57 Takes on Facebook Places: Analyzed, Criticized, Evangelized
Posted by Lauren Litwinka on August 25th 2010 in Social Media | 10 comments
By now, you’ve probably caught wind of this thing called “Facebook Places.” In fact, unless your entire last week was consumed by SES San Francisco or Affiliate Summit you may have read, with bated breath, live blog coverage from Facebook HQ in Palo Alto, CA. It was there CEO Mark Zuckerberg addressed a crowded room that, according to Greg Sterling, resembled “a wedding or luau [rather] than a press conference.” Right. That’s creepy-ominous enough.
If by some chance you’re living under a rock and have not heard of Facebook Places, here’s a 140 character summary: Facebook Places allows users to share their location & the location of their friends by “checking in” at places via an iPhone app. To paraphrase general feedback from social circles: “So… basically, it’s just like Foursquare.” Maybe so. Maybe no. Regardless, the unveiling of this possibly game-changing platform certainly warrants a closer look.
In an effort to help provide just that, we compiled a list of 57 recently-published posts about Facebook Places– from launch coverage to field guides, privacy warnings to tactics on how biz owners & marketers can capitalize on the functionality. Read on for the complete link roundup.
- Facebook Places Coming To The iPhone App Tonight. Check-Ins With Friend Tagging | TechCrunch
- Live Blog: Facebook Places Announcement | ReadWriteWeb
- Live Blogging the Facebook Places Launch | Search Engine Land
- Live From Facebook’s Location Event (Video Stream) | TechCrunch
- Spotted: Facebook Location In Action. Meet Facebook Places! | TechCrunch
- Facebook Has Been Working On This Location Feature For 8 Months | TechCrunch
What The Heck Is Facebook Places & How Do You Use It?
- Who, What, When, and Now… Where | The Facebook Blog
- Facebook Places Are Here (And There and Everywhere!) | Marketing Pilgrim
- Details, Details. Facebook Responds to Our Questions About Places | ReadWriteWeb
- Facebook Places: Does it Have the Location-Sharing Secret Sauce? | PCWorld
- Making Sense of Facebook Places | Search Engine Land
- How To Use Facebook Places | All Facebook
- A Field Guide to Using Facebook Places | Mashable
Facebook Places Features & Functions
- Top Five Ways to Use Facebook Places Effectively | Huffington Post
- Travel Rewards Program Topguest Integrates with Facebook Places | ReadWriteWeb
- Facebook’s Awesome Dark Knight-Esque Live Check-In Display | TechCrunch
Privacy Concerns & How To Opt Out
- How Not to Creep Out Your Friends Using Facebook Places | Gawker
- The implications of Facebook Places – for business and for you + how to opt out | whatsnextblog.com
- 5 things to know about Facebook Places | Freep.com
- The Paranoid Can Relax, Facebook Dials Up Privacy With Places | TechCrunch
- Facebook Places & Privacy: Both Real & Overblown | ReadWriteWeb
- Facebook Places: Be your friends’ ‘Big Brother?’ | MSNBC
- The First Thing You Should Do With Facebook Places: Don’t Let Other People Tag You | Gawker
- Facebook Places: Be Cautiously Curious | Spin Sucks
- Facebook Places And Privacy: What You Need To Tweak | AskDaveTaylor.com
- A Closer Look at the Privacy Features of Facebook Places [PICS] | Mashable
- How To Disable Facebook Places | ReadWriteWeb
Tips For Businesses, Marketers & Developers
- Facebook Places Makes Location a Commodity | ReadWriteWeb
- Facebook Places To Replace Your Local Fan Page | Small BusinessTrends
- How to Claim Your Place on Facebook | Reuters
- Facebook Wants Advertisers To Help Build Out Its Directory of Places | TechCrunch
- What Facebook ‘Places’ Means for Marketers and Developers | AdvertisingAge
- Facebook Places API Released | Mashable
- Did Facebook Places Just Cut Facebook Page Growth By 50 Percent? | All Facebook
iPhone-Specific
- Facebook Places Check Ins Not Yet Available For All iPhones | All Facebook
- Facebook Places Goes Live On The iPhone. Check-In While It’s Hot (If You Can) | TechCrunch
Facebook vs. The World [Wide Web]
- Facebook Partnering With Gowalla And Foursquare For Places | TechCrunch
- Facebook Places vs. Foursquare: Who Has the Business Edge? | PCWorld
- Facebook Places vs. Foursquare – Which Platform is Best for Your Business? | likeable media
- New Facebook Places Logo Is A “4.” In A Square. Yeah. | TechCrunch
- Nice Try, Zuckerberg: Why Facebook Places Won’t Kill Foursquare | NYMag.com
- Local Search War Gets Hot: Facebook Joins Game | DavidMihm.com
- Location Faceoff: Facebook Places vs. Foursquare | Mashable
- Facebook Places: What’s Foursquare’s Next Move? [INTERVIEW] | Mashable
- Foursquare, I Can’t Quit You | MarketersStudio.com
- Foursquare’s Dennis Crowley: Still deciding on Facebook Places | SocialBeat
- Is Facebook Places Boring? Foursquare CEO Crowley Thinks So | ReadWriteWeb
- Facebook Follow: The Twitter-Eater, The Preemptive Google Me-Killer | TechCrunch
- About Facebook Places and why Foursquare, Gowalla, Qype and Yelp will continue to strive | Digital Musing
- Facebook Places vs. Yahoo’s Who, What, When, Where (W4) Communications Network Patent? | SEO by the Sea
- Facebook Places: The Real Target Is Yelp | BusinessWeek.com
- Google: Hey, We’ve Got Places Too | Reuters
Facebook Places: Analyzed, Criticized & Evangelized
- Facebook Places; Overview & Analysis | ReadWriteWeb
- Facebook Places: The Verdict of the Experts | SocialMediaToday
- Facebook Places Analysis: 3 Reasons Why Facebook Will Continue to Be Your Aggregator of Social Information | Windmill Networking
Facebook Places: Lovers, Haters & the Utterly Indifferent
We decided to poll Twitter users to get a better understanding of how Facebook Places affects them, if at all…
What are your thoughts on Facebook Places?
