weeks to preview the new format and switch over at any time before then. It’s important to learn how they work in order to make the most of this exciting new look and feel.

These changes bring Facebook pages closer to individual user profiles in look and functionality.

The changes impact the user experience visually, giving a more compelling look and feel to pages; functionally, allowing brands and companies to operate more the way individual users do.

Here is a quick list of changes

• Pages can Like other Pages, not just favorite them
• Photo strip above the Wall (with most recent photos you posted or tagged)
• Tabs move over to the left panel, in the form of a list (maximum of 6 above the fold)
• Profile picture reduced from 200 x 600 pixels to 180 x 540
• Blurb box that was below the Page picture moved to info tab
• Ability to interact on Facebook as your Page
• Ability for admins to post and comment around the site under their Page’s alias
• News feed of updates from Liked Pages
• Pages can now feature iFrame tab applications
• Featured Pages and Admins
• Page category
• Choice for Wall posts between “Everyone” and Page posts only
• Mutual Friends and Interests section
• Email notifications when users post or comment

Note: You can preview the new layout but once you upgrade, there is no way to revert back to the old design.

Leave your questions and comments about the Facebook changes below.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

*Photo by m-c

The busiest shopping season of the year is upon us. Many of you have finally completed your holiday shopping and others are just beginning. Heck, if you’re like me, you haven’t even started yet. No matter your current holiday shopping status, there is no denying that companies are going to make a boatload of money this month.

What’s stopping you from getting in on some of that cash?

Sure, this article is a little sudden; it gives you no planning time and forces you to be quick on your feet. However, in the end, YOU are responsible for YOUR business and its revenue. If you decide to embrace the holiday madness, you might see that it works out well for you, even at the last minute.

So, let’s make you some cold hard cash in four easy steps.

Customer Targeting

Not every customer is going to buy from you this year, but some will and we have to target those “some.” Is that going to be one person or 900 people, I don’t know, but I’m sure that there is a least one person who will be interested in your products or services as we wrap up the year. We need to focus on getting that person/those people. Let’s call them the “targeted crowd.”

What does the targeted crowd look like?

There are two kinds of people who do shopping and deal hunting during the month of December, those who are interested in getting the best gifts at the lowest prices for others and the individuals who want to find the coolest things for themselves. Your marketing strategy needs to appeal to one or both of these motivations.

Even still, not every person in that target crowd is going to spend money with your company but they’re willing to listen. When they ask questions, you MUST answer; when they are on the fence about buying new gutters at a ridiculously low price, you NEED to sell them on it.

The spenders will be the people in the targeted crowd that really want it but need a little extra convincing.

Your Proposal

Now that you know the group of people you’re targeting, how are you going to get them to buy your stuff?

Just like in The Godfather, you need to make him an offer he can’t refuse.

The company with the best offers win on Black Friday and beyond. Period. Do you see hundreds of people lining up at the store which offers the hottest new toy at regular price? No, and that’s because holiday bargainers want the lowest prices around or their trip is a bust.

Go low and stay low…but don’t go into the hole.

Obviously, you have certain prices you need to match in order to come out in the black, so don’t sell yourself, or your customers, too short.

Make reasonable offers that catch the attention of your targeted crowd. Marketing concrete services? Run and all-day special advertising that your normal $1,000 consultation fee will be waived for all contracts beginning today or the next week. Selling organic fruit and veggies? Make all of your products buy one, get two free AND at a reduced rate.

If a customer is on the fence about it, make an exception that won’t be too unreasonable. Obviously, you can’t give too much away for free or you’ll go broke. Make offers that customers can’t, or wouldn’t be sane to, refuse.

Tying In Social Media

Everything up to this point may have been basic but here’s the real question: how do you use social media to do all of this? Easy!

Check out a few ways you can utilize Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and your blog to make out like a bandit this holiday season:

• Facebook – Post PDFs or pictures of your sales and ads.
• Facebook – Give Facebook only customers an additional discount on your products.
• Facebook – Tell customers that if they buy a product and then write a review on the “Review” tab on Facebook, they get a special mail in rebate form.
• Twitter – Send various tweets throughout the weeks with short specials (only and hour or two long) so customers are kept wondering what great deals are coming.
• Twitter – Solicit your followers to send you Direct Messages with the price they’re willing to pay for an item and give that price to the first five followers who Direct Message.
• Twitter – If your followers answer a certain question or do a certain task, they’ll get a certain amount off of your already low prices.
• YouTube – Post videos of your products with a narration of how much you’re selling it for during the month of December.
• YouTube – Post a video detailing that if someone subscribes to your channel, they’ll get a special free gift.
• Blog – If a person subscribes to your email list today or throughout this next week, they’ll be entered to win a free product or service.
• Blog – Whoever comments on your blog on that day will get a certain amount of money off of your products or will get something for free.

Honestly, the possibilities are endless. You can offer SO MUCH to your customers through social media.

If you implement the information given in this article, you’re practically guaranteeing some success on during the holiday season and beyond. Remember–customers want deals that are ridiculously appealing so give them. If you don’t, you will never have the opportunity to build rapport and nab future sales and recommended clients.

Happy holidays to you!

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by chrisschoenbohm

It’s that time of year again–the time to put up the lights, buy tacky sweaters, and spend more time with your extended family than you really want. (That is why they call them extended, right?!)

Although you’re busy during the end of November and thru December, you can’t forget about your customers who are still turning to you. This is the busiest time of the year for shopping so if you haven’t used social media at all for your business this year, you may want to start. You can capture A LOT of cliente and customers by simply engaging with them and marketing your awesome products. Even if you have a more robust or labor-intensive product, such as roofing repairs or carpentry, you can still gain exposure because customers are looking to spend that lovely green stuff they’ve earned through holiday bonuses and great grandma Marge.

Here are 25 ways to engage with your customers and clients this holiday season:

Ask…

1. What your customers are planning to do for the holidays
2. Who has or has not done their shopping or who is definitely waiting until the last minute
3. Who has considered donating a gift to an orphanage this holiday season
4. What songs your customers love to listen to around the holidays
5. What traditions your customers engage in
6. What movies your customers love to watch during the holiday season
7. How you can make your customer’s holiday season brighter and better
8. What your customers do when they are snowed in

Post…

1. Images or videos of your office decorated
2. Images of yourself dressed as different holiday characters
3. Holiday specials that your company is offering
4. Your favorite holiday tunes
5. Videos of lights, holiday feasts, or mounds and mounds of gifts
6. Holiday images that your customers have to guess or write captions for
7. Clips from classic holiday movies or TV specials
8. Holiday trivia information or questions
9. Memorable quotes from holiday movies or TV specials

Share…

1. Your favorite holiday memories (and then ask for their favorite memories)
2. Your holiday plans (and then ask your customers what they’ll be doing)
3. What you do with all of the gifts you don’t like or want (and ask your customers what they do)
4. Your favorite holiday dish (and ask your customers what they love to eat)
5. How you get through the holiday season and all of the stress that comes along with it (and ask your customers how they manage)
6. A holiday special offer or a contest for everyone who joins your email list
7. How what your company will be doing for the holidays (donating money to charity, holding a dinner, etc.)
8. Tasty holiday recipes that your customers will enjoy

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by

Facebook fan pages are a great marketing tool. With a fan page, you meet your customers where they are–on Facebook–and you engage with them in hopes of making them a lifetime customer. Sometimes, it isn’t always that easy.

Just as any other marketing campaign, you need to make sure that your Facebook fan page is aligned with your priorities and strategy. Are you setting out to honor your fans by giving them great Facebook-exclusive deals? Make sure your fan page reflects that purpose. Are you trying to build an army of advocates that will help your business grow? Organize your fan page to accomplish your goal.

There are two parts to a fan page, the design and the content. To make things a little easier, I’m going to provide you with two awesome posts about this topic, one post for each part.

Let’s cover the design aspect today and we’ll hit the content portion at the beginning of next week.

The design of your Facebook fan page speaks volumes about your commitment to your online marketing campaign, so make sure it’s what you want to portray.

Here are four design tactics you need to consider when constructing (and reconstructing) your fan page:

Profile Picture – Your “default” profile picture is uber-important when designing your page. It is one of the most critical aspects of your page because it is what draws users to you and your business, no matter your purpose.

If I am searching “Bob’s Plumbing” or “Chicago’s Best Pizza,” the only way I will know that I have found the correct company is by looking at the images in the search result. If your logo or face isn’t prominent and easily recognizable, I’m not going to find you. It’s like finding Nemo in the ocean; it can be done (obviously) but it’s going to take a lot of hard work.

Do you want to put your potential fans, customers, or clients through that tough search?

Text Box Blurb - Facebook gives you a small section of retail space below your profile picture to put something about yourself or your business. Most people underestimate the great value of this space. In essence, this is your 30-second elevator pitch to anyone visiting your page for the first time.

Make your words count and allow them to authentically tell what you’re all about. If you’re about gaining more customers, talk about your wonderful food, catering, or roofing work. If you take pride in supplying your customers with sweet deals on your stuff, say so in this box.

Use this box to amplify your business and to alert customers of your purpose for the fan page.

Tabs and Applications – Facebook and developers have provided a boat load of content that can be added to your fan page to boost your image and the page’s functionality. The applications you have enabled will tell users exactly what your intent is on Facebook.

By default, you are given the option to include various applications, such as media sharing and customer reviews. Depending on your choice of add-ins, viewers can tell the main purpose of the fan page. If you are including the Reviews application, you want to give customers or clients a place to brag or diss your company or product. In the customer’s mind, you’re focused on customer service. No matter your enabled applications, your viewers will be able to tell your goals and focuses.

It’s also important to note that if you want to give off the image that you’re more than just a once-a-week-fan-page-administrator, include applications that ARE NOT automatically enabled when you sign up for your fan page. This shows initiative and customers love it.

FBML (Facebook Markup Language) - FBML is a great way to take the next step in managing and improving your fan page.

FBML is a programming language that Facebook uses to create its pages. With certain bits of code, you can customize your fan page to really have an impact on your visitors. With FBML, you can do some interesting things, such as include an email opt-in form on your page, track your fan page using Google Analytics, and post additional media, such as Flash videos. If you’re looking to take the next step and WOW your visitors, upgrade your page using FBML. It speaks volumes when you take initiative and show that you are dying to interact and engage with your audience.

Here are some pages with free resources regarding FBML:

7 FBML Examples To Rock Your Facebook Fan Page
How To Customize Your Facebook Page Using Static FBML

Your fan page is a critical marketing tool to manage. If you don’t advertise and present it appropriately, you and your reputation will suffer. In today’s world, it’s critical to ensure that your online presence is saying the right things about you.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by stucklo6an

Today I want to start a new sort of relationship with you and the rest of the Folk Media Insider Tribe.

Success in social media comes down to actually DOING something with all the great stuff you’re learning.

To help this along each week, we’ll send out an email with a learning element and an action step or “homework” assignment.

Of course you have to be ON the list to get this weekly email.

Read the email – do the assignment – and then post your response on the Folk Media Facebook page for peer accountability and feedback.

It will speed up your learning process and you’ll meet and interact with other like minded people.

Here’s your first assignment.

This is an easy one. Under this post write down your business name, website, a little about what you do.

Leave a comment below this week’s assignment.

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Joel Mark Witt is the Publisher of Folk Media. He is a producer, author, speaker and social media marketing coach who consults with businesses on how to use social media in marketing and communications. Get more from Joel on Twitter.

*Photo by ~Temjin

This post was written by guest author Tracy Terry. Find out more information about Tracy below.

I find it interesting that there are so many similarities between Facebook marketing and unlearning everything you were ever taught growing up as a child.  To be a successful Facebook marketer, you must forget everything your mother taught you.  You will then be ready to successfully market your business on Facebook.

Here are few examples of some childhood lessons you will need to unlearn:

1. Don’t Talk to Strangers.  Drop this lesson instantly!  You definitely want to unlearn this one.  You will want to converse and share with as many strangers as possible.
2. Don’t Write on the Wall.  Throw this one right out the window.  When it comes to Facebook, you will need to write on many walls.  You won’t just be writing on your own wall, either.  You will also be writing on other people’s walls as well!  This is starting to sound fun and rebellious, right?
3. Be Seen and Not Heard.  In Facebook marketing, you will not just want to be seen, but you will also want to be heard as well.  You will need to find valuable, interesting information to engage your Facebook audience.   Another lesson here we can learn as an adult is to listen.  Often we are telling our own children to be seen and not heard.  Then, we proceed to speak while they listen.  In Facebook marketing it will be the other way around.  You will be listening more than you will be speaking.
4. Don’t Leave the Door Open.  You certainly will want to keep your door open on Facebook.  This will allow you to gain new contacts, clients, and business partnerships.  Accept all friends through your door and learn from your peers and clientele.
5. Don’t Talk Back.  Bet you couldn’t wait for that one!  During your Facebook marketing you will want to respond to writings on your wall.  You should try to create conversations with your Facebook friends as much as possible.  It is a “social” network, you know.   Create content that sparks engagement on your own wall and respond when necessary.  Be sure to respond to any positive and negative comments toward your business when appropriate.   Feel free to also partake in conversations on the walls of your friends.  Allow your community to get to know the personal side of your company.

These are just a few of the life lessons you need to unlearn to be a successful Facebook marketer.  I feel that number one, don’t talk to strangers, is a major step for some people when beginning their marketing campaign on Facebook.  Don’t be afraid to reach out and introduce your business to prospective clients and partners.  You will soon find your winning combination.  Start talking to strangers and writing on walls and you will begin enjoying an increase in leads, business partnerships, and sales!

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Tracy Terry is the President of Trust eMedia, an inbound marketing agency located in Lake Geneva, WI. Tracy is a inbound marketer helping businesses grow their leads and sales. She enthusiastically engages in blogging, social media community management, speaking, and training. Tracy has been certified in Inbound Marketing, SEO and SEM. She won Hubspot’s Inbound Marketer of the Month Award for June 2010 and is an Inbound Marketing Educator. She brings a passion for excellence into her marketing endeavors. Find out more about Tracy on Facebook and Twitter.

*Photo by PinkMoose

I get a lot of questions from people about the relevance of social media in their particular industry. I often hear, “Well, since I work in XYZ field, do you think it’s really necessary?” and “We have a certain niche of customers and I don’t think they’re looking for us on Twitter. What should we do?”

At some point, every business, no matter the niche or industry, should attempt to use social media to reach new customers.

Many people think that social media is some new and improved form of marketing but it really isn’t. The use of social media is just marketing where your customers hang out, just like a radio ad, billboard, or sign. There are no special tactics to use or algorithms to recite; it’s marketing basics using a different medium.

However, I will tell you that social media isn’t right for every business. There are some businesses that aren’t ready to take the dive into Facebook, Twitter, and a blog. How do you know if you are ready to engage with your customers through social media?

Question 1: What is driving you?

The first question to determine if you’re ready to embrace social media is, “What drives you?” This question is simple enough but is deeply powerful, as it is used to shape your entire philosophy on social media use.

If your answer to the question was something to deal with being like everyone else, you need to stop reading this article. Using Facebook and Twitter just because it’s the “cool” thing to do isn’t going to increase your sales or triple your customer awareness.

You need to have a passion for people and for growing yourself in order to focus your talents on using social media. You need to realize that the journey will be tough and unrewarding at times, just like any other marketing system, but in the end you will learn how to grow your business and influence customers. If your car isn’t in the right gear, you won’t move in the right direction, as it is with your drive for social media success.

Question 2: What is your plan?

Once you have determined if your motives are correct, it’s time to envision a plan of action.

Social media IS NOT something you can begin and then forget about; it’s not a static webpage with just informational content. The purpose of social media is to interact with customers and just like any speech or presentation, you need to develop your plan of attack. Without this plan, your run at social media won’t last long.

When you formulate your plan for social media integration, remember to think about all perspectives and viewpoints. How do you want your customers to perceive your company when you join Facebook? Are your competitors on Twitter or blogging? What affect will social media have on your finances and hours worked? There are many questions you need to answer before you click the “Sign Up” button.

Question 3: What are your goals and expectations?

Measurement is key.

I’ll say it one more time for those of you who missed it a few seconds ago–measurement is key.

The way you plan to measure your social media campaign is almost as important as planning your customer interactions. You NEED to measure yourself in order to gauge your progress, successes, and failures.

A good strategy is to measure your company and your key objectives before launching your social media campaign and then re-measure in certain intervals. This will give you a great taste as to what your company was doing before social media and how things are progressing after Facebook, Twitter, and blogging.

Ensure you’re measuring relevant data and not only page views or fans. Dive deep into the conversations you have with customers and determine what you could have done better. What seems to be attracting the most content on your pages? How many new followers are you gaining on a weekly basis?

Not every business should sign up for social media today; some businesses aren’t ready. If you are ready, I would encourage you to begin to explore your options and plan, as it will generate some serious thoughts on how to move forward. Also, if you’d like a free consultation about the landscape might look for your company’s social media presence, please email me (or call 410-701-0322) and I’d be happy to help.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by Oberazzi

Facebook recently released it’s new and improved Groups system, improving a stone-age feature into a more robust and advanced system. The premise behind Facebook Groups is that a user can create a group for friends, family, or co-workers, and that can serve as a meeting place on Facebook. Instead of using messages and comments to organize events or discuss certain topics, a group makes it easy for like-minded people to communicate. A Facebook group gives those people a central location, which spurs on more organized conversation.

Just The Facts, Please

The premise and usability of Facebook Groups is pretty basic. Unlike it’s more public counterpart, fan pages, a Facebook group requires little to no maintenance. You simply type in the name of your group, a brief description if necessary, and whether your group will be public, private, or secret. After you create your group, you may change any of these options.

When a group is formed, the creator adds people to the group. Once the creator adds an individual, they are in that group but can opt to leave the group. This can be done at the bottom of the left column, by clicking “Leave Group.” (Image 1) If you are the creator of a group, this option will be at the bottom of the right column. (Image 2)

Image 1

Image 2

A group functions much like a fan page–videos, pictures, and even documents can be added. Unfortunately, Facebook does not allow you to upload your own documents (ex. Word files) but that may come in the future. The documents section of the new Facebook Groups reminds me a lot of Google Wave (R.I.P.) and with later developments, it may get to that point, too.

What About Old Groups?

If you were a member of a group before the revamping of the Facebook Group layout, the group will remain in the older format. Facebook did not migrate formats when they made the most recent improvements. That would have simply taken too much time and resources.

If you’re looking to access your older groups, click on the “See All…” link in the left side navigation pane. (Image 3) Any groups doting the newer format will appear in your navigation pane in their own section and will appear next to the group icon.

Image 3

Other Notes

I like the way the new improvements to Facebook Groups; things are much easier to use and appear less cluttered compared to older formats of the Groups function. I think that Groups have a lot to offer, especially to teams of people and individuals who need to collaborate on documents and don’t want to use a Google account.

I’d like to set the record straight–a group should be created if what you are attempting to do is private or conversational, such as a class reunion page or high school science group project. If you are trying to gather a lot of support for a cause or a silly concept, go with a fan page. This will make your life much easier and will gain you a lot of exposure.

I think that Facebook has made great strides in reorganizing and updating Groups. The updates might make more people aware of the potential of groups and subsequently cut back on a lot of the fan pages that are created for private groups or organizations.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

You’ve heard it said many times before–social media is here to stay. The personal interactions that come from social media are what customers are now craving. Big businesses, call centers, and the “everyone is the same” approach is getting less popular as time moves on. It’s time to revolutionize business and gear your business toward a more personal approach and right now, social media is the way to accomplish that task.

However, have you considered mobile social media? Have you, or your bosses, even considered Twitter and Facebook applications for mobile devices, mobile versions of your blog or website, or giving your employees access to company accounts from their mobile devices? If you’re sheepishly shaking your head in confusion, you’re in good company. If you have thought of those things before, props to you. Either way, this post will help you gain traction in the mobile social media market.

Where is this coming from?

Big businesses and “experts” are showing us that you need to have a social media presence to stay in new age customers. Subscribers are no longer picking up to phone to have their issues fixed; they’re expecting someone to help them when they gripe about service on Twitter or their blog. So why do we now need to take it a step further and go mobile?

Recent studies have found that more people are beginning to use mobile social media applications, such as the official Facebook application for the iPhone and the many Twitter apps. When your customers change the way they contact your business, you need to follow suite. Since people are no longer waiting until they get to a computer to reach you, your business needs to make a concerted effort to meet them where they are.

If you don’t reach your customers when they need you, they will take their business to someone who will.

What can I do?

It may sound like the entire world is changing and that you will need to revamp your entire social media process but I’m fairly confident you have most of the elements in place to take your social media campaign to the next level.

First, make sure that you have decided on a timetable for addressing customer issues. If you are a smaller business, chance are that you don’t need to give an immediate response to inquiries. However, if you’re a larger business with many clients or you provide a service that people need (plumbing repair, roofing repair, etc.), you want to make sure that you can respond to customer when they need you. Design a plan for responding to customers in a timely manner, both phone and via social media.

After you have established this timeframe, begin to take steps toward actualizing this goal. For example, if you decide to respond to any customer inquiries within 24 hours, what do you need to make this happen? Do you need someone checking voicemails and Facebook each day? If your response time is 12 hours, who do you have to respond to issues in the middle of the night? Lay out a plan to make your timeframe a reality.

Finally, turn your timeframe into a guarantee for customers. Advertise that you respond to customers within 12 hours, no matter their form of contact. Make them aware of your dedication to them. If they don’t know how you can serve them, they won’t come to join your team.

Further Action Steps

Here are some additional steps for you to take in order to make the most from mobile social media use:

• Design a mobile-friendly website. Most sites have plugins that you can install that will do this automatically for you. If customers pull you up on the go, make their experience easy.
• Look into gaining access to company social media accounts from a business mobile device. If you’re the head of the social media marketing department, it might be best for you to have a way of responding to customer inquiries when you’re at off-site meetings or visiting clients.
• Respond to this post with any comments you may have. We’d love to hear your thoughts!
• Share this article via your favorite social media site.

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Eric Alpin is the Associate Editor of Folk Media and works for a telecommunications company in Baltimore, Md. He is a social media enthusiast, blogger, writer, and student with a passion for leadership and self-development strategies and techniques. Find out more about Eric on Twitter.

*Photo by cyrillicus

This post was written by guest author Sean Haubert. Find out more about Sean below.

Hi, my name is Sean, and I’m an early adopter. I spend way too much money on new gadgets, and pester all my friends to join me on new websites. I sign up for every social site I can find. I try every iPhone app my credit card will allow - much to my wife’s chagrin!

Seriously, it’s a problem, and I’m getting help.

In the meantime, I’ve been trying to throw myself into the world of geo-social location services, Foursquare, Yelp, and now Facebook Places. The problem is, I’m just not getting it. I’m forcing myself to use it, to see if I can start to justify using it at work.

For instance, the other day we took our niece and nephew out for ice cream on Long Island. Perfect chance to take Foursquare for a test drive. I checked in. And I found a deal. $1.00 off at Starbucks. On Friday afternoon. I was 2 days late. Is this thing on? Is there anyone out there?

Who exactly are all the people using these services, and where are they hiding out? I think I need to hire Foursquare’s publicist. They are really doing a lot with their 3 million member audience, certainly they’re garnering a lot more press than they deserve. Or are they?

Now Facebook has joined the fray, as they just launched Places. On the day of the launch, Foursquare announced their busiest check-in day ever. In the week since Places has gone live, I have had one FB friend check-in. It was from his couch. He wanted to unseat his wife as mayor of their living room.

Dennis Crowley, the co-founder of Foursquare, was recently quoted as saying Facebook Places is not that great or interesting.  It’s a pretty boring service, with barely any incentives for users to keep coming back and telling their friends where they are.

To me, the most interesting thing about Places is that it has a potential audience of over 500 million people around the world but that can only be a good thing for location-based services, like Foursquare, as Facebook will educate the masses about check-ins. Plus, take a careful look at their logo. Notice anything unusual? Yes, that red icon is eerily similar to Google’s own Places. And what is the icon placed on? Look at the map carefully, and you will certainly see a number 4 – a direct shot at Foursquare!

Foursquare is probably more concerned than Dennis lets on. As for now, Facebook’s geo-social service is very bare bones. With a ready-made audience of 500 million, it’s hard to believe that Facebook won’t start fleshing out their service, perhaps start offering partnerships with brands and events. Basically, look for Facebook to follow Foursquare’s build out plan.

But Facebook certainly was a little creepy in their rollout. By default, everyone’s Facebook privacy settings were stacked in Places’ favor.

Whether you knew it or not, you had the ability to check-in. And your friends had the ability to check-in. And THEY had the ability to check YOU in. Kevin Rose and Doug Albrecht demonstrated this on Diggnation when they logged on and checked in their vegan producer at a nearby steakhouse. In fact, Facebook got a lot of slack about it, and posted their own video on how to control the manner in which you and your friends’ information is shared on Places.

Can Places win the geo-social war? Only if Facebook changes the default settings to Private and disable the status tagging feature without user opt-in. Facebook needs to give back privacy control to the user.

I get it. Maybe we could do it in a less creepy, big-brother kind of way?

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After a 10+ year career in advertising, Sean Haubert realized the decades old advertising model was no longer relevant. So, he started a Social Media Marketing consultancy to help his clients start a whole new type of conversation between all the stakeholders. Sean is now the Social Media Manager for the New York Road Runners, the world premier running organization. He recently received his MS in Integrated Marketing Communications from Manhattanville College, where he wrote his thesis on how to introduce analytics into SM marketing campaigns. Sean also has no problem writing about himself in the third person. Learn more about Sean on Facebook and Twitter.

*Photo by AshtonPal