August 25th, 2010 at 11:17 am
Many thanks for the resource hub, Lauren. As you so kindly reposted above, my feelings on the advent of this new “service” fall (four)squarely into the negative. Much as it irks me, though, there’s a very good chance I’ll wind up using it as a business tool. Which, of course, leads back to the age-old conundrum of the compromises we make when our personal mores clash with the needs and opportunities of our professional lives. My final thought, which really doesn’t merit it’s own comment but I can’t just leave that “on” dangling there like an overripe and malformed doomberry, was this: On a separate note, I find it mildly amusing that facebook’s blog was titled “Who, what, when…now where” when it’s clear they never intend to answer our repeated cries of “why?”
August 25th, 2010 at 11:41 am
@Justin – thank you for taking the time to comment, very glad you found this post useful. Props on the 4sq puns. Your separate note is perfectly spot-on… “why?” seems to be a question Zuckerberg perpetually dodges with the grace of a principal ballerina. I don’t know if we’ll ever fully understand the motivation behind Facebook’s tactics and platform expansion… perhaps the answer lies within the inner lining of a certain navy blue sweatshirt…
August 26th, 2010 at 5:40 pm
Holy crap! I can’t believe there are this many resources in less than a week after launching. Bookmarking now so I can point clients here when they have questions. Thanks!!
Also, I’m glad the spam protection sum isn’t very hard. I can mange 10+7.
August 27th, 2010 at 11:43 am
@Gini – Insane, right? Everyone was quick to jump on board, at least as far as covering the launch went. Glad you found this post resourceful
August 27th, 2010 at 8:42 pm
Thx for including me and WOW – thx for compiling such a comprehensive list on Facesquare….haha! *Just kidding Zuckerberg. I know it’s called Facebook SquarePlaces.
thx again!
@Zaneology
August 27th, 2010 at 10:05 pm
I know that it’s cool to hate Facebook; they’re the big bully on the blog … I get it. And Places isn’t FUN; it has none of the gaming aspect that makes people enjoy FourSquare.
But the thing is that Facebook knows *exactly* what it’s doing. Their entre into location services, I’m sure, goes far beyond what people have seen since Places’ launch. If you look at it from the perspective of business owners, it’s a game-changer. The potential audience to which businesses can market as a result of the service is enormous.
The privacy issues are problematic, but beyond that, Facebook Places has HUGE potential.
August 30th, 2010 at 10:50 am
@Zane – Glad you dug the post! Facebook Squareplaces… is that the social networking sequel to everyone’s favorite underwater pineapple-dwelling sponge?
@Melissa – I’m not on 4sq or Places, but now I can understand why 4sq’s CEO called Places “boring.” It’s about more than geo-tagging, it’s about interaction (isn’t all purposeful social networking about just that?). And yes, *sigh* you’re right – FB does know exactly what it’s doing. They launch this service knowing full well that since geo-tagging is totally hot (thanks to 4sq & co.) most members will thoughtlessly opt-in and happily-casually use the service (or in the very least, forget to opt-out)… et voilà, Facebook knows that much more about who you are and where you are. Places has huge potential, but it seems FB will be the one who ultimately benefits.
August 30th, 2010 at 11:05 am
It’s interesting … most people, I think, were blissfully unaware of FourSquare until Places launched. To the general populace, it might’ve been something they’d once heard of, but I think this is why 4SQ had such a surge of people signing up the day after the Places launch.
I think FB will benefit, sure, but why shouldn’t they? They’ve built a platform that’s so useful to people that even those who claim to hate it can’t stay away. They *should* be making money. And for the businesses who claim their pages, etc? It’ll be a marketing boon.
An interesting thing that I noted just after the Places launch. I went to a ballgame about three days later and checked in on both 4SQ *and* Places. There were 88 people checked in on 4SQ and 65 checked in on Places. That’s pretty huge, considering the thing had just been announced. VERY interested to see how businesses take advantage.
August 30th, 2010 at 12:14 pm
@Melissa – “They’ve built a platform that’s so useful to people that even those who claim to hate it can’t stay away.”< -- Man, I am so totally one of those people. Regarding that baseball game, that *is* a very surprising, and I suppose, encouraging ratio of 4sqers & Places...ers.
I agree with the potential FB has for social-savvy businesses... however, won't the existence of both pages and places no doubt splinter overall activity of the community? (Ex: http://www.facebook.com/rogersmithhotel vs.
http://bit.ly/a26Ggi) – the concept just seems a little redundant to me. But perhaps I just need to do some more investigating and dare I say… participation…
September 28th, 2010 at 4:10 pm
Lauren,
Great compilation of information about Places, which seems to be a bit late in the location-based application front from a company which dominates the ‘conversation’ front. Although, FB was not the first ‘social’ web app and quickly overtook the world. That being said, since FB ALLOWS Foursquare users to Connect to their profiles, why would FS user abandon their FS and jump to Places. PLUS, ANY smartphone user can use Foursquare, while not every smartphone user can use Places. And, as a business trying to set up your Facebook Places Page, the number of hoops to jump through are more than that of a Ringling Brothers Circus act.
I’m sticking with FS (until I get a Droid!